Tom Hall: Underneath the water buffalo
Clip 3

When I heard we had sappers in the wire, I told the two marines I was with that we should get out of the bunker because the enemy liked to throw satchel charges in the bunkers. The two marines didn't want to leave the bunker, so I said, "I'm going about 15 yards away to the water buffalo." A water buffalo is a trailer with a 400 gallon tank on it filled with water and 3 spickets on each side on the front where you could draw water for canteens and sometimes take a bath under it. I told them, "I'm going underneath that water buffalo and I'll watch your left flank and you watch my right flank. You guys have to get out of this bunker!" The two marines said they were staying in the bunker. Next, I heard the gunfire and the explosions. The illumination rounds were being fired off by our mortar platoons which fire a shell up into the air that comes apart and there's a magnesium flare hooked to a parachute that floats down and helps you see at night. Well, I hadn't been under the water buffalo maybe 5 to 10 minutes, when out of my peripheral vision I saw movement. It was a sapper. He was running and had a satchel charge and I could tell he was going to throw it in the bunker with those two marines. I aimed my M-16 and squeezed the trigger off and nothing happened. My rifle had jammed. When he threw that satchel charge into the bunker, it killed those two marines. Fortunately, for me, I had a .45 pistol and when he came towards me...well, I'm still here, he's not. Till this day, I still don't know the identities of those two marines. I have tried and tried and tried to find out who they were.