Page 58 - Amarillo Senior Link Magazine Fall 2021 - Online Magazine
P. 58
Larry Barnett
Bronze Star Recipient
by Diana Barnett
several of the young all the time under heavy enemy
men of A company. fire. The Specialist repeated
The remaining APCs this action four more times.
slid to a halt. The The medic, Doc John Henyan,
rest of the tracks, attended to all the wounded
faced with the NVA warriors before the choppers
onslaught, opened arrived. This confrontation lasted
fire. Small arms fire, more than eleven hours. Of the
mortars, grenades, twenty-eight infantrymen from A
and the choking Company, only eight survived to
odor of gun smoke tell the story.
permeated the air.
Larry Barnett was born in rural
Specialist Barnett, Memphis, Texas on July 12, 1947,
hearing the screams to Robert L. and Oleta Barnett.
drifting from the He graduated from Lubbock
High School in 1965. He met the
love of his life, Diana Nicholson,
in 1970 while registering for
t was a warm sticky morning Texas Tech. Four months later,
in August, a few miles they tied the eternal knot on
Inorthwest of Quang Ngãi, January 4, 1971. They lived
a city in the northern part of in Lubbock for about a year
South Vietnam. The year was before relocating to Phillips, 180
1969. A thick crust of mud miles north of Lubbock. Larry
plastered the APC’s (Armored went to work for Phillips 66 Oil
Personnel Carrier) noisy tracks Company as a pump and engine
and the boots of a small platoon mechanic. After 13 years in
of 28 men from First Infantry Phillips, Larry and Diana bought
Brigade of the U.S. Army. The crippled track, noticing his a house in Fritch, Texas. After
ceaseless rains had temporarily brothers pinned to the side of the 24 years, he retired from Phillips
ceased. A 22-year-old Specialist, APCs, and realizing an enemy Oil and started a new career
Larry Gene Barnett, packing enforcement had to be silenced as an independent catastrophe
an M-16 rifle over his right before the wounded soldiers insurance adjuster. Larry and
shoulder and a PRC-25 radio in the disabled track could be Diana have been blessed with
strapped to his back, straddled extracted, assaulted the enemy three children: Michelle, Robert,
a stack of sandbags atop "The position. Ignoring enemy fire and Lori, eight grandchildren
War Lord", one of the six APCs directed solely at him, Larry and one great-grandson.
sweeping the area for hostile maneuvered his way near an
forces, when a heavily fortified NVA stronghold and tossed in
North Vietnamese Army of a pair of grenades, destroying
undetermined size opened fire it. Minutes after, Larry wormed
on them while they were crossing his way through the mud to the
open terrain. Three RPGs (Rocket injured track, dragged one of his
Propelled Grenades) struck wounded brothers from the APC,
the lead track (tank), "The Eve tossed the legless soldier over his
of Destruction", and sent it right shoulder and trudged to
careening into a creek bed, killing the cover of the remaining tracks,
58 Amarillo Senior Link
