U.S. Marine Corps veteran Lynn Terry was stationed in the 120-degree, humid area of Chu Lai as the U.S. military attempted to set up an airbase during the Vietnam War on May 7, 1965.

Fifty years later, he returned for the first time since he received his orders to leave the front line.

Terry served as a 1st Lieutenant during the war, as a platoon leader. He retired from the USMC as a captain after five-and-a-half years.

“I was part of the build-up and first combat actions in the war,” he said. “We were expected to land heavily opposed.”

That wasn’t the case, as opposition had backed off to plan an attack at a different time and place.

Chu Lai was where Operation Starlite, one of the first big battles of the war, started. The area was chosen to be a strategic air strip, to be created in 30 days.

But as forces mounted and an assault became imminent, Terry was called back to Okinawa, Japan, where the Marines were based.

Terry said that the order was a mistaken one that went to people who were short on their tours. Terry’s was up in June 1965.

“They had been in the habit of sending somebody like myself home for discharge rather than to another duty station for just another three or four months,” Terry said. “So when all this happened the question was what was going to happen to all of us? There was never an answer.”

Terry’s platoon, which he had trained for two years, was in the middle of Operation Starlite. Several of his men were killed or wounded in the battle.

To read the full story, see the Friday, May 1, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.