Leopoldo Castillo

Leo was the best soldier I ever knew. He and I were best friends for a time. We were team leaders in the same rifle squad, shared a room at the barracks at Fort Meade, were promoted sergeant on the same orders.

Leo was born in Mexico. His family immigrated to the United States when Leo was 12. The family settled near Mercedes, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. Right away you might see there were differences in his background and mine. Leo was raised Roman Catholic. I was born and raised in Northeast Texas, where, back then, there were few people of Mexican background. Northeast Texas, too, was heavily Southern Baptist, and, again, back then, Catholicism was just this side of the Anti-Christ. I never believed any of that because, before the Army, I never knew any Catholics, or Mexicans, to compare reality with what was rumored and believed by many.

The Army is good at levelling things. Religious upbringing, economic standing, color -- none of that matters because you aren't there, you are in uniform, and the uniform is green. These days, multi-colored, but the idea is the same.

Right after Aero Rifle Platoon arrived in Vietnam, I was moved from First Squad to Second Squad. Leo and I saw each other every day, and we remained best friends, but we didn't have the closer connection of being in the same squad. In March 1967, the platoon was reorganized to Long Range Reconnaissance. I chose not to be a LRRP, for two very good reasons: I was not in good enough physical shape to run (and LRRPs sometimes had to do that), and my land navigation skills were not so good (and it's always a good idea to be able to tell someone your precise location, especially if the someone will fire artillery for you or give air support or, especially, is coming to get you from a very dangerous situation). Leo became a LRRP; I was asked to work in flight operations as assistant operations NCO. Leo was very good at what he chose, and, truthfully, so was I.

In the summer of 1967, Leo took his team on a five-day mission, typical LRRP mission of go quietly through the bush, look for signs of VC, mark finds on a map, go to a predetermined pickup zone and ride a slick back to base camp. A couple of hours after Leo's team was inserted into an area southeast of base camp, I was flying door gunner on a gunship, one of two providing cover and reconnaissance for an armored cavalry troop south of base camp. While Leo and his guys proceeded slowly, carefully and quietly through thick woods, I flew in a noisy helicopter in cooler air a few kilometers away.

Not long into our flight, the gunship team leader got a radio request to go to Leo's area. "He doesn't know where he is," the radio transmission said. I was on that helicopter and monitored the call. I knew Leo was good at land navigation and that he should not be lost. The team leader replied "Wilco."

When the gunships neared the area, the team leader called for Leo to mark his position. A mirror flashed from the trees. The team leader checked his map and then gave the coordinates to Leo. The two gunships left the area, dropping low into clearings now and then, to make a show that we were checking the area and had not gone to a specific place.

We were back on station fifteen minutes when Leo called for immediate extraction. Within five minutes the extraction helicopters were in the air and racing for Leo's location. (An extraction team consisted of the primary extraction Huey, a backup ship, a gunship team and a command and control ship.) Getting Leo's team out took longer than anybody wanted, but Leo and his four team members were extracted.

The next day Leo came into the flight operations tent. He said, "Can I talk with you?" He and I went outside. Leo said, "Yesterday I killed a man and for the first time I saw the bullets go into him." I didn't know what to say. Somebody tells you that, and you do know what to say ... Or maybe nobody knows what to say.

For the first three hours, the mission went as normal, Leo said. Then he came upon a trail that was not on the map. Adding to his discomfort, where the map showed continued woods, in front of him was a large clearing and a hill and the trail went over the hill. That was when Leo called in and when the gunship team went to his area. I told Leo I was on the lead gunship.

After the gunships left, Leo studied his map. He traced the route and distance from the landing zone. Leo had placed three men in his team on one side of the trail, while he and another man were across the trail near the tree line. Leo was studying his map when the man with him whispered, "Look!"

"Three gooks came over the hill and down the trail, right toward us," Leo said. He told the other man, "You take the one on the right, I'll take the two on the left."

When the three VC were less than 100 meters away, Leo and the other man opened fire, their M16s on automatic.

Leo said, "I had all tracers. I fired and I saw the tracers go into a man's chest." He beat his chest with his fingers, hard. "I had never seen that before."

Again I was struck silent. At the same time I appreciated that Leo did not tell anyone else; he told me. Maybe I was supposed to have an answer.

After a time I said, "I guess that's the way it is sometimes." What other answer is there?

Leo told about the extraction, of the single VC that got away, ran across the top of the hill and disappeared from sight. Leo led his team north, everybody running, and Leo on the radio calling for immediate extraction because his mission was compromised. I do not know what it is like, running through jungle and behind you is the sound of automatic weapons as several dozen VC are running too, and they want to catch you and they are firing ahead, at you.

Leo and his team ran, but their primary and alternate pickup zones were in the other direction. At one point, Leo said, the pilot of the primary extraction Huey radioed: "Are you near your Papa Zulu?" Leo replied, "I am cutting it now." Eventually, the pilots located a nearby clearing just large enough to land in. Leo and his team changed direction and found the PZ.

Leo said, too, "When we landed back here and the Huey left, Lieutenant (Name) was waiting. He said, 'Sergeant Castillo, why did you shoot those gooks?' I looked him in the eye and I said, 'Because I wanted to.'"