They’re just boys.” It was his way of rationalizing why he had spent his entire six-month tour avoiding combat. You see, don’t you? Most of these boys don’t have any family. Eventually, his counterpart ‘homed in on his point….’I could have been a hero. He choppered into the platoon’s isolated defensive position near the village of Truong Lam as dusk descended hethen made his way to the platoon leader’s bunker where, according to McDonough, he found the man he was to replace ‘lying on his stomach in a depression….As I bent over to introduce myself he motioned for me to get down.’ McDonough spent most of the night talking to the lieutenant, neither one venturing out from the relative safety of the platoon leader’s command post. McDonough was the new leader for 2nd Platoon, Bravo Company, 4th Battalion, 503rd Infantry of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. He arrived in the remote village of Truong Lam, located only three kilometers from the North China Sea, both excited and apprehensive. A 1969 West Point graduate, McDonough spent the next year attending the Infantry Basic Course and then Ranger School before shipping out. Second Lieutenant James McDonough was about as green as you can get when he arrived in South Vietnam in 1970.
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