so it was one of the -- i think larry gwynn, one of his comments was there's no real glory in war. anybody who's ever said that's never been in war. because this was -- what happens when you encounter that much violence in that short a period of time, and i'm searching for the words here to try to describe the emotion of going in the next day. >> yes. >> because i'm thinking long range as i'm going how do i get these guys -- because this is not -- for a lot of these guys this is not the end of the -- you know. a number of them were scheduled to rotate in december. i mean, they're -- but for a lot of the guys there was going to be a next day and there was going to be another battle. and i'm thinking, how do i motivate these guys, how do i make sure that what they're seeing here today will serve to keep them alert. and then the question in my mind is how do i as a company commander keep them safe? >> what did you tell them? what did you -- >> we talked. we talked about the need for preparedness,

larry gwynn remembers it differently. he wrote while he was in college, and he said that we were going out to be extracted, and continuing the operation, search for the enemy, and they were moving in a tactical formation platoons, echelon right i think it was. we were just moving a column. and we were moving as fast as possible -- >> was he a arguing -- >> first lieutenant larry gwen, officer of the company. >> -- of the company -- okay. and so tell me what happens when you -- when the firing starts? what is your platoon's position? >> when we halted, and at the time, just before that, one of my men told me that we had people behind us. i was worried. i said, oh, because i was supposed to be the rearmost. it turned out to be a couple company 1st through the 5th. it was alpha company, captain george forest's company, and so it's no problem there. that was -- that got me wondering, if i'm supposed to be the last guy here, how come we got more people behind. then we stopped for the rto, the information i got was that the con