Khe Sanh Veterans Association Inc.
Red Clay
Newsletter of the Veterans
who served at Khe Sanh Combat Base,
Hill 950, Hill 881, Hill 861, Hill 861-A, Hill 558
Lang-Vei and Surrounding Area
Issue 49 Spring 2001
Short Rounds
Home
In This Issue
Notes from Editor and Board Operation Gold Star Incoming
Memoirs
Health Matters In
Memoriam
A Sprinkling of your Poetry Charlie-Med
Reunion 2001
From November of 1965 thru November of 1966, I was with MACV-Advisory Teams 3&4, stationed at Quang-Tri. I was a SSG E-6, in charge of radio communications from the DMZ to Danang. The unit operated 19 radio sites and had 51 radio operators. Those sites included Gio-Lind, Cam-lo, Con Thien, Dong-Ha and Khe Sanh. My assignment required that I visit all of these sites. Like many soldiers did, I took along my trusty camera. I took many pictures, including several outstanding pictures of the layout of the KSCB. Unfortunately, on April 19, 1966, a flood destroyed 14 rolls of film and many notebooks, which contained a daily diary of my tour. I also lost personal items including my military medals, which I have since replaced. I did rescue some pictures and am reasonably sure that they are from the KSCB in May or June of 1966. I hope they can be printed in the next edition of Red Clay.
In August or September of 1966, the 1st ARVN Infantry Division mounted an operation, from Dong-Ha, Con-Thien, Gio- Linh, Cam-Lo, Long-Vei and Khe Sanh. It was intended to clear the area where Laos, Vietnam and the Ho-ChiMein trail joined. For awhile, the ARVN held their own. The G-2 section saw a different trend developing. Several weeks into the operation, a meeting was held between General Westmoreland and General Walt. They decided the ARVN forces had taken on way more then they were capable of handling on their own.
Two crack units of regular NVA soldiers, the 802 and 806 Division, were decimating the ARVN troops. General Walt committed 10,000 Marines in less than 72 hours. This was the start of the operations at Khe Sanh that lasted well into the siege. We are all aware of what occurred after the Marines were committed.
One of the pictures shows the many weapons the Marines had seized during operations around CamLo. I sure hope you can use the few pictures I managed to salvage; I wish I had more to share. After being replaced in October of 1966, I returned to the States and served 14 years, 9 Months and 27 days. One of these days I have to make a reunion.
Semper Fi
Cecil Cumberland
MACV ADV TM 3&4
***
We Cared
It is really difficult to express how much we, in aircrew, cared about the grunts that we put in and carried out. We were all to well aware that often we were the only ones that stood between them and death. It was a very individualistic feeling, that if my aircraft isn't ready, and I'm not there, the grunts die. I never felt, "Screw it, if I don't do it, somebody else will." There was never someone else, only little old me. Quite a load of responsibility for a 19-year-old to carry. It certainly explains the mania for perfection and intolerance over simple human mistakes and foibles that PTSD victims show to their families, friends and at the job.
Ron Zaczek
VMO-3
***
Looking for Friends
While at Khe Sanh in 1968, serving with Golf Company 1/26, I contacted malaria. When we were finally relieved, I was sent to Danang and assigned to an NVA prisoner camp. While running a patrol out of that immediate area, we were ambushed and I was wounded. I never knew what happened to the rest of the patrol and would love to have anyone who was there contact me.
Roger Hildreth
G Co 2/26
***
While serving with H&S Company 1/26 at Khe Sanh in March or April of 1968, Cpl. Carl Bogley and myself were heading to Charlie Med to see what sort of goodies we could scrounge up. New 782 gear, food, water whatever we could find. While approaching the last bunker leading to Charlie Med, we were approached by a new 1st lieutenant. This was not a guess, he was wearing brand new utilities, flak jacket and 782 gear. It was obvious he had just gotten off the C-123 that had landed.
The lieutenant began to question our military bearing. We were about to inform him that this was not the time or place to discuss anything after a plane had just landed. We usually took incoming mortar fire. Bogey and I ran to the closest bunker. As I turned in the doorway to tell the lieutenant to do the same thing, I saw him get hit by incoming mortar fire.
