Post by Admin on Jun 24, 2021 9:42:01 GMT
Corporal Willet Amendola killed multiple Viet Cong to recapture an American mortar...while completely unarmed in hand-to-hand combat.
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When his platoon's position was assaulted by over 100 enemy, Amendola and the other Marines held their positions. As he moved to help a mortar pit, an explosion ripped his rifle apart and knocked out the mortar. He watched as VC overwhelmed the position and captured the tube. Undeterred, Amendola launched into the position and drove off the enemy, recapturing the weapon. Before he could return, more VC appeared and killed him with machine gun fire. For his inspiring heroism and tenacity, Amendola was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.
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When his platoon's position was assaulted by over 100 enemy, Amendola and the other Marines held their positions. As he moved to help a mortar pit, an explosion ripped his rifle apart and knocked out the mortar. He watched as VC overwhelmed the position and captured the tube. Undeterred, Amendola launched into the position and drove off the enemy, recapturing the weapon. Before he could return, more VC appeared and killed him with machine gun fire. For his inspiring heroism and tenacity, Amendola was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.
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"...serving as a Mortar Man with Second Platoon, Company M, Third Battalion, Seventh Marines, on the morning of 2 November 1967. His platoon-sized combat base was assaulted by an estimated 100 enemy. Maneuvering under the cover of darkness and a heavy mortar barrage, the insurgent forces were almost on the position before an effective defense could be established. Cpl Amendola, whose bunker was on the side of the perimeter which was being breached, fought with great tenacity and fearlessness, as he stoutly held his ground in the face of the oncoming enemy. He and the men in his bunker were holding their own, when Cpl Amendola left his position for scant seconds to give assistance at the 60-mm mortar pit. In that brief time an undetected enemy threw a satchel charge, which demolished the bunker and Cpl Amendola's weapon. Finding, then, that the mortar tube was in enemy possession, he bravely attempted to recover it. Unarmed and fortified with only sheer courage, he ran into the midst of the enemy. Shouting in their own language, he jumped into the pit and engaged the enemy forces in hand to hand combat. Grappling for the mortar tube, he succeeded in recapturing it, when another Viet Cong appeared and mortally wounded him with a burst of automatic fire."