Lee Widjeskog grew up near the small town of Rosenhayn in southern New Jersey. After graduating from Bridgeton High School he attended Colorado State University, majoring in Wildlife Biology while enrolling in Army ROTC. Basic training came at Fort Riley, Kansas in the summer of 1968. By March 1969 he had his bachelor’s degree, his commission, and orders for Fort Benning — Infantry Officer Basic Course, followed by airborne training and then Fort Polk, Louisiana.
At Fort Polk, the colonel called his name and noted that a man with a degree in wildlife biology ought to be assigned somewhere with plenty of wildlife — Tiger Ridge, 32 miles from the main post. Lee later called it one of the better assignments he had. Between Fort Polk and jungle survival training in Panama, his wife Kathy gave birth to their daughter Denise. He got to see her for a few weeks before shipping out to Vietnam.
Once in country, Lee was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. After SERTS he met Colonel Lucas, walked over to Alpha Company, A/2-506, and within a day or two was on a helicopter heading over the jungle to join Alpha and Captain Burkert east of Ripcord. He replaced Lieutenant Kelly as 2nd Platoon leader and quickly came to depend on his platoon sergeant, Leverett.
Lee’s first exposure to hostile fire came in May when Robert Lowe of First Platoon was killed and Tiny Aanonsen was wounded. He moved up to try to locate and hit the NVA bunker with a LAW. They found it and hit it — but it was empty.
“That was the first of a number of times I found myself frightened but doing what I was trained to do in spite of the fear.”
The weeks that followed meant constant movement through jungle, searching for NVA. As a wildlife biologist, Lee found the jungle genuinely interesting when he had time to notice. In late May the company crossed the Rao Trang and was flown onto Firebase Ripcord for a brief one-night stay. The next day, June 3rd, they headed out to Hill 1000.
Through June and into July, Alpha operated around FSB O’Reilly and the jungle east of Ripcord. On July 18th, Lee watched from an LZ two kilometers away as a Chinook took .51 caliber rounds and crashed into the ammunition depot on Ripcord, setting off a tremendous series of explosions. Shrapnel hit the trees near their position. The next day, two NVA walked directly into the middle of Alpha’s column. Captain Hawkins reacted instantly and shot both before they could unshoulder their rifles. One proved to be carrying a detailed layout of the Ripcord firebase drawn in preparation for an assault.
Lee had anticipated mail and perhaps a re-supply on July 22nd. It was his birthday. Others had different plans.
Moving out from the NDP, his 2nd Platoon was leading the company toward a northern LZ. He had 16 men with him. After moving 150 to 200 meters from the perimeter, the point man spotted mortars and NVA in the trail — and dropped back to report rather than fire, saying he wasn’t sure they were NVA. Lee took the squad forward to investigate. The NVA opened fire with RPGs and automatic weapons. Simultaneously, mortars began dropping tear gas and high explosives on the rest of Alpha on the hill behind them.
At the front of the column, Lee and his men struggled to drag his wounded RTO to safety under fire. At the rear, Platoon Sergeant Johnny Brown took a round through both cheeks, shattering part of his tongue and jaw. SSgt. Gary Foster — who had only joined them on the 18th — began firing at every NVA who showed himself. When they charged down a trail at him he kept dropping them. When they shifted to sniping from behind trees he answered with grenades. He suffered numerous wounds from grenades, a second-degree burn from a satchel charge, and both eardrums burst — and he kept fighting until he could herd his two wounded men back into the perimeter.
Tom Schultz of Pittsburgh was killed maneuvering to a new position. Sparky Journell was killed by grenade shrapnel on the north end of the perimeter during a massed NVA assault. Tony Galindo took shrapnel to the face. Lee himself received flesh wounds from the same grenade.
The platoon’s two working radios were lost in the opening minutes. A third radio, set aside for repair, was coaxed back to life by the RTOs. Lee finally reached Captain Hawkins and reported his two dead. Hawkins reported at least five killed on the hill. He had assumed the platoon was gone — an hour or more had passed with no radio contact.
Later in the fight, as Lee rose to provide covering fire for Gary Foster’s grenade throw, a piece of shrapnel flew back and lodged in his gum, shattering a tooth.
“Luckily I had kept my mouth shut or the piece might have gone into the back of my throat or skull. With a wound no worse than a visit to the dentist, I kept on fighting.”
Captain Hawkins had a jet drop two 250-pound bombs on enemy positions. One landed 100 meters from Lee’s position — on top of the NVA. The explosion cut the trees down to eight feet and opened visibility from five meters to thirty or forty. By 1800 hours the fight was over. Alpha had 14 killed and 55 wounded. Six men came through the day unscratched.
That night, Delta 2/506 walked in. The next morning they blew an LZ on site and by noon both companies had returned to Camp Evans.
“The camp looked better than I had ever imagined!”
Lee returned to the field with a basically new platoon in August and remained there until late September, when he was reassigned as supply officer for the Brigade Headquarters Company. He left Vietnam in March 1971. Six months later he was out of the service and working for the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife as a wildlife biologist — exactly what his degree had prepared him for.
He had a grown daughter and son, and stayed married to the same woman who had chosen him back in 1968. He ended his biography the way an infantryman should:
“CURRAHEE!!!”
Lieutenant Lee Widjeskog passed away in 2022. He is remembered with deep respect by the men of Alpha Company who fought beside him.