Both Bogey and I ran to him and saw he had numerous wounds to his upper body. We began to apply pressure to his wounds to stop the bleeding as best we could. The wounded lieutenant kept yelling "I'm dying," Over and over. We told him that he would be okay that his wounds were mostly from concussion. We kept talking to him to help prevent shock and put a helmet under his head. While applying pressure to his wounds, his head slipped off the helmet and hit hard against the ground. This really made me feel bad. It caused him additional pain. His bleeding began to slow and we knew he was going into shock. Fortunately, a corpsman a. arrived and began giving the lieutenant medical attention.
I did not know what unit the lieutenant was going to be assigned to, or, if he even survived his wounds. He had previously inquired as to the location of battalion supply, if that is a helpful clue.
Lieutenant, if you are alive and read this article, please contact me. If anyone else knows of his fate, please contact me. It has been haunting me since 1968 and I need some closure.
R.D. Collins
H&S CO 1/26
***
I, too, was a part of the "Hill Fights" of April 1967. I flew a "huey" gunship (Klondike) of VMO-6 and was the flight leader mentioned on 27 April 1967 who tried to cover the insertion of two CH46's with recon teams west of Hill 881N. I have been haunted for 32 years by the memory of that flight leader getting hit from only 10 meters away by a 12.7 mm bunkered gun in the tree line, causing it to crash. I have since talked to the pilot of the second CH-46 and his kinds words have been a closure for me. There is nothing in my life that has meant more, nor will there ever be, than the bond of brotherhood forged in the fires of my tour in 1967, especially at Khe Sanh. I have wanted to someday simply stand at the site of the former base, and just listen to the quiet, without fear of dying. Maybe some day I will. Semper Fi from one who knows each one of you, my brothers, was worth giving my life for. May God give you peace and rest?
J.W.P
Hawaii
***
Cam Lo Battle Won Despite Odds
It should have been an impossible battle, an under-strength Marine rifle platoon against a reinforced North Vietnamese Army battalion. But the Leathernecks won.
They not only bettered the enemy at Cam Lo, but also severely mauled the battalion while killing 111 NVA regulars and capturing 31. The NVA abandoned more than 100 weapons on the battlefield and also left quantities of explosives and other equipment.
The fighting erupted at 0215 hours on 2 February 1968 with an NVA mortar and recoilless rifle assault on the Cam Lo district headquarters. One day earlier, two squads of the Fourth Marine Regiment had taken over the defenses of the small outpost.
Intelligence reports indicated an enemy unit of unknown strength might attack the headquarters during the TET holidays. "We took about 100 to 120 rounds of 82mm mortars right off," said Capt. Raymond E. McMaken, of Macon, Ga., the deputy senior U.S. Army advisor in the Cam Lo District. "Then the communications bunker took a direct hit." The round that pierced the communications bunker killed the senior Army advisor. McMaken made his way to the bunker to adjust the artillery fires around the compound. "I worked the arty right up to our wires," said McKaken. "We ringed the compound completely with fire. "Between those tremendous Marines and the artillery, the compound was saved," he said.
Two Army quad-50 caliber machine guns on the southern perimeter were destroyed in the initial outburst of NVA fire. Then the Marine lines to the northwest were hit hard by rockets, recoilless rifle fire, heavy machine guns, and small arms, then by NVA human wave-type assaults. "The Marines just stacked them up on the wires," said McMaken. "They were magnificent, they held the line and stacked the NVA in piles." When one sector of the compound seemed certain of being overrun, five Marines rushed across the compound and took over a machine gun bunker. They got a .30 caliber gun into action and killed 15 NVA on the wires in front of them. An enemy round struck their bunker, wounding all five, but they held their positions.
A Marine in the observation tower on the northwestern perimeter was firing into the massed NVA when an enemy bullet hit the barrel of his weapon. Another bullet pierced his flak jacket, but failed to harm him. Lance Cpl. Lawrence M. Eades, of Portland Ore., a company clerk with Combined Action Company Papa, at Cam Lo, demonstrated he was an excellent machine gunner as well.
When the headquarters was attacked, Eades stacked 24 NVA on the wires in front of his gun position before the battle was over. "When we were hit, I grabbed my M-16 and an M-60 machine gun and ran to my position on the northwest side of the perimeter," said Eades, "You could see NVA all over the place, running back and forth along our defensive wires. Many were carrying crude Bangalore torpedoes or satchel charges. I sat down the machine gun and began firing."
