Ron Popowich's
Letter
Ron was a member of the 3rd Platoon of K Troop. He served
on Tracks 31, 37 and 30. Ron sent this letter home to his mother. At the time
he wrote it, he was the Track Commander on 31. The letter was sent shortly after
Oct. 31, 1968. Ron mistakenly reports that the "only one other guy on the
track" received shrapnel injuries. Dennis
Morgan did not sustain shrapnel wounds but rather, sustained cuts, bruises and burns.
Mom,
Remember about those two tracks of ours that hit the mines on the
27th? Well, today our medic track hit a mine. The medic
was killed. There was only one other guy on the track, he got some shrapnel. That's the
third track in four days that we lost.
Well anyway, the track was burning and they got the medic out. My
platoon had to furnish the fire extinguisher. Me and two other guys were standing on top
putting the fire out and two behind it. We almost had it out when it blew. I was the only
one that walked away in ok shape. One guy lost his eyes, the other had shrapnel and burns
all over and the last one was in a bad case of shock. I got blown right off the top. I got
my back burned from hot oil, couple little pieces of shrapnel, but I am ok. The doc
fixed me up. I am still having trouble hearing out of one ear.
By the way our platoon is suppose to have eight tracks, 40 men,
plus one first lieutenant platoon leader and an E7 platoon Sargent. We now have six
tracks, 19 men plus one E5 platoon leader and I am the second ranking E5 so I am acting as
platoon Sargent until we get replacements. We sure are in bad shape.
Please Pray for us.
Ronny
Ron died in a motorcycle accident in
1997.
A special thank you goes out to Ron's sister, Debbie Friedhaber and her husband Bob for
sharing Ron's letter with us. A tribute to Ron's memory may be found here.
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