Tribute to GARY WAYNE RAGSDALE

LCPL GARY WAYNE RAGSDALE

"On 14 June 1970, a team from Company E, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion fought the battalion's most severe patrol action of the year. The team, identified by its radio call sign "Flakey Snow," consisted of five enlisted Marines, a corpsman, and two South Korean Marines assigned to the patrol as members of a combined allied reconnaissance training program. Helicopters inserted the patrol at 1122 on the 10th in the southwestern Cue [sic] Sons about five miles west of FIB Ryder. Although deep in the mountains, "Flakey Snow's" first area of operations was a level region with no jungle canopy, but a secondary growth of small trees, bushes, bamboo, and sharp-edged elephant grass. The team's arrival was unopposed, and it moved northward from its landing zone along a wide trail that showed signs of recent, heavy use. After about an hour of uneventful walking, the Marines crossed a small stream and turned eastward on an intersecting trail. This trail, also obviously well traveled, ran toward a hill where the patrol leader, Sergeant Frank E. Diaz, planned to spend the night."Clouds closed in and heavy rain was falling. About 1220, Diaz called a halt along the trail to wait until the rain stopped. There the Marines heard heavy machine gun and automatic weapons fire. Although no bullets seemed to be coming toward them, the members of "Flakey Snow" formed a defensive perimeter with only the elephant grass for cover, and quietly readied their weapons. As they did, two Viet Cong, both armed with AK-47s, came walking up the trail, "right into us," Diaz recalled. The Marines shot and killed both of them, but the firing gave away their position. Diaz at once reported by radio that his team was in contact.

"Contact quickly became heavy. From positions north, east, and west of the Marines, an enemy unit, later estimated to have been at least 50 men, opened fire with 12.7mm machine guns and automatic weapons. The Marines, with their backs to the stream they had just crossed, hugged the ground and returned fire with M16s and their one M79 grenade launcher. Whether the enemy was a counter-reconnaissance unit or simply a large force encountered by chance was never established, but it was obvious that they were determined to overwhelm "Flakey Snow." "They really wanted to get us," Diaz reported later, "for whatever reason they had in mind." The enemy began rushing the Marine position in groups of three and four, firing and throwing grenades. Some closed to within 30 feet of the Marines before being cut down. Bodies piled up in front of the patrol. Diaz had his men pull two or three of the closest into a barricade. One American Marine was mortally wounded and another was hit in the shoulder by grenade fragments. A Korean received a severe leg wound. "All this time," Diaz recalled, "we could hear people moaning and groaning on both sides .... The enemy just kept coming, and we just kept shooting and shooting."

"Diaz had called for an aerial observer, and an OV-10 arrived over the patrol at 1245. The aircraft at once began strafing the enemy positions, causing some secondary explosions and more "loud crying and moaning." At 1300, Cobra gunships arrived on station and added their machine guns and rockets to Marine firepower. The closeness of the enemy to "Flakey Snow" prevented use of artillery, but according to Diaz the gunships were "really accurate and a great help in getting us all out of there." In spite of this punishment, the determined enemy hung on. Their fire slackened as the helicopters made their strafing passes, but then resumed.

"At 1345, CH-46s from HMM-263 arrived to extract the team, but the wounded could not be hoisted out. The pilot of one of the Sea Knights, Major Peter E. Benet, executive officer of HMM-263, managed to land close to the team, with the nose of his aircraft hanging over the stream and the rear wheels on the bank. Benet's copilot, 1st Lieutenant Peter F. Goetz, reported that as the helicopter settled in, "we had to cut down through the elephant grass with our blades, the elephant grass was so high."

"Diaz at first thought that the helicopter had been shot down. Then he saw the tailgate opening and began moving his men toward it while he and the reconnaissance battalion extraction officer, who had jumped out of the gate with a rifle, covered the withdrawal. Under continuing enemy fire, the reconnaissance Marines scrambled on board carrying their injured and dying. A few enemy tried to rush the withdrawing team, but Diaz and the extraction officer gunned them down. Lieutenant Goetz, monitoring the helicopter's radios, saw another enemy "pop up, right about our 11 o'clock, with an AK .... It was really fortunate that one of the Cobras was passing over us at the time and spotted him and blasted him with some rockets."

"At 1353, the helicopter lifted off with all members of "Flakey Snow." Diaz and his men had only a magazine of ammunition left between them and a single M79 round; the helicopter crew had expended all the ammunition from their two .50-caliber machine guns. At the price of one American Marine dead of wounds, another slightly wounded, and a South Korean Marine severely injured, "Flakey Snow" had killed at least 18 enemy in front of the patrol's position. An unknown number of enemy had been killed or wounded farther away, either by small arms and grenades, or by OV-10 and helicopter guns and rockets. Sergeant Diaz reported that "the firefight was so intense, and the fire was coming from so many directions, that the enemy themselves had killed their own people, trying to get to us.""

From pp 309-310,
U.S. Marines in Vietnam
Vietnamization and Redeployment
1970-1971
Cosmas and Murray,
History and Museums Division,
Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, Washington, D.C.
1986

06 Oct 2003In honor of Gary Ragsdale, who at age 19 gave the ultimate for his country. You may be gone, but you are never forgotten.

Rest with God.