The enemy managed a 20-foot path through the wire. They were within 15 meters of the Marine lines, and threatening to overrun the perimeter. According to Capt. Peter D. Haines, of Columbus, Ohio, the CAP company commander, Eades jumped upon the parapet and began firing into the enemy who had crept up to the Marine lines. "I thought sure he'd be hit," said Haines. "He was silhouetted against a burning building. He stood right out there in the open and stacked the enemy on the wires."
Eades was wounded by enemy grenades but stayed on the machine gun until a relief force arrived the next morning. Before dawn he had fired nearly 3,500 rounds of ammunition. During lulls in the fighting, he carried bandages and ammunition to other Marines. According to Eades, the enemy had crept so close that he couldn't depress his gun sights enough to hit them. They had crept into a small hollow a few yards in front of him. The only way he could shoot them was to climb up above them and shoot down into the NVA.
Lance Cpl. Richard C. Wall of Pleasant Grove, Utah was another stalwart in the Cam Lo defense. He ran among his men, exposed to enemy fire, shouting orders to the fire team while firing into a hedgerow to his front and pitching grenades at the enemy. When the firing slackened near daylight, the Marines redistributed their ammunition and patched up their wounds. Then, a reaction force arrived, supported with tanks to begin mopping up the battlefield.
Outside of a few Army advisors, some Marine engineers and the headquarters personnel of CAC Papa, the platoon had been the only defense for the district headquarters. The Cam Lo defenders had practically annihilated a company of North Vietnamese regulars. According to Haines, the North Vietnamese had plans for a big celebration following their ill-fated assault. "We captured an enemy flag with all the unit officers' names penned on it," he said, "We also found a bugle on the battlefield."
Captured equipment included ten machine guns, two recoilless rifles, nearly a hundred individual weapons, several hundred pounds of explosives, hundreds of Chi-com grenades and numerous intelligence documents.
Kelley
2/94
***
I just wanted to write and say thanks for sharing your photos of Khe Sanh Valley. I enjoyed reading your story about Khe Sanh. The photo titled "Khe Sanh from Dong Ha" shows the road I was traveling when the VC ambushed us, and I was critically wounded on March 25, 1967. I was a Marine Sniper headquartered out of 3/3 stationed at Camp J.J. Carroll. At the time of the ambush, my partner and I were attached to the 1 lth Engineers who were building bridges back that the French had blown up when they pulled out of Vietnam. We thought we had it pretty good with the Engineers. Two hot meals a day and camping along the river where we could bathe every evening. Since we were both short timers, we wanted to stay attached to the Engineers until our time to rotate. Our only duty was to go up in the hills above the engineers while they worked, and observe the area for any VC activity. Everything was pretty quite until the morning of the 25th. We were riding out to the worksite on a twin forty who was doing a mine search of the road before the Engineers came out with their equipment. After just a few miles out, we were ambushed by a large number of VC. I think the 3 crew members on the twin 40 were killed, my partner was shot one time through the stomach, and, when I attempted to go to his aid, I was hit seven times by rifle fire and received some wounds from grenades. I was in critical condition on the USS Sanctuary for over nine weeks.
The bridges they were building back were just outside of Khe Sanh a few miles. I was on a convoy two or three times that came into Khe Sanh. It was pretty rough traveling, the best I can remember, without the bridges being completed. I heard from some of my buddies several months later and was told that the ambush was the beginning of all the fighting that took place the last of April and May 1967. I thought I would never see that place again until [ found your pictures. I showed them to my son and family and they, too, saw approximately where I was wounded. Thanks again for sharing them with me and glad you made it home.
Conley E. Bailey
603 Old Stage Road
Church Hill, TN 37642
Ph. (423) 357-4194
E-Mail; [email protected]
***
I was a Navigator on the Marine C-130's coming into Khe Sanh in '67 and '68. First landing was May 8, 1967. We took a body bag out from a shed at the end of the runway. Seems no plane before us wanted to carry the body out, but my Navy instructor at the time was a Master Sgt from WWII and many island invasions. He wouldn't let our Plane Captain refuse to carry the body out. I wasn't on another Khe Sanh trip until Dec 67. We had lots of landings, most of them hot, medevacs, and lots of incoming. January was the same. It seemed we were constantly going into Khe Sanh. We took two 155 Howitzers out and thought we would never get off the ground. We had an after-dark landing to bring in gas masks late in January. Did it all with no lights. Feb 10, 1968 was when 813 was shot down. We lost most of the crew, four passengers and didn't go back in after that. The radio operator was my roommate. We should never have stayed after the Tet of 1968. I always say there were three wars. 1959-1965, 1966-1968 and 1969 1973. I have some pictures somewhere of coming into Khe Sanh from the air.
