Why do you have to not kill the surrendered?
Serious question.
Probably a good question - but that was what we were taught as Marines. Usually the guy was wounded already and made it clear he was surrendering, so we would take him prisoner.
On May 13, 1967, we were following a river very early in the morning when a VC jumped up and ran. Almost everyone had the new M16 and fired off tons of rounds but nobody hit him. He got to about 200m away and I shot him with my M14 and though I was aiming at his head, I actually hit him in the left hand, tearing off his hand's edge and his little finger. We ran up to him and he had surrendered so we took his weapon and the grenade in his belt and then bandaged his hand and then took him with us.
We ran into a reinforced enemy company a little later and while I was trying to retrieve some of our wounded, I was shot through my right thigh and as I lay on the ground, my prisoner helped me get a tourniquet on and then helped carry me to the helicopter. I remember him waving his bandaged hand at me as we lifted off.
Your next post had "38" on it. if the question is if I killed more than 38, then the answer is yes.