Against.the.Odds.S02E03.The.Magnificent.Bastards.of.Dai.Do
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00:00you
00:30The North Vietnamese were throwing every capability they could at us.
00:38They were fighting for their life and we were fighting for our life.
00:42I was thrown into a cauldron and I reacted to one desperate situation after another.
00:50It was close in, kill it.
00:53It was close in, kill it.
00:56I saw one Marine club and NVA soldiers to the ground with an empty rifle, snatch up
01:01that soldier's AK-47, kill him and two more with the same rifle.
01:06These were the finest young Marines that you could ever witness.
01:15It was a battle to the death on both sides of that fight.
01:24They fought to their death.
01:32By February of 1968, the surprise Tet Offensive has failed militarily for North Vietnam.
01:41But the scale and audacity of the attacks shock America and shatters any illusions of
01:46a promised light at the end of the tunnel.
01:50Tet had proven that while the NVA could not defeat the U.S. militarily, they no longer
01:57needed to.
01:59With America's public support for the war teetering, if they could mount yet another
02:04bold attack, then they might turn the American public decisively against the war.
02:09Their next critical target will be the spark that ignites the epic battle of Dai Do.
02:24Dai Do lay on the north bank of the Beauview-Croisvillette rivers.
02:30And it occupied a critical location because it was close, very close to the major combat
02:38support base that the Marines had, actually, that America had in the northern part of South
02:44Vietnam.
02:48Sprawling and vulnerable, the crucial depot provides ammo, supplies, and medical support
02:54to thousands of American troops fighting in the northern tier of South Vietnam, making
02:59it a prized target for the NVA.
03:02It sits just across the Cuviette River from a small group of deserted hamlets, all surrounding
03:08the main village of Dai Do.
03:11Under the blind eye of South Vietnamese arvorned forces, the Viet Cong have secretly built
03:16a massive maze of bunkers and gun positions pointed directly at Dong Ha combat base.
03:23Connected through interlocking tunnels, the entire fortress area is covered in a thick
03:28layer of lush vegetation that conceals its deadly inhabitants.
03:42On the morning of April 30th, after weeks of operational secrecy, the NVA make their
03:47first mistake, giving away their presence.
03:58An over-anxious NVA gunner at on lock opens up on a Navy riverboat, killing one sailor
04:04and wounding others.
04:07For NVA commanders, it is an unbelievable and critical blunder.
04:17Now remember, at the start of this battle, I didn't know who was in there, but I had
04:26this feeling in my gut.
04:35Lieutenant Colonel Weiss sends Captain James Williams and 125 men of Hotel Company to investigate
04:42along with 50 men of Foxtrot held in reserve.
04:46Waiting for them is a massive force of NVA.
05:16So, whoa, wait a minute, more enemy in there than we expected.
05:20This wasn't three or four men, this wasn't a rifle squad, this was a sizable force.
05:27We started putting plenty of fire on these two positions.
05:46After two hours of close-in killing, Hotel Company clears the small hamlet just across
06:12the river from the U.S. base.
06:14The fight has left one-third of Hotel's Marines either killed or medevacked out.
06:20They have no idea of the true NVA threat they have stumbled onto.
06:30Confident his Marines can clear the rest of the villages, Lieutenant Colonel Weiss calls
06:34for an airlift of Golf Company, positioned eight miles away at Nijad, to support his
06:4080 men of Foxtrot.
06:55The enemy took that position under fire with a tremendous amount of artillery.
07:00To try to lift them out by helicopters would have been suicide.
07:13With no chance of Golf Company arriving in time and fearing further delays would give
07:18his enemy time to reorganize, Lieutenant Colonel Weiss, unaware of the massive force awaiting
07:24him at Dai Do, sends in the two platoons of Foxtrot.
07:28They immediately come under heavy fire.
07:38Enemy force was much, much too strong.
07:41That left Foxtrot Company out into the open area, exposed to fire.
07:48So they were in a precarious position.
07:52I was beginning to worry now because I had expended all my resources.
08:16My regimental commander shows up in a small boat and says, hey, we've got to continue
08:21the attack.
08:22I said, with what?
08:28With Hotel and Foxtrot tied down outside Dai Do, the regimental commander rushes in
08:33yet another Marine unit, Bravo Company, with a hundred men mounted on amphibious tractors.
08:51In minutes, they are pinned down by an onslaught of overwhelming small arms, machine gun, mortar,
08:57rocket and artillery fire.
08:59It quickly stalls their attack on the outskirts of the village.
09:19By 5 p.m., what had begun as a routine search and destroy mission has escalated into a protracted
09:26slugfest, engaging some 250 Marines spread across multiple battlefields, fighting an
09:32enemy that appears to be everywhere.
09:37I was thrown into a cauldron and I reacted to one desperate situation after another.
09:44I knew that we had been duped somehow.
09:48I was slowly untying it piece by piece, and every time I got untying one piece, I saw
09:56a more difficult puzzle to solve.
10:00The fog of war has concealed from Lieutenant Colonel Weiss and his 250 Marines a horrific
10:06secret.
10:07Hidden in a fortress of bunkers are a staggering 10,000 North Vietnamese soldiers.
10:14Their critical mission, to launch yet another attack that will prove to the American public
10:19their resolve and willingness to kill America's sons indefinitely.
10:26All that stands in their way is a small band of Marine brothers whose courage, skill and
10:31audacity must meet head-on a superbly trained and motivated enemy that outnumbered them
10:3740 to 1.
10:40The little known Battle of Dai Do was fast becoming one of the most significant and epic
10:45battles of the entire Vietnam War.
11:11Less than three months after America is shocked by the bold Tet Offensive, the NVA had planned
11:17yet another surprise attack, this time on the critical combat base across from Dai Do.
11:24But their plans are being spoiled by roughly 250 Marines who have unknowingly stirred
11:29a hornet's nest of some 10,000 NVA.
11:41From the start of that battle, I was flying by the seat of my pants.
11:51We never knew what the size of the enemy force was, we didn't know how well they were fortified,
11:57and we didn't have any idea of their major objective.
12:01I depended upon the capabilities and my faith in the men that I was serving with.
12:11When the battle started, I was aboard a ship, USS Iwo Jima.
12:15The PA system sounded like medevacs inbound, it's kind of a chilling message when you know
12:20what it means.
12:22And we saw there were Marines of our own company, Hotel Company.
12:28We didn't have body bags in those days, they just covered with ponchos or the best we could
12:32do for them.
12:34I think you can imagine my feeling at the moment.
12:39I was in the wrong place, I needed to be ashore, and so that's where I went.
12:43I jumped on a helicopter and headed back in.
12:56After 24 hours without sleep, the exhausted men of Gulf Company finally arrive on the
13:01battlefield.
13:02They have brought with them two desperately needed tanks.
13:07Led by the battle-hardened Jay Vargas, he has no idea the ferocity of the coming engagement
13:12will earn him the Medal of Honor.
13:16Lieutenant Colonel Weiss immediately prepares them to fight.
13:20We plastered that place with supporting arms.
13:37Two platoons that initially started the assault were pinned down shortly after entering the
13:42village of Dido.
13:50Vargas himself then led his reserve platoon through those two platoons and increased the
13:57penetration and he and his three platoons actually cleaned out the whole area of Dido.
14:09However, just about the time they had finished their assault, they came under a counter-attack.
14:18By this time, his company is whittled down, so I ordered him to form a tight perimeter,
14:27dig in, and hold on to what he had.
14:32I didn't want to commit hotel company, I saw it would be useless.
14:38The situation was really fairly desperate.
14:43Sitting 20 miles away, the 180 men of Echo Company finally get the call to join their
14:49brothers in the desperate fight at Dido.
14:52Things changed rapidly and how they changed made us feel much different.
15:03People were excited.
15:04It was like their first date or something like that.
15:07They were eager to get into the battle.
15:11Things started to change emotionally inside of you, nervousness.
15:16I was scared.
15:17I knew things were bad and that came through the radio.
15:23Our brother Marines from the 2nd Battalion and 4th Marines were tied down and we wanted
15:27to get in there and do what we could to help.
15:30We were ready to fight.
15:33The word came, saddle up.
15:37We grabbed as much as we could, oranges or apples or shoved them in our pockets and we
15:43started down the road.
15:52Nighttime closing in, the few hundred exhausted Marines still have no idea they are attacking
15:57some 10,000 NVA and delaying their enemy's secret plans to bring America to its knees.
16:05The ferocious fighting has done little to dampen the spirit of the young Marines, but
16:10the coming storm will push them to the breaking point in a desperate struggle against an enemy
16:16determined to turn the tables on the war in Vietnam.
16:39By the morning of May 2nd, less than 500 tenacious Marines continue their bloody assaults, taking
16:55ground and killing an enemy that numbers into the thousands.
17:02With the hard-won enemy fortifications at Dong Han and on lock in Marine hands, their
17:07next immediate necessity is to seize the remainder of the fortifications at Dai Do.
17:12But with Hotel, Foxtrot, Bravo and Golf Company holding their critical positions, they are
17:18in need of reinforcements to take Dai Do.
17:26Within the midst of this critical situation, the 180 men of Echo Company, under the command
17:32of their skipper, Captain Jim Livingston, finally arrive on the battlefield.
17:37They are ordered to take Dai Do in the hopes of breaking the back of their enemy.
17:42Failure could mean the loss of the entire battalion, leaving nothing to stop the NVA's
17:47plan to overrun the critical supply base at Dong Han.
17:52The bloody Marine assault will be one that none of them will ever forget.
18:13It used to be about 5.20 and I get a call from the skipper.
18:19And the command was, fix bayonets.
18:24And I literally took the handset and I looked at it and I went, okay.
18:31I could hear the guys behind me reaching in, grabbing their bayonets and hooking them up.
18:44I heard 80 bayonets clicking across that morning and hearing that sound was a very,
18:48very significant sort of feeling for each one of those Marines.
18:57Your intensity as Marine all changed.
19:01Everything inside of you changed.
19:03And blood started pumping right away.
19:23When I said, move out, they moved out across an open rice paddy, you know, with no cover
19:31and concealment.
19:32And it was just bare chest going up against a hell of bullets.
19:38These were the finest young Marines that you could ever witness.
19:42The whole northern perimeter lit up.
19:48They started firing machine guns.
19:49They started firing rockets.
19:51They started firing RPGs.
19:58Two assault platoons got within just a few yards and just got totally bogged down because
20:03of the significance of the casualties.
20:06We were taking casualties, big time.
20:09There were 100 bunkers that were occupied by North Vietnamese and they were shooting
20:15right directly at us.
20:20Most of the young Marines who got killed in that particular episode of the battle were
20:29shot in the head.
20:30That's how close we were to them.
20:32It was a battle to the death on both sides of that fight.
20:38You fought to the death.
20:42As the battle began to bog down, I knew it was one opportunity we had to penetrate that
20:50significant bunker locations.
20:53We launched a reserve platoons attack on a very narrow front.
21:02And we were able to penetrate that line of bunkers.
21:06And that was the key to it.
21:09You had to get a penetration point.
21:11You had to break through.
21:14The North Vietnamese were good fighters, but they were focused in one direction across
21:19that rice paddy.
21:21They couldn't react to the left and to the right.
21:25And we rolled them up big time.
21:31Meanwhile, over to the right of Echo Company, Vargas, he only had about 60 men left.
21:37They jumped out of their holes and they started fighting.
21:44They fought like hell.
21:45And together, Echo and Golf retook Dai Do.
21:50And we had that village again.
21:57Echo Company never lost a fight, and they were not going to lose that fight.
22:01And they won that fight decisively.
22:05But the consequences were significant in terms of loss of Echo Company lives and capability.
22:13When it was all over, out of the 180, there were only about 35 Marines that were not either
22:20killed or wounded at Echo.
22:24In order to keep the pressure on the enemy, I had ordered Hotel Company to move around
22:30the left flank of Echo Company and attack the next village, which was Dinh Tho.
22:41I was watching our Marines as I waited along with them, ready for the next fight.
22:47We'd been up in that country.
22:49We'd been up in that country for almost three months.
22:52They'd just finished the battle for Dong Wan and sent one-third of their number off killed or wounded.
22:59And they knew exactly what was ahead of them.
23:01We were going to attack another four to five positions, 75 of us this time.
23:06They knew the NVA would fight.
23:08They knew they'd have to be rooted out one by one.
23:11And although, in the end, we'd be in their positions walking over their dead bodies,
23:16there'd be a lot less than 75 of us around for the celebration.
23:20They knew all that.
23:22And when we stepped out of that little clump of woods that was our attack position,
23:26looked across the paddies at our objective,
23:30there wasn't one second's hesitation.
23:33Go! Go! Go! Go!