Russ Tucker
***
I served as a Medic with the Army 1st Bn., 61st Bde. 5th Mech. Inf. Div. in Khe Sanh just shortly after Tet in 1968 and throughout 1969. I fondly remember the tall elephant grass, the sign someone left behind which I believe stated "Chicago 9,000 Miles." A waterfall, I believe, just entering the Khe Sanh area. The concrete bunker was still there as late as August 1969.
On February 27, 1969, I remember being in a B-52 AF customized "foxhole" with 38 casualties half of them burned by sapper squads which had overrun our eastern flank, and if it had not been for Snoopy and its awesome firepower, I and those 38 casualties would certainly have been listed along with those brave heroes on the Vietnam Memorial. We were planted on Hill 881, and I remember how scared I felt when we left the last village. Vandergrift and we took that long winding road up the Mountain, into Khe Sanh. The mountains were black with death, and we had orders to shoot anything that moved. I remember the road up the mountain was also strung with destroyed military vehicles everywhere one looked.
The night of February 27, after 6 hours of battle, we suffered 6 KIA's and the enemy 247. The next morning there were bodies everywhere, and we just gathered those closest to the base camp, and piled them into a PC. I was so exhausted that I went to sleep face down in the red dirt, and was awoken just as we were about to depart the area. We had captured what appeared to be three giant mounds of enemy weapons. As we traveled out of the area each mound was ignited into a huge fireball that was observed several miles down the road. That was not the first nor the last of the NVA that we were to experience, but it was the closest to hand-to-hand combat I have ever come to, and i can tell you truthfully that the infantry training I received in basic training would not have meant a hell of a lot! I am probably the luckiest Medic you will ever know. I can count 18 times that I know of where a projectile of some variable type either was within a second or a fraction of an inch from killing me. My other best friends, John E. Lutze, Flint, MI, and Michael H.Flood, Toledo, IL, both Army Medics are listed on the wall. I congratulate all of you on your return home. I am most grateful to God that we made it home safely. Thank you.
Douglas R. "Doc" Haney
[email protected]
***
I was in the 1st MOB outfit that installed the TACAN and Beacon. My home base was in the Philippines, but we spent all our time in the field. I remember when the First Marines came in to start taking over from the Green Beret A Team in September 1966. We Air Force guys stole a case of steaks that the Marine Corps used to send to you guys in the field. Nine of us ate 48 steaks. This is the first time I can thank some Marine for that great meal. While we were pigging out right next to the perimeter, some poor grunt was marching his post, Just outside the wire bitching about the good food we flyboys get. I felt like a bastard then and worse now. If we had owned up to it then, we would have been fragged.
Our 20-man tent was right next to the wire on the side opposite the runway. The really ironic part was we flyboys were in a tent while the Marine air controllers lived in a hooch built by the Seabees right next door. They had a great dog who used to keep the rats out of their hooch but chased them next door to you know who. I guess that was fair justice for the steaks. We tried everything to kill those huge bastards. Nothing worked until I got a care package from Grandma with homemade Pepperoni. The skins would be so taut the rats would fight like hell to get it out of the traps. We would line the dead bodies up for the Marines to inspect the next morning. One night, I heard a scraping noise next to my cot and put the light on a huge rat dragging a C-rats carton across the wood floor. Just like he was going to take it to his house and sit down to a great meal. I bet the bastard had a can opener waiting.
Michael Losquadro
ED NOTE: Mike If you got steaks from Marines, it wasn't theirs to begin with.
***
Ontos
I was in Khe Sanh from May 1967 until the end of November 1967. I was an Ontos crewman. My unit was 2nd Platoon, "A" Company, 3rd Antitank Battalion, 3rd Marine Division. I came into country October 28, 1966. I was assigned to Charlie Company, which was stationed on "Finger 5" next to Hill 55, in the Danang area. I was assigned to 2nd Platoon which was at An Hoa, where there was a small airstrip that could handle planes up to the size of C-123's. Monsoon season made the roads a mire of deep mud that only Amtrak's could easily traverse.
