Q: I know many Marines had a "Death before Dishonor" tattoo saying, did the Vietnamese Marines use this?

A: According to a South Vietnamese reporter who accompanied the 1st Battalion's 4th Company, a Vietnamese Marine platoon leader, Third Lieutenant Nhut, led his men supported by a tank into a pagoda in Hue ( TET 68 ) from which to launch the assault on the school. After a supporting air strike on the enemy positions, Lieutenant Nhut suddenly dashed forward toward an abandoned house, halfway between the school and the pagoda. Enemy automatic fire cut the lieutenant down. The company commander shouted over the radio: 'I never told anyone to charge ahead yet. I told everyone to wait . . . .' He then reported to the battalion commander 'the loss of a 'big child'' [referring to a 'comrade in arms']. During a lull in the fighting, a small group of Marines recovered Nhut's body and equipment. On the helmet was the inscription

"Live beside you, darling, die beside buddies."

The reporter later learned that this was the slogan of the 4th Company.

The Definitive year 1968