SP/4 Roggiero Was Down But Not Out On 8 June 1969 I was commanding the 146th MP Platoon. I left in early August for my "Freedom Bird" ride home. When I arrived on scene the POW (enemy prisoner of war) Ward #4 of the 312th Evacuation Hospital was a charnel house. Where SP/4 Roggiero had been standing was lots and lots of blood, and shrapnel was everywhere. He, as I recall, took a major hit on his left thigh and lesser injuries to his left calf and ankle. He had been standing smack in front of what had been the POW Suspect Ward desk. That desk was totally destroyed, again, as I recollect it. |
There was a ward desk directly across from where Roggiero was and I looked at it as it was still in apparent good condition. Upon close inspection, I found the 1/4 inch plywood cover to the desk area just peppered with tiny holes, it was all from the shrapnel which had been blown out by the rocket as it had landed and blown up. I was told the nurse sitting there at that time, forgive a failing memory, I cannot for the life of me remember who was sitting at the desk, but in any case she was not physically injured even a tiny bit by the blast. 1LT Sharon Lane was laying down on the farthest bed in the ward from the blast, napping, when the rocket hit the building. She had a "ultra tiny" pin prick of a hole in her forehead and that is what killed her. |
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I realized I was missing SP/4 Roggiero and about two or three Viet Cong (VC) prisoners so I went looking for them. To his credit SP/4 Roggiero was across from the Operating Room (OR) in a holding room yelling at the top of his lungs they were not going to take him to the OR until he was officially relieved from his duty as the POW guard. I found him on a gurney with his .45 belt on his stomach and two very scared VC sitting on the lip of the cement outside of the holding room. Needless to say, I relieved him so he could be treated by the doctors. |