June 1967 - July 1968

The photos on this page were donated by Richard Shelby. Richard served at
ASP-1, as you have probably guessed, from June 1967 until July 1968.

The first photo is of L/Cpl Russel "Ralph" Swanhart. "Ralph was killed in the
minefield between ASP-1 and Dogpatch.

Quote from Richard Shelby

Russel James Swanhart (Ralph) was the CO's driver. The evening of
September 12, 1967 we were watching a movie and heard explosions in the
minefield. Several idiots decided to sneak to dogpatch thru the minefield.
These, as you know, were anti-personnel mines aka "bouncing betty" mines
which were basically a mortar round which popped up and detonated. These
guys were mortally wounded. Ralph and several other volunteers went into the
minefield with stretchers to get the moaning remains of the first ones. On the
way back they also tripped a mine and several of the rescuers were mortally
wounded. I don't remember the names of the other Marines, but there were
several wounded who were med-evaced and probably permanently disabled."