Terry Buckler tells this story of his Redwine Group mate Joe Murray.

What amazes me is that, in all this chaos, only one of us Green Berets gets wounded. That is Sgt 1st Class Joe Murray. Joe is a member of Master Sgt Herman Spencer’s team (Redwine Element 1, which also includes SFC Noe Quezeda, SFC Jerry Hill and SSG Tiny Young) whose job is to secure the area south of south wall. That’s the wall closest to where the helicopters dropped us off and later will pick us up.

MSgt Spencer is carrying a 40 lb block of C-4 explosives slung over his shoulder. It is to be used to blow the bridge. It turned out to be a good shield for him.

As we landed and spilled out of our helicopter, Spencer and Murray immediately rushed toward their objective, the guard shack (Building 8D in the diagram in the book Who Will Go) by the south wall. Spencer took a couple of rounds from a guard with an AK-47 in the block of C-4 he was carrying.

Joe Murray would not be that lucky.

When Spencer was dealing with that guard, that delayed Spencer such that Joe arrives at the guard shack alone. The building needs to be cleared immediately, before the enemy troops inside can all emerge. So, Joe decides to use a frag grenade instead of a concussion grenade. As he is about to toss it in the window, he feels his leg push forward with a burning sensation. Joe tosses the frag grenade in, neutralizing the guard shack. He then turns to eliminate the threat. Spencer, now arriving, fires his machine gun first and eliminates three guards. Joe was the only Army Raider to receive a Purple Heart.

Read the rest of the Raiders’ stories in Who Will Go.

Click Here:  The book.