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The story I heard from the only surviving officer from Company F, 2/1 from that fight near Nui Loc Sanh - a second lieutenant artillery FO - was that Foxtrot company approached an NVA platoon that they had spotted across an open area and deployed to attack. However, the NVA never came in platoons - they always came in battalions - and as the citation says, they were well entrenched and within a few seconds, all of the company officers were killed and the senior man alive was the artillery FO.

Gary Martini saw wounded Marines caught between the trench the survivors had occupied and the enemy's trenches. Without a word, he went out in the open to save a wounded Marine and bring him back, pausing only to throw grenades at the enemy machine guns. Then he went out again, same routine and barely made it back - because the enemy knew where he was and what he was doing. This time, the lieutenant ordered him to stay put until help got there and that he had risked his life enough.

But another Marine, wounded and calling for him to help him from close to the enemy position caused him to run out of cover again to go get him.

He died that time, shot in the back while he was dragging that wounded man back.

It always hurts to remember Gary and that day - because he always represents to me the extreme courage and selflessness that happened so often in our war.