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By Nok-Noi hauger of the news staff - GREENVILLE - A group of Vietnam veterans who lost a good portion of their unit during a three-week battle in 1967 are traveling to town from all over the county for a reunion, the first in Maine for the group, according to organizer Charlie Runnels of Abbot. Runnels served with 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 2nd Platoon of Company C in Vietnam, which had the job in 1967 of trying to hold Con Thein mountain range, along the Demilitarized Zone, from advancing North Vietnamese. More than 20 soldiers of the platoon were killed during the bloody Con Thein conflict that year, Runnels said. Of the surviving 30 soldiers in the unit, 17, plus one brother of a fallen veteran, will be in Maine this weekend. "Not that many guys in my unit came back," Runnels said Tuesday. The battle, which included combined forces from several battalions and the 3rd Marines, lasted three weeks, and afterward many soldiers, on both sides, lay dead on the battlefield. Easter Sunday 1967 was an especially terrible day for the platoon, Runnels said. "We were cut off, pinned down and surrounded," the veteran said. "I lost my whole squad on Easter morning of '67." During the battle, many soldiers in the platoon, wounded on the front line, were placed on helicopters for transport to medical units and never saw their comrades again, Runnels said. Soon after the battle was over, the few remaining soldiers in the unit were separated and sent to fill holes in other units, he said. Nine years ago, the platoon commander decided he would try to find as many members of his unit that he could. "He found 23 of the surviving 30," said Runnels. "I believe all are Purple Heart recipients." The first reunion was held on March 27, 1997, in Rossville, Ohio. "None of us had seen each other in about 30 years," Runnels said. "That was incredible after not seeing each other for so long." The ninth reunion of the group will be held over the weekend and will include a banquet and dance tonight at Squaw Mountain Resort, a town-sponsored pinto bean dinner at the Chalet Moosehead on Sunday, and a memorial service Sunday evening on the steamship Katahdin, based in Greenville. Runnels was expected to pick up his former brothers-in-arms Friday night at Bangor International Airport and take them to Greenville. All of the other eight reunions have been held in cities or near metropolitan areas, and, Runnels said, he's looking forward to how the group reacts to the rural aspects of Vacationland. |