Tom Evans, U. S. Marine Corps, Sergeant

Tom Evans enlisted in the Marine Corps shortly after high school graduation in August 1965, at the age of 17. After boot camp he was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, which had just returned from a conflict in the Dominican Republic. He trained as an 81 mm mortar man with 1/6 until September 1966, when he received orders to go to Vietnam. He reported to Alpha Co. 1st Battalion, 9th Marines as a 60 mm mortar man in Okinawa, where 1/9 was training as a Special Landing Force.

After two months training in Okinawa and a month in the Philippines Evans saw combat for the first time when the 1/9 SLF made a combined heliborne and amphibious landing in the Go Cong Secret Zone 60 miles south of Saigon in the Mekong Delta on January 6, 1967. It was the first landing by Marines in the Delta.

In February 1/9 landed at the Marine airfield at Hue-Phu Bai and ran operations in an area called the 'Street Without Joy' about 14 miles northwest of Hue. Most of the Marine casualties in that area were from mines and booby traps. In fact, on one operation the leading Western authority on Vietnam and author, Bernard Fall, stepped on a Bouncing Betty mine and was killed while accompanying Evans' platoon, 2nd Plt. Alpha Co. Three days later Evans received his Purple Heart when he discovered a Viet Cong soldier in a spider trap. While yanking the corrugated sheet metal false bottom floor of the spider trap Evans severely cut his hands.

One Nine moved north to the Demilitarized Zone the next month and remained in that area for the remainder of Evans' 13-month tour where they faced the uniformed North Vietnamese Army and were often within range of NVA artillery, rockets and mortars. On July 2nd Tom participated in the bloodiest single-day battle of the Vietnam War, in which A, B, and C companies faced an estimated regiment of NVA. Bravo Company was virtually wiped out with only 24 survivors. Alpha managed to get itself into a defensive perimeter, but still took heavy casualties. In all the Marines lost 84 dead and 190 wounded in the six-hour engagement. After the battle other Marines in Vietnam called the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines the 'Walking Dead."

Shortly after that battle the Marine Corps changed its policy concerning minimum time in grade for promotions and Tom was promoted to sergeant and put in charge of Alpha Company's 15-man company mortar section, making him at 19-years-old one of the youngest sergeants in the Corps at that time.

The last major engagement Evans participated in was the siege of Con Thien in September-October 1967. Con Thien was a small hill about the size of Yankee Stadium at the edge of the DMZ that was zeroed in by NVA artillery and rockets. To minimize shell shock, Marines could only spend 30 days on this hellhole of a hill.

On October 31st Tom was pulled out of the field and sent home where he served the next nine months with the 3rd Battalion 6th Marines, then was discharged. To this day he has no regrets about serving in Vietnam and is proud to be a member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart.