Enemy fire killed Private First Class Larry Eugene Martin on the 24th of October in battle. The 21-year-old Niceville High School graduate had moved north to Dayton, Ohio, after graduation to work in a Chrysler factory before joining the Army. Martin was posthumously promoted to Corporal.
On October 23, Martin’s unit – B Company of the First Battalion of the 61st Infantry Regiment, Fifth Infantry Division moved into the demilitarized zone that separated North and South Vietnam. They were tasked with a tank-assisted sweep of the area for the North Vietnamese Army in the area. As one of the few mechanized divisions deployed to the fight during the entire war, they had many of the US Army’s personnel carriers in country.
Heavy mortar and machine gun fire from the North Vietnamese Army drenched American lines with death – and took PFC Martin in its harvest as it pinned down the unit. Soon, American tanks flanked the North Vietnamese positions and killed more than 300 NVA soldiers during initial contact and as they fled their lines in retreat.
Tellingly, according to the fifth division’s history of the fight, many weapons were left behind. “Because the enemy always tried to recover all weapons, this fact is most significant and indicated that the enemy was so routed that it could not retain its weapons.”
Martin was transported back to Dayton, Ohio, where he was interred in Memorial Park Cemetery. His name was etched onto the Vietnam War Memorial at Panel 40w, line 28.
