JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska — On May 24, 1969, near the village of Long Sau, A Lonc Province in Vietnam, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. James Leroy Bondsteel, a platoon sergeant assigned to Company A, 2d Battalion, 2d Infantry, 1st Infantry Division, assembled the Soldiers of his platoon into effective combat teams. Company A had been assigned to assist a unit endangered by a North Vietnamese battalion in a well-equipped base camp.
