Nik-
Thought I'd let you know some of the details of Gunny Kemp's death is not correct.
I'm sure he was not setting up mortars, I'm pretty sure of that.. We had just come off a night manuevor. Me and Armon McDaniel led the hump most of the night and we got to a hill side and moved most of the company on around the hill to set up for the next couple days. We were probably a couple hundred yards away when we heard the explosion. Word came to us that Gunny had set off a booby trapped existing hole or when he was digging in, I don't remember which. Both legs were blown off at that time. A chopper was called in to medevac him and got there but he died before they could get him out. He died then and not the next day on the Sanctuary. I remember that day pretty well as we all respected and liked the Gunny. Also that day, some jets were working an area we had just come from the night before as a large group of enemy troops had been spotted behind us. The jets, I assume F-4s 's, would start firing their 40 MM way out in front of us and the empty shell casings were raining down on us on the hill side. At first we thought they were shooting at us but soon relized it was their empty casings. We were really scrambling to get under anything we could find to not get hit. Fortunately we all survived it.
That's what I remember from that day. Just wanted to let you know even though the official report may be different. I have read some other posts on the military.com site that refer to this incident from guys that were real close to the explosion and with Gunny when he died.
Thanks,
Lyle Dye