Acting Platoon Leader

 With the reorganizing of leadership roles, I was now the acting Platoon Leader instead of the Platoon Sergeant. I was blessed to have two excellent rifle squad leaders in Sgt. David Lockwood from Pavilion, NY and Sgt. Eddie Reiser from Romeoville, IL and also Sgt. Robert Newell from Derry, NH would be over my weapons squad. Sgt. Newell was serving his third tour of duty in Vietnam and was as solid a combat soldier as you would ever meet. He would not agree to lead a rifle squad. He hated giving people orders, but as our weapons squad leader he could dispense the machine gunner teams out to the other rifle squads on operations. Then he was free to offer his wealth of survivor knowledge to the entire platoon. He was, without doubt, one hellava super soldier. My point men were Harry Warren from North Vernon, IN and Ronnie Paniccia from Rochester, NY. There couldn’t have ever been a more talented pair of young men at point than these two men. I trusted them wholeheartedly to guide us safely and successfully on our combat missions. With everyone in place, we would continue to operate aggressively as one unit. We would hopefully get replacement troops (referred to as newbies) as they became available.