rocky

Inside YP-3 on March 31, 1965 dad sat slumped over in the cockpit of his H-34. Eddy recalls floating above his body praying and thinking about his wife and unborn son back home in California. Drifting in and out, Eddy recalled, “I needed to move, get going, or get out, or just plain GET. Nothing moved. I couldn't raise my arms or move my legs. The shooting was intense, like qualifying at the gun range but it didn't stop. I knew now that I had been shot and if I was hit again I was a goner; if my magnesium chopper burst into flames I was a goner; and finally, if I was captured by the Viet Cong, in my condition, I was a goner.” Unknown to Eddy at the time, his Gunnery Sergeant Cecil Garner (Rocky) had drug his M-60 to a nearby rice dike and held the enemy at bay in spite of two bullet holes in his legs. Sgt. Garner later said he had six rounds in his 38, “four for the bad guys and one for each of us.” Fortunately that never came to pass; soon they were rescued by the leader on that day, Major Mann and his crew. When Sgt Garner was evacuated by rescue personnel and placed inside Mann's helicopter, he continued to engage the enemy by manning a M-60 machine gun until he collapsed from exhaustion and the effects of his wounds. Later, Sgt Cecil Garner was presented the Silver Star.