During the siege of Khe Sanh, the Vietnam War’s longest and bloodiest battle, artillery and airstrikes pounded the U.S. Marine base day and night. The smell of rotting corpses and napalm was inescapable.
On March 17, 1968, Manny Babbitt was wounded when two rockets exploded next to him on a fog-shrouded airstrip, knocking him unconscious and injuring his head and left hand. The 18-year-old Marine was evacuated by helicopter on top of a load of dead soldiers. Soon after, he was sent back into battle.
Now, 30 years later, Manuel Pina Babbitt finally will receive the Purple Heart he is due–on San Quentin’s Death Row.
“No one can remember anything like that (happening) here . . . on Death Row or otherwise,” said Lt. Joy Macfarlane, spokeswoman for the state prison.
In this case, the prisoner is facing a death sentence for killing a 78-year-old South Sacramento woman in 1980.
Chuck Patterson, a Vietnam veteran and a lawyer, filed the paperwork on Babbitt’s behalf so that the inmate could receive his Purple Heart, the U.S. armed services’ decoration for those wounded or killed in action.
“It’s an opportunity to see Manny recognized for what he did well,” Patterson said Thursday. “He’s someone who kept other people alive. . . . We all depended on each other, and the sense of obligation, of being bonded together, just doesn’t go away.”
The award ceremony is to take place Friday in a private room near the warden’s office at San Quentin.
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Babbitt’s mother and a brother will attend, along with his lawyers and two Marine Corps officials. A few of Babbitt’s pals who fought alongside him at Khe Sanh also will be there. Prison officials at first resisted the request by Babbitt’s lawyers for a ceremony but finally agreed as long as no members of the media were present.
Marines who served with Babbitt say he volunteered to handle dangerous assignments, including foot patrols to check land mines. During his two tours of duty in Vietnam, Babbitt was promoted twice and received numerous commendations.
During the nearly 16 years that Babbitt, 48, has spent on Death Row, he has filed state and federal appeals in hopes of overturning the death sentence.
His defense: a combat-induced stress disorder that probably caused a flashback, or “dissociative state.”
Babbitt was convicted of the murder of Leah Schendel, who died of a heart attack after he struck her during a burglary and attempted rape. He also was convicted of the robbery and attempted rape of a second woman a day later.