23:36Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!
23:39As we closed on the village, within a couple hundred yards,
23:43within a couple hundred yards, the NVA opened fire.
23:49Every time they shot, somebody went down.
23:52Somebody got a corpsman over here!
23:58We broke into a run.
24:03As soon as we hit the first line of trenches, the fortifications were unbelievable.
24:08We'd seen fortifications before but never seen anything this extensive.
24:11It flashed through my mind at this point, how long have these guys been here?
24:19And about that time, the enemy counterattacked.
24:30We took about a half a dozen casualties immediately up front, and we stalled.
24:35We began to hear them to our flanks, almost to our rear.
24:41It was a bad spot.
24:43The NVA were ready.
24:45They were reaching for our belt.
24:47And when they came again, it was clear we were going to have a desperate situation.
24:56The urgency of Hotel Company's radio transmissions is recognized by fellow Marines.
25:01One of them is Captain Jim Livingston.
25:04He has only 30 men left from almost 200 who assaulted Dai Do that morning.
25:10But Marines take care of their own.
25:14In one of the most selfless acts of courage in a battle full of heroes,
25:18Jim Livingston rallies the tattered remains of Echo Company to their feet.
25:23They gather what's left of their ammo and, without hesitation,
25:26They gather what's left of their ammo and, without hesitation,
25:29head once more into battle.
25:32Head once more into battle.
25:55For three bloody days, less than 500 exhausted Marines
25:59continue their relentless attacks against a staggering force of some 10,000 NVA.
26:06They are unknowingly delaying their enemies' critical plans
26:09for a surprise attack on the scale of tech.
26:14But despite the overwhelming odds,
26:16the Marines are taking ground and killing their enemy.
26:22Golf and Echo Companies have overrun NVA fortifications and are holding.
26:28Foxtrot and Bravo Companies, attempting to medivac their wounded,
26:31are also holding their hard-won positions.
26:36Hotel Company, with barely 50 men left,
26:39are stalled by overwhelming odds halfway through Den To.
26:43It is clear to anyone with an earshot of their urgent radio calls
26:47that they are at risk of being overrun.
26:51EXPLOSIONS
26:56One of those listening is Jim Livingston and what is left of Echo Company.
27:03In the previous days fighting alone, Echo has lost 150 of their brothers,
27:08killed or critically wounded.
27:11Now, all that is left, some 30 men,
27:15bleeding with serious wounds of their own,
27:18have been rendered practically combat ineffective.
27:24Echo had not received any orders whatsoever to be involved in this fight.
27:30I made the decision at that point, Echo had to get re-engaged
27:35because I was very concerned about Hotel Company
27:39and maybe the fact they may be in a position to be wiped out.
27:43I told my Marines to pack up and we're going to assist Hotel Company.
28:14EXPLOSIONS
28:17We ran forward under intense fire.
28:21EXPLOSIONS
28:27I told Scotty Prescott, Echo's coming.
28:30I could hear Prescott, yeah, he's shouting yeah,
28:33and he yelled back and forth, Echo's coming, Echo's coming.
28:36EXPLOSIONS
28:39And I looked around and behind us I saw Captain Livingston
28:44and a couple dozen Marines coming at us through the smoke and the dust.
28:49They never looked better. I could have kissed them.
28:52EXPLOSIONS
28:54Everybody in that battalion knew Jim Livingston
28:57and they knew what a fighter he was
28:59and boy, they figured if Livingston's coming, we're okay.
29:03EXPLOSIONS
29:07The North Vietnamese were throwing every capability they could at us.
29:13They were fighting for their life and we were fighting for our life.
29:17EXPLOSIONS
29:19They were still moving when the next counterattack came.
29:23EXPLOSIONS
29:25It seemed like all these NVA soldiers coming back,
29:27there was NVA all over the place.
29:30EXPLOSIONS
29:33EXPLOSIONS
29:35I saw one Marine NVA soldier to the ground with an empty rifle.
29:39Snatch up that soldier's AK-47, kill him and two more with the same rifle.
29:44EXPLOSIONS
29:46It was close in, kill it. It was close in, kill it.
29:51EXPLOSIONS
29:52The enemy came in with such numbers that they overwhelmed them
29:56and they were in a position where Livingston then got hit.
29:59EXPLOSIONS
30:01I got hit with one of the weapons that we utilized to shoot down airplanes.
