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Michael Donnelly wrote on March 24, 2021 at 10:01 pm
I remembered, but didn't want to.
Semper FI

http://ehistory.osu.edu/vietnam/books/vietnamization/0364.cfm
Fraggings in III MAF plagued both secure rear areas and forward positions. In the 1st Marine Division, 62 percent of the assaults during 1970 took place in canยฌtonments near Da Nang; 38 percent occurred at comยฌbat and fire support bases, observation posts, and battalion CPs. Clubs and living areas were favorite tarยฌgets, with grenades typically rolled through a hut or bunker entrance or exploded against a wall. Lower-ranking enlisted men committed most flaggings, comยฌmonly against NCOs and junior officers.95 The moยฌtives for fragging were as varied as the tensions afflicting III MAF. A few flaggings, including the one in Maintenance Battalion, appeared to have been raยฌcially motivated. Others reflected anger and resentยฌment at a particular small-unit leader or were efforts to get rid of an incompetent or particularly aggressive commander. Many flaggings were committed under the influence of alcohol or drugs or for drug-related reasons, for example pusher-buyer disputes or intimiยฌdation of informers. Probably the majority of flaggings resulted from individual personality disturbances. Brigadier General Simmons observed:
http://www.virtualwall.org/dp/PateRD01a.htm
A Note from The Virtual Wall
Corporal Ronald Pate's casualty record is coded as "C1-U-7", which translates to "Non-hostile, Died Of Other Causes - Other Accident - Ground Casualty", but the record is misleading.
Cosmas and Murray, writing in U.S. Marines in Vietnam, 1970-71, p. 364, say
"FLC [Force Logistic Command] suffered the most costly single fragging of the year on the night of 5 February, when a Marine tossed a grenade into the crowded patio of the Maintenance Battalion enlisted men's club. The resulting explosion killed one Marine and wounded 62."
The dead Marine was Corporal Pate, characterized by one friend as "a nice guy, soft spoken and wouldn't hurt a fly. He wasn't flashy like some, just a likeable ordinary guy with a down-home attitude".
Another friend objects to the "Non-hostile - other accident" classifications, saying
"I think a frag grenade over the wall at the EM club by a fellow Marine, because of hatred, would constitute hostile action! He did not die in an accident, but from an excess of hatred."
Although the Naval Investigative Service (NIS) eventually arrested four enlisted Marines in the Maintenance Battalion fragging, Marine courts-martial acquitted all four defendants.
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