For those who don't know what an Ontos is (or should I say was, as they are no longer in service), it's a nine-and-a-half-ton tracked vehicle armed with six 106mm recoilless rifles, four .50 caliber spotter rifles, and a .30 cal (Browning) machine gun. Ideally, a crew of three manned each vehicle; some vehicles only had two crewman. The Ontos has half inch thick armor, that will stop .30 cal. and below. The Ontos has a top (governed) speed of 25 mph. It was 'highly maneuverable. It was originally designed as a tank killer.
In 'Nam, we use HEPT (High Explosive Plastic Tracer) rounds mostly, and some HEAT (High Explosive Antitank) rounds. When we got the Beehive rounds, they were very effective for clearing out tree lines of enemy snipers. The 106mm Beehive round contained 9500 flechettes. There was a variable fuse on the nose of the round that let you set the detonation from "M.A." (Muzzle Activating), where the fired round would go out 75 meters and then detonate, or the fuse could be set to detonate the round at different distances up to 3300 meters. The M.A. setting was reliable. The other settings were not always as reliable.
We had trouble getting parts for our vehicles, especially the hard, rubber-tired steel "road wheels" that rode on the tracks. Chunks of rubber would break off these road wheels. In monsoon season, we would take 30-weight oil and paint it all over the 106's, .50's, and the .30 cal. to keep them from rusting.
At Delmar in Camp Pendleton, we went through Ontos Crewman School. They told us that the word ONTOS is Greek for "Thing." After humping hills at San Onofre ar Pendleton in ITR, (Infantry Training Regiment), I was glad when they pulled a group of us out after the third week of ITR and put us in the Ontos school. It sure beat walking, and you could carry more personal items with you in 'Nam.
The one big drawback is that we tended to draw heavy fire. Fifty-calibers would go through the Ontos easily, and several Ontos were taken out with RPG's. (We lost one Ontos with two crewman in late 1966 [November] to a "wooden shoebox" mine in an area that had been already swept for mines by the daily morning mine sweep. I believe this was Highway 1, "Freedom Road." It's been a long time since I talked about this, so excuse the lapses in memory.) There were five Ontos in a platoon, a platoon commander, a platoon sergeant, a mechanic, and the crewman on the Ontos.
We went to the Bob Hope Christmas Show in Danang in December 1966. In January 1967, we went on a BLT (Battalion Landing Team) with 3/9 (Third Battalion/Ninth Marines) to Camp Hansen in Okinawa via ship. We left Danang Harbor at 2:30am when the Marines on board were sleeping. The next morning, out to sea, 90% of the Marines were seasick. Most had never been on a ship before. The "green" Marines were using the heads, sinks, showers, and any other available receptacles. The sailors were not very happy about this. I'll never forget that first morning breakfast on that ship--"creamed eggs!" (I declined.) To this day, I have never heard of "creamed eggs."
We refurbished our vehicles and equipment in Okinawa and after five weeks, we headed back to Vietnam on another ship. (I believe the first ship was the AKA-106, [Attack Cargo Transport?]) maybe named the USS Cabildo? The ship we took back to 'Nam was an LSD (Landing Ship Dock)? The 3rd Mar. Div. had moved up north to the DMZ area, and the 1st Mar. Div. moved up to the Danarig area. Our platoon was then attached to "A" Company, 3rd Antitank Battalion. We were in Camp Carroll for a short time. One vehicle and crew went to another unit, supposedly temporarily, but we never saw them again. Two vehicles and crew went to Gio Linh, and two vehicles and crew, with the platoon commander and platoon sergeant, went to Khe Sanh. I was in Gio Linh.
Gio Linh was 2100 meters from the DMZ. Con Thien was seven miles east of us. At Gio Linh, everything was dug down in holes and bunkers as every night between 11:00am and 1:00am, the VC would drop mortars on our small firebase--average 20-30 a night. They were close enough that you could hear them dropping them in the tubes with the "cadunk" sound, then the whistling as the round came in, and then the explosion of detonation.
