May 24, 1962 - The South Vietnamese Seventh Division continued today to inflict heavy casualties on a Communist guerrilla force trapped on the southern edge of the marshy Plain of Reeds. After a two-day battle, the guerrillas had lost 95 dead in their worst defeat in the Mekong delta region since last July, when 169 members of a Communist battalion were hunted down and slain in Kien Tuong Province. Thirty-five guerrillas, including ten wounded, were captured in the latest battle along with a large variety of arms. The Government forces also suffered losses, including at least nine dead. Four Americans, among them Lieut. Col. Frank Butner Clay, senior advisor to the Seventh Division, were wounded, none seriously. It was the second battle wound for Col. Clay, a son of Gen. Lucius D. Clay. In World War II, he was struck in the forehead by a nearly spent bullet during fighting in the Po Valley in Italy.
