Unpinned Hand Grenade - 1971
.....................................................................................................................................................................................
In late January/early February of 71, while we were at Camp Frenzell-Jones, I was just newly on flight status. I was flying as a door gunner on the maintenance aircraft, being trained by the maintenance platoon crew chief, SP4 Randy Lessard. We ended up on an insertion/extraction and resupply mission out of a little fire support base for the Wolfhounds.
I think it was over towards Zuan Loc. Anyway we ended up stopping at the fire support base, while the next squad to go out was getting ready. We went inside their wire and was getting something for lunch when there was an explosion.One of the grunts (a newbie) pulled a grenade out of the cannister and it didn’t have a pin in it. The grenade went off in the middle of those five or six guys getting ready to go out in the field.
I didn’t know it at the time but I was hit in my right forearm near the elbow by a very small piece of shrapnel from the grenade (about the size of a pencil lead and an eighth of an inch in length).
We sprinted to the aircraft outside the wire and as the pilots were cranking up to evac the wounded, I noticed blood dripping off my fingers. I rolled up my sleeve and saw the injury. I became lightheaded and had to sit down. Randy told me to wait there and get first aid, instead of flying with them. I got some first aid and then another Centaur aircraft came in and picked me up.
I went to the dispensary just outside the airfield at Frenzell-Jones and they cleaned the wound but wouldn’t remove the shrapnel because it was too close to the elbow joint.
My med
ical records had not caught up with me from the move from Cu Chi. I was in B Co. 25th AVN (Diamondheads) before coming to D Troop. So there never was an entry in my medical records about this. I still have the piece in my arm but there is no official record.
I don’t remember who the pilots were that day. I think it was my second or third day of flying but I cannot remember them. I do remember the Army issued a message to all units to inspect their grenades before taking them out of the cannisters and they issued a warning about the lot number of the grenades. Does anyone remember the incident?