One afternoon, we mounted up, and a large entourage of grunts, two tanks, two Dusters with their twin 40mm's, and our two Ontos, left the perimeter of Gio Linh and went out to the fire break to await large helicopters bringing in large wooden towers. The firebreak at this time was 200 meters wide and was bare dirt. (Many years later I found out how this was cleared--Agent Orange.) The firebreak was ultimately supposed to be 800 meters wide, going from Gio Linh to Con Thien, and was to have a series of manned wooden towers along its border. The idea was to keep the NVA from filtering down from the North through this area. I believe they gave up on that project. That day, when we were all on line sitting in the scorching sun on the bare dirt of the fire break waiting for the choppers with the wooden towers, we were told it was 140 degrees.
We started taking mortar fire from the north. After numerous close rounds to our troops and vehicles, the enemy ceased firing after artillery from Gio Linh fired on their positions. Finally, a large chopper brought in a wooden tower and placed it on the firebreak. At Gio Linh, the Army had four 175mm artillery pieces. They had very long barrels, and were on tracks. These were on the north perimeter. The Marines had five 105mm towed units, set up in the usual large circle-shaped battery position.
One day, we took a couple of incoming enemy rockets. That was odd, as we were only used to the nightly mortar attacks. And then one evening around 6:30pm when I was going to late chow after my two fellow Ontos crewman (Sgt. Mac from Chicago and L/Cpl Reavis from Indiana) returned from chow to relieve me from our position on the south perimeter, I was in the large GP (General Purpose) tent that was dug down;into a large three foot deep hole. I was in the process of declining the slop that was being served, figuring I'd go back and eat some "C Rats," when what sounded like a screaming Phantom jet with its afterburners on, went over my head, and exploded out in the minefield and wire on our perimeter. Another Phantom jet went screaming over my head and exploded. I then realized it wasn't a Phantom--it was enemy artillery. I expected them to drop several rounds on us and then stop, but it just kept coming and coming. I had been shot at with small arms, mortared, and been in rocket attacks, but this was the worst. The incoming scream of those rounds was terrifying and something I shall never forget, because you know they are either going to get you, or they are not, and there isn't much you can do to prevent it except pray.
During one lull in between rounds, there were about four of us hunkered down in a corner of that big, wide hole of the mess tent--we heard a Marine calling for help. We looked up, and saw a Marine that was not hit, but obviously suffering from shell concussion. He was in a daze. We told him to get down in the hole with us, but he either couldn't hear us or was just too dazed to understand. We grabbed his hands, and just as we pulled him down into the hole, a round came in, and exploded behind us about fifty feet away, fortunately above ground, and not in the big wide hole we were in. The concussion slammed us down into the corner of the hole and temporarily deafened us for a few minutes. It was like two giant hands coming together on your ears. When rounds hit close, the shrapnel sounded like it was ripping the air. The shelling stopped for a short time. I ran back to my vehicle and fellow crewman. There were craters and shell diameter-sized entry holes in the ground all over. My small bunker and two crewman and Ontos were okay. The only damage suffered to our Ontos was shrapnel cut off the two metal radio antennas, and the ammo can and its belted .30 cal ammo on the machine gun was pierced by a large piece of shrapnel.
I sat on the front of the Ontos that was sitting in a hole dug out by a bulldozer, with the loose dirt pushed up behind. I had the dry heaves as I tried to regain my composure. As a grunt Lt. and Sgt. were checking the lines, the heavy shelling started again. Instead of taking cover in my bunker that was about forty feet away, I opted to take cover underneath my Ontos. I don't know how I got under there wearing my helmet and flak jacket, but I did. {I was a lot slimmer back then.) The grunt Lt. and Sgt. took cover on the ground in the hole at the rear of the Ontos. And the artillery shells kept coming and coming. After awhile, you could just about tell where they were going to land, if they were going to be short or long. They say you never hear the one that gets you. Well, I don't know if you hear it explode, but I heard this one coming. I think my heart stopped for a second, as I stiflened up waiting for the impact, as this round sounded like it was going to be a direct hit on us. It came in screaming, and then their was a "wump" sound, and the ground shook. I held my breath, waiting for the explosion. It didn't explode. The grunt Lt. asked the grunt Sgt. where that round hit. The Sgt told him, "Don't move, I must be sitting on it!"
