Vietnam Memorial Day  / Vietnam Memories of Thomas Kelly

I hear from my Marine buds every February 7th. We talk about that day in 1968 when a battalion of North Vietnamese ambushed Kilo Company.

I was in Mike Company 3rd Bn. 3rd Marines stationed on Vietnam’s DMZ. We ran the four kilometers to help Kilo, or what was left of them, and set-in a defensive perimeter. We spent the night out there tending to Kilo’s wounded.

1968 at the Firebase Con Thien

In the morning we were joined by three tanks and assaulted the enemy. Their command group slipped away during the night, but they left behind a platoon as rear guard. Our assault killed them all.

A paw of silence fell over us on seeing the 30 dead Marines. They were frozen in death. The tanks pulled up, and we loaded their bodies.

We talk about that part every year. We can’t forget that image, or the sound of the bodies being dragged across the field, or the shocked faces of the tank crews. I remember the stack of stiffened dead bodies: It all comes back every February 7th.

I made it through my 13-month tour with minor shrapnel wounds. I was stationed in Japan after Vietnam, where I felt compelled to write about my war experiences. My memoir, DMZ Diary was published in 1991.

After a 30-year career with Delta Air Lines in Miami, I retired in 1994. Six months later I was working for the UN in Rwanda. In 2000 I was in Afghanistan as an Air Operations Officer for the UN. A bout of giardia and a Taliban attack on the airport called for a new plan.

I went home, got a captains license and in 2002 moved to Ramrod Key. My first captaining job was on PT728, the WWII torpedo patrol boat docked in front of the Schooner Wharf Bar. WAY COOL!

I love living in the Keys and the natural beauty of our water and islands. My passion is freediving and shooting video as well as fish for dinner. I volunteer for the Key Deer Refuge and enjoy the community spirit of cleanups keeping the Keys beautiful.

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