Memory of Steven England,

Submitted by Ronnie Edwards

Steven Glenn England was my friend. He was from Pocatello Idaho as I remember and his father was a detective or something on the city police force. Steve and his dad did not get along well, as often is the case in growing up. His dad wanted him to "walk the line" and so, of course that is the one thing Steve would not do. Yet Steve had talked about how much he wanted his father's approval and how much he respected him. Steve had been involved with some drugs at home, how much I do not know, but I do know that if he drank more than a couple of beers he was liable to "flashback" and go completely nuts for a while.

Steve was a medic, he came to the Rangers from a line unit about Aug of 1970 (I'm guessing) and was assigned to Team 1-1. There is no spot for a medic on a 6-man LRRP team. He was a regular rifleman or technically speaking "scout", of course if you happen to have a medic qualified scout on your team he is a obvious choice to carry the aid bag which usually consists of a claymore bag stuffed with things you are most likely to need. Steve wasn't satisfied with this of course and came up with a modified field medical kit that was more extensive. It also weighed more of course but he carried the extra weight without complaint. Steve went out with Team 1-1 for a couple of months and did as well as anyone else in the field. Sometime in Nov-Dec the company medic position came open and he took over that position. In this job he did not go to the field on a regular basis, but instead took care of everyone while they were between missions, teach classes on giving IV's and other stuff and would go out on special missions or whenever any team needed help.

I remember sitting up with him one night when he was having a "flashback". He talked continuously all night about anything and everything and that's probably when he talked about his father. He went out to take a leak one time and someone brought him back saying he had been trying to walk thorough some triple strand concertina wire. Myself and another guy talked about trying to hit him once to knock him out, but that stuff doesn't usually work like it does in the movies so we just set it out and waited for him finally to wind down.

On 15 February, 1971, a team was in trouble. One man wounded and weather conditions so bad they wouldn't even send a medivac out to them. I guess CPT Ohle may have called up B Troop 2/17 Cav and asked for volunteers, at any rate he got a slick to go out with a McGuire Rig to pull the wounded guy on strings. There was no plan to land and picking up the guy (SGT Trujillo) on strings would not require a medic, but someone was hurt and Steve grabbed his aid bag and jumped on the chopper "just in case" he could help. They picked up SGT Trujillo in the McGuire Rig and were headed back when the helicopter suddenly crashed a short way from the Airbase.

No one really knows what happened, tho they think the pilot had "vertigo" and simply flew straight into the ground. B Troop 2/17 Cav lost 4 brave men that had probably volunteered for a mission the Medivac "wouldn't" touch. The Rangers lost 3 men; LT Smith who had volunteered to fly bellyman for the strings extraction, SGT Trujillo who was still hanging in the McGuire Rig, and one Steven Glenn England who went along just in case he could help. It was the only time during my tour I cried.