"I managed to step in a hole . . . so I'm out of action for about three weeks . . ."   – Richard Sutter
		"Robert . . . I'd like to hear from you occasionally if you get a chance . . ."   – Richard Sutter
"There's a young lady who works [at the local drugstore] and she's terribly cute . . ."   – Richard Sutter
		The Vietnamese "are highly independent people. They're very, very poor . . ."   – Richard Sutter
"I like being with my unit. I've gotten used to it. I do my job now . . ."   – Richard Sutter
		"Everyone . . . started digging in . . .we started getting incoming mortar rounds . . ."   – Capt. Frank D. Fulford, Echo 2/26, describing the action near Peace Church.
"At Khe Sanh . . . we were out seven days in the boonies looking for a firefight . . ."   – 2nd Lt.Chandler C. Crangle describing the fight where Sutter and four others were killed.
		"Daddy, I'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas . . ."   – Richard Sutter

About These Recordings

Richard's Letter Home
These audio quotes are taken from a tape Richard Sutter recorded from his hospital bed in Vietnam in late 1966 and sent home to his family in Atlanta. On Christmas Eve Sutter had broken his ankle and was laid up in a field hospital (possibly near Dong Ha, where his unit had just moved for "Operation Chinook") with a cast on his foot. On the tape he commented on the personalities of some of the entertainers who'd come to cheer up the troops for the holidays. But most of his talk was about the family and friends back home.

2nd Lt. Chandler C. Crangle
Crangle, Richard's rifle platoon commander in Mike 3/26, gave this report on the July 21, 1967 firefight near Khe Sanh in which Richard Sutter was killed. Crangle retired as a colonel in 1997 to become a Pentagon consultant.

Capt. Frank D. Fulford
Fulford was Sutter's platoon commander in Echo 2/26 the first half year the young enlisted man was in Vietnam, and then rose to company commander. In this tape he was describing the action his company encountered near Peace Church on May 16, 1967, the day Johnston took Sutter's picture. Fulford, a retired judge, lives in Atlanta.

Crangle and Fulford audio courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps Historical Center. Richard Sutter audio courtesy of the Sutter family.