30:05The North Vietnamese turned it on me and shot me in.
30:09My radio operator killed him.
30:11EXPLOSIONS
30:15I finally told the tank commander,
30:17I'm down, I don't think we're going to survive out here
30:22just because of the sheer numbers, the threat against us.
30:26EXPLOSIONS
30:28I ordered them to bring the wounded with them but to pull back tactically.
30:34EXPLOSIONS
30:36Skipper told us, move back to the edge of Dido.
30:39He had been wounded and we started to pull him out.
30:43He says, get everybody else first.
30:45EXPLOSIONS
30:47My order was, bring the wounded, leave the dead.
30:51Let's get out of here.
30:53EXPLOSIONS
30:57EXPLOSIONS
30:59By 3 p.m. on May 3rd, the five ravaged companies of 2-4
31:04have fought their way into the village of Dido.
31:09Lieutenant Colonel Weiss, still unaware of the massive horde they are up against,
31:13prepares his men for yet another push in the hope that reinforcements will arrive soon.
31:19But for the weary Marines who have already paid dearly for their tenacity,
31:25the worst is yet to come.
31:29My regimental commander called me and said, we got to keep the pressure on.
31:33And I said, with what?
31:35I said, we're out.
31:36I said, we've run out of steam.
31:39I just lost two of my best company commanders.
31:42The third one was killed and the others aren't in very good shape
31:46and I'm not feeling too good myself at this point.
31:49EXPLOSIONS
31:52He said, Weiss, I'll tell you what, I got some help for you.
31:55He said, we've got an Arvin Battalion, mechanized battalion.
31:59They move with armor protection and they have a lot of firepower.
32:04They'll support your attack.
32:06They will attack with you.
32:09Well, that was the plan.
32:11It didn't work out that way.
32:14The South Vietnamese Arvin Mechanized Battalion
32:17has been rushed in to provide support to what is now just 250 Marines,
32:22dangerously low on ammunition, men, and supplies.
32:27Desperate to continue their attacks,
32:29the Marines have little choice but to accept the Arvin into the fold,
32:32even though they are known to be unreliable under heavy combat conditions.
32:40With the firepower of the assisting South Vietnamese,
32:43the Marines prepare for a bold and risky new attack plan.
32:47EXPLOSIONS
32:50The 250 Arvin troops and tank support will move up the west side of a narrow stream
32:56and provide protective fire ahead of the 120 men of Gulf and Foxtrot companies.
33:02Moving by foot, the Marines will attempt to push the NVA out of the strongholds
33:07and into the open where they can be destroyed by Arvin tanks.
33:12Timing of the attack is critical.
33:15Without the protection and firepower of the Arvin armor,
33:18the Marines will be exposed to the full brunt of enemy gunfire.
33:23EXPLOSIONS
33:41As we moved forward, first we heard the fire from our friendlies on the right
33:48and then the heavy fire from the tank stop.
33:54Then we started to experience automatic fire from the left,
33:58and it was hitting in amongst us.
34:01And at first we thought, that's our Arvin.
34:04They're not staying far enough ahead of us.
34:08But when I put my binoculars over on the left,
34:11I looked over there, and by God, they were enemy soldiers
34:15moving in large numbers from our left flank.
34:19Where in the hell was the Arvin, I thought.
34:22I called the liaison officer on the radio, no answer.
34:26They were not there.
34:31The South Vietnamese Arvin troops the Marines have been forced to rely on,
34:36either by fear of the NVA or by corrupt Arvin officers in alliance with the NVA,
34:42have abandoned the Marines,
34:44exposing them to blistering gunfire from three different directions.
34:49Hundreds of fresh, well-armed North Vietnamese soldiers swarm in
34:53and surround the 125 Marines.
34:59What happens next will not only exemplify what it means to be a Marine,
35:04but to go down in Marine lore as one of the greatest against all odds miracles of any battle.
35:11On May 3rd, 1968,
35:37the 1 8th Marines, bent on preventing a repeat of Tet,
35:41have been forced to rely on the support of South Vietnamese troops
35:45who have failed to come to their aid at a critical moment of the battle.
35:49125 Marines are now outnumbered and surrounded by thousands of NVA
35:55swarming in for the kill.
36:01I happened to be right alongside Vargas and his radio operator.
