"I Didn't Think I Would Make It"

Of the men swarmed on the ridge that day, Kirk Davis was hit worst. He was stung so many times, by his own account, that it was "almost paralyzing my diaphragm" — every breath a fought-for battle for air. He drifted in and out of consciousness at the assembly point, with Stan Dillon sitting only a few feet away. At one point he heard Dillon tell someone nearby that he didn't think Davis was going to make it. "That scared the hell out of me," Davis said, "but I myself didn't think I would either."

He was the first man taken out on the medevac chopper. Because he was fading in and out, the crew didn't trust him to hold on to a standard jungle penetrator — instead they hauled him up in a rigid litter, strapped in so tightly he couldn't flinch, for fear he would black out and fall.

Davis didn't learn Howard McGrew's name until years afterward, though McGrew's own written account of the day — not knowing Davis's name either — described him only as "the guy who almost died," who was "later given the company clerk's job." Davis confirmed it: he was reassigned to Company Clerk roughly four months after the incident.