After another long duration of incoming artillery rounds, it stopped for a few minutes at which time I ran to my bunker, and the two grunt NCOs went back to their positions. We saw that that one incoming round landed in the soft bulldozed-up dirt on our side of the slope, less than ten feet from where we had taken cover. There was a nice round neat hole where it had cut a path downwards into the loose pile of dirt. If that round had gone off, we probably would have been scattered over the countryside. We later learned that there was an NVA artillery battery (or two) which dropped approximately 2000 rounds on our small firebase in a 1 O-hour attack. They were dropping point-detonating and delayed fuse shells on us. The first rounds made direct hits on three of the Army's 175mm guns, and the fourth 175mm's powder pit was on fire, taking it out also.
Those extremely brave Marines in that 105ram artillery battery kept firing and were basically out in the open in the waist-high sandbag wall of the large circle containing their guns. One by one, the NVA artillery took them and their guns out. When everybody else was hunkered down, these guys were standing at their guns firing back as fast as they could. Those were some brave guys.
Both of our ammo dumps had been hit and were on fire, with our own ordnance detonating. It was pure hell that night. All our artillery was gone. We had two Ontos, two tanks, two twin 40 dusters, and on 81mm mortar. That was the extent of our heavy weapons. Our wire and large mine field on our perimeter was pretty chewed up with some of the rounds landing there, and detonating out mines. We expected a ground attack during the darkness. All the other firebases were getting hit at the same time, so they could not support us with any artillery fire.
A couple hours after it started, we got a couple of Bird Dog spotter planes coming in from the south but when they got close to us, the NVA were shooting air bursts at them and coming close. After midnight, we got two Phantoms in that dropped their ordnance but when they came into the area, the NVA stopped shooting. When the Phantoms left to rearm, the NVA started on us again. The Phantoms were never able to locate the exact position of the NVA artillery. We had heavy casualties. We did get a medevac chopper in for some of the wounded. Heat tabs that burn with a very low blue flame, were arranged in a large circle to mark the LZ (Landing Zone). Just after the medevac took off, and cleared the LZ with the wounded, the NVA zoned in on the LZ and dropped several rounds on it, but didn't get the medevac.
All night, the artillery continued. It was constant. My Ontos Commander, Sgt. Mac, who was on his second tour, was a tough, lean, black Marine. He told me he had been raised Catholic but wasn't very religious. Sgt. Mac was even praying that night! Just before daylight, the shelling stopped. We came out of our holes. It seemed like almost every square yard of the ground was covered by jagged pieces of metal shrapnel, like leaves on the ground in the fall. Everything was blown up. I was so happy just to be alive. We were at Gio Linh for two months. That morning we left, and went to Camp Carroll.
A short time later, we were informed that our Platoon Commander was killed on Hill 861 while he was in a five man recon team. This was the precursor to the "Hill Battles." Our Platoon Commander was 1st Lt. Phillip Sauer. When I first came into the unit, he was a 2nd Lt. He was a gung ho Marine. He always wanted to personally get into the action. I was told that when he was going to go up Hill 861 to see if he could get the "pigs" (Ontos) up there, they tried to talk him into taking an M-14 or one of our "grease guns"' (.45 cal. submachine gun). He declined and took his beloved Colt .45 auto that he had the armorer tighten up in Okinawa. You know the rest of the story--he covered the escape of the Marines left alive in the five-man team with his .45. I was told that he was cut in half by a .50 or .51 caliber NVA machine gun, and that they recovered half his body eight days later. He was put up for a Navy Cross. His family was from the East Coast.
Anyway, I ended up at Lejeune for a couple of months after getting back to the world, and then got orders for HMX-1, Marine Helicopter Squadron One (Presidential Helicopter) as a Marine Security Guard. I flew with the Vice President (Spiro Agnew) twice. After 17 months in HMX-1 at Quantico and the subunit at Anacostia (U.S Naval station Washington D.C.), I got orders for NSA (National Security Agency) at Marine Barracks, Fort Meade, Maryland where I finished my four years in the USMC, April 28, 1970. The names of some of the guys in my 2nd Platoon, 3rd A.T.'s: Cpl Yates, Snead, Reavis, Sgt. Mac, Bosman (or Bozeman) (Saul Bozeman and another), our mechanic Chapin, Cpl Wright, Peterson, Rupert from California, Pucci from New York, and Ray Updyke from Pennsylvania.