36:05He said, Vargas, we got to pull back. There's no way we can hold on here.
36:09Bring in our wounded with us and we'll come back and get our dead later.
36:17Vargas called in artillery right on top of us.
36:34We started to move back.
36:37As I was about to get out of the trench, I got hit on the side and I was unable to move.
36:45Captain Vargas wounded three times in the last three days
36:49and for the fifth time in three months,
36:51grabs Lieutenant Colonel Weiss by his flak jacket and drags him to safety.
36:56He will go back in several times to rescue his wounded Marines.
37:02In their haste to kill the vulnerable Marines,
37:05the NVA have inadvertently exposed themselves.
37:09Fixed wing and helicopter gunships respond immediately
37:12to the rare sight of so many NVA out in the open
37:16and roar in for the kill.
37:35The ARVN's failure to support leaves the Marines bloodied and reduced in numbers,
37:40but furious and still wanting to fight.
37:44They dig in and form a thin defensive line.
37:48They knew there were not enough of them to hold back a full force NVA attack,
37:53but they were determined to make the NVA pay dearly when they came.
37:58They braced themselves for a fight to the death.
38:23The next morning when they sent patrols out to see what was in front of them,
38:27the enemy had pulled out completely.
38:30They had moved out, we assume back into the demilitarized zone.
38:38The NVA had just disappeared. They were gone.
38:44The Battle of Dai Do ends as mysteriously as it had begun,
38:50but the answers and the reality of just how close America had come to yet another tent
38:56was quickly lost to the fog of war.
39:02It would take another 40 years for the facts to be known.
39:07In post-war interviews with senior NVA leaders,
39:10the Marines learned that they had indeed fought against some 10,000 men
39:15of the 320th NVA Division.
39:19Believing that their strategic intentions had been discovered by the relentless Marines,
39:24the NVA retreated north during the night,
39:27abandoning their grand plans of yet another tent to bring a weary America to its knees.
39:34Lost at the time was the story of an understrength battalion of U.S. Marines
39:40who against impossible odds attacked and fought an NVA division to a standstill and retreat,
39:49leaving a dead Dong Ha combat base saving countless lives
39:54and spared the United States a strategic disaster.
40:02Captains Jim Livingston and Jay Vargas would be awarded the Medal of Honor
40:07for their heroic leadership.
40:10Lieutenant Colonel William Weiss was awarded the Navy Cross.
40:15But on May 4, 1968, all that mattered to the men that saved Dai Do
40:20were the men who had given everything.
40:24A reporter on that final day captures the special bond of the men
40:29who would become known in Marine legend as the magnificent bastards of Dai Do.
40:36Sir, how are you feeling?
40:37I feel pretty good.
40:39How would you feel if you were commander of the best battalion in the world, huh?
40:43We hurt them pretty bad, but then they hurt us a little too,
40:46but you've got to give a little to get a little, huh?
40:54Did you worry at all that you weren't going to get out?
40:56None of us thought we were.
40:58I can't believe we made it.
41:00It was hard.
41:01I was scared, so was everybody else, and we didn't think we could make it
41:04because we knew they were behind us and we couldn't run
41:06because every time we stood up, those machine guns opened up on us.
41:10Is this the worst fighting you've ever seen?
41:13It's the worst I've ever seen, yes.
41:18How has it been?
41:20Well, we went into it gung-ho, and we pushed them back a little ways.
41:27The fighting got pretty rough, and we pulled back.
41:33Did any of your friends not make it?
41:37That's affirmative.
41:38A lot of my friends didn't make it.
41:45The thing that I reflect on is being a recipient of the Medal of Honor.
41:49It's to remember all those young Marines who didn't come home,
41:53didn't have a chance to be fathers and grandfathers.
41:56This whole episode in my life inspired me to be a better Marine
42:00because I wanted to represent the values that they represented.
42:04I wear the award for them and in their spirit and in their kindness
42:09and commitment to the Marine Corps and to their country.
42:23What does the battle for Dido mean to us that fought it?
42:29I will say probably the overriding feeling for those of us who led Marines there
42:37is our undying respect and humility for their loyalty, their integrity,
42:46their bravery, their unselfishness,
42:50and their willingness to go well beyond what was expected of them.
42:59I believe that the men that fought there at Dido fought as well as Marines ever fought in their history.
43:06I'm proud to have been and still am one magnificent bastard.