Courage Conquers Fear, by Roger Helle

The jungle had an eerie stillness that morning as we made our way through the valley. It didn’t take long before we knew something was wrong. When the North Vietnamese opened fire all around us, we knew we were in trouble. Marines, doing what they were trained to do, quickly took cover to try to overcome the overwhelming volume of enemy fire. It was coming from every direction.

Marines were falling all around me. Cries from Corpsmen were coming from everywhere. In the midst of the confusion and fear, I saw Marines perform acts of courage such as I had never seen before. Marines risked their lives to pull wounded buddies out of the line of fire. “No man left behind” was carried out at great personal risk. Like their forefathers on Iwo Jima years before, “uncommon valor was a common virtue” that day. …