R. Scott Berry
SEMPER FI
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I was one of the first dozen or so to arrive at Las Pulgas that day and be notified that we were forming a new unit to be designated 1/26, 5th Mar Div--the old Iwo Jima Regiment. Gee, I thought we were going to form the 3rd MP Battalion! You mean we're going to be grunts? The humping never stopped. BLT 1/26 on the Iwo Jima, Thomason and Vancover. Jungle training in the Philippines.
No one who was there will ever forget that morning. A "now hear this" called us on deck in full 782 gear. We stood silently at attention as our BLT steamed slowly by on a sea flat as glass. Only the sound of utilities and colors rustling in the light breeze. Towering over us was Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima. Everyone understood.
And life would never be the same again. Here's to my brothers from D 1/26 and to 3rd squad third platoon. For Dexter, Bell, Anderson, West, Backburg, Miller KIA. To Stoddard's and Lenor 3/5 KIA. To Sgt Smith, Sgt Hall, Cpl Gunzell, Doc Curtis, Lawson, Chance, Starnes, Ebson, Ponce, Lynn, Taylor, Wyatt, Godfrey, Bell, Baxter, Bieleski, "Lurch" Hill, Doc Donady, Doc Evans. And to my friend Cpl Harold V. Armour C 1/26, we left that old high school and our friends to finish growing up in Vietnam. I love you all.
SEMPER FI.
Gregg Arthur/Peabody
[email protected]
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I took part in Lam Son 719 as a loadmaster on C130's. Not a pretty sight. Many of the Viet regulars wanted to be run over by vehicles to avoid being ferried by Hueys into the battle to cut the trail. We worked long and hard to get the units in place. I think we lost 78 hueys on the first day. Kinda made me glad I was in the Air Force. We saw action all over the country but it was pretty tense in the north and in Cambodia. Thanks for the opportunity to say something.
Gary W. Finch
Lam Son 179
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Valentine's Ridge
By: Ray (DOC) Felle
This is my account of the battle on Valentine's Ridge, which started on 14Feb68 and continued to 15Feb68. In this report there has been input from the Battalion Surgeon, first platoon commander, first and second platoon members, S-3 reports and family of the KIA.
We left Ca Lu on 13Feb68 for what was soon to be known as Valentine's Ridge. This is a small 200-meter hill approximately one mile west of Ca Lu combat base and 8 miles east of Khe Sanh combat base. The coordinate is XD990445 to XD978455 running North and South terminating at the Quang Tri River. At 1600 on 14Feb68 all three platoons and the command group started up the side of this hill with first platoon on the southern flank (nearest the river). Shortly after leaving a groomed trail second and third platoon received 50 cal. machine gun, automatic weapons and mortar fire. We received rocket, mortar and small arms fire, wounding several men. This was an NVA blocking force set in place to prevent tanks and supplies traveling up Rt. 9 to the besieged Khe Sanh. At this time we were isolated from part of our platoon (first) and could not see second or third. Our actions involved calling in fighter jets, destroying a rocket launching position, caring for the wounded, and securing our area. Contact was lost with the command group early in the battle. They had taken a direct hit killing or mortally wounding our CO, XO and Chief Corpsman, Capt. Ward, Lt. Reese and HM2 Goss. Under the leadership of our platoon commander, Lt. John Holladay, we moved off the hill and to a secure location on Rt. 9, waiting for reinforcements and tending to the wounded. At 0200 on 15Feb68, first platoon moved down Rt. 9 towards Ca Lu collecting men separated from second and third platoons and meeting up with India company. What was left of first platoon made it back to Ca Lu at 0300 hours. At daybreak, I took 8ram pictures of fighter jets dropping high explosives and napalm on Valentine's Ridge.
India and Kilo companies moved off the ridge by the end of that day with a loss of 11 Marines and many wounded. This is part of the story about that day and each has his own. I wanted to tie together all that lost their life and to say that I'm sorry for them and their families. The names below are the ones that I have researched and believe to be correct.
Capt. Alexander Ward 2nd Lt. William Reese HM2 Larry Goss PFC Fredrick Bungartz
CPL Lowell Combs CPL Dennis Flemming LCPL Mark James PFC Melvin Jones
PFC Barry Rigsby LCPL Jeffrey Wentzell CPL David Schneider
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