Cpl Chuck Setser
Echo 3/1, 1st MarDiv
1st Recon Bn

26 Mar 2007 Gary, it has been thirty-seven years. I still think of that day, and wish that we had miracles in our unit ones. Semper Fi

Doc Toline

I'M PROUD OF OUR VIETNAM VETERANS
Lance Corporal Gary Wayne Ragsdale, Served with Company E, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, Third Marine Amphibious Force.

Gary Wayne Ragsdale

DATE OF BIRTH: September 6, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH:
Madera, California
HOME OF RECORD:
Kernan, California
Silver Star
AWARDED FOR ACTIONS
DURING Vietnam War
Service: Marine Corps
Rank: Lance Corporal
Battalion: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion
Division: 1st Marine Division (Rein.), FMF
GENERAL ORDERS:

CITATION:
The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Silver Star (Posthumously) to Lance Corporal Gary Wayne Ragsdale (MCSN: 2562170), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving as a Reconnaissance Man with Company E, First Reconnaissance Battalion, FIRST Marine Division (Rein.), FMF, in connection with combat operations against the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam. On 14 June 1970, an eight-man patrol from Company E became heavily engaged in combat with a North Vietnamese Army force of approximately thirty soldiers shortly after being heli-lifted into an enemy infiltration area south of DaNang. Realizing the precariousness of his vastly outnumbered companions' situation, Lance Corporal Ragsdale unhesitatingly left the relative security of a shallow gully and, rushing across a fie-swept clearing, stood on a dangerously exposed knoll to deliver rapid grenade launcher fire at the advancing soldiers while his team deployed into effective fighting emplacements. When the vigor of his counterattack momentarily stalled the momentum of the hostile attack, he then ran across the open area to rejoin the patrol. Almost immediately, the enemy launched a second assault at the team from three different positions and again Lance Corporal Ragsdale braved the hostile fusillade to move to the point of heaviest contact from which he delivered devastating fire into the ranks of the rapidly moving enemy. Although he now became the target for concentrated fire from two machine gun positions, he relentlessly continued his resolute defense and destroyed one of the machine guns before being mortally wounded by fire from the second one. His heroic and determined actions inspired his companions to maximum combat efforts which enabled them to repel several additional determined attacks. By his courage, aggressive fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of grave personal danger, Lance Corporal Ragsdale upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

LCPL RAGSDALE, GARY W SEMPER FI
The memory of your name and your memorial on the LZ in 1970 at 1st are on Ann has stayed in my mind and heart for all these years. With sadness and at times guilt I have carried you. Always have I wondered why a good man like you rather than me left on the field of battle.

REMEMBERING AN AMERICAN HERO
Dear LCPL Gary Wayne Ragsdale, sir

As an American, I would like to thank you for your service and for your sacrifice made on behalf of our wonderful country. The youth of today could gain much by learning of heroes such as yourself, men and women whose courage and heart can never be questioned.

May God allow you to read this, and may He allow me to someday shake your hand when I get to Heaven to personally thank you. May he also allow my father to find you and shake your hand now to say thank you; for America, and for those who love you.

With respect, Sir

Curt Carter

NEVER KNEW YOU
JUST A WORD TO SAY THANK YOU YOUNG MARINE, YOUR SACRIFICE WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN, WHETHER YOU ARE A MARINE, ARMY, NAVY, AIR FORCE, COAST GUARD ETC, THE FACT THAT YOU MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE PUT YOU ABOVE THE REST
GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES, ONLY THOSE WHO LOST A LOVED ONE IN THE WAR KNOW HOW HARD IT IS.

REST IN PEACE BROTHER

Elephant Valley

A Note from The Virtual Wall

Recon Rreflections

"Flakey Snow" - A Narrative

Taps

Lance Corporal Gary Wayne Ragsdale RIP

Email from: Robert Grace   11/19/2020 10:48pm
Email: rlg1951@att.net
Phone number: 559-291-5749
Subject: Gary Ragsdale
Message: I held him in my arms as he was dying. I yelled for corpman Doc Connley. Doc kept Gary alive all the way back to BAS. It was Flag Day June 14,1970! When I see the Flag I see Gary Ragsdale! The only reason he was there was because he wanted to go on patrol me! I carry that with me everyday! Until we meet again Brother! Semper Fi

POSTED ON 1.29.2017 POSTED BY: CPL CHARLES SETSER. ECHO 3/1, 1ST RECON BN, REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM chucksetser@gmail.com

The memory of your name and your memorial on the LZ in 1970 at 1st are on Ann has stayed in my mind and heart for all these years. With sadness and at times guilt I have carried you. Always have I wondered why a good man like you rather than me left on the field of battle.

REST IN PEACE BROTHER

Robert,

Thanks for your email. I apologize for not responding quicker. I've been out of town for a week and a half. I feel what you're feeling brother we all lost close friends in Vietnam, and they all still haunt us all today.

I did not know Gary I wish that I did he sounds like a hell of a Marine. I left country (Vietnam) in 69.

I'll add Gary Ragsdale to my project that I'm working on if you have any other stories/photos or anything you want to add please email them to me and I'll add them to his final page that I'm working on.

I should wrap the project up sometime early spring of 2021.

S/F

Floyd

Email to: Robert Grace   11/23/2020 12:55pm