145 days, 9 Jan/68, Tues
They’ve got the 269th cornered down by the river! Two battalions
of ARVNs have then wedged in on two sides and there are 4 Recon companies – the
49th for one – on the others side of the river, to prevent the VC
form crossing. The 1/27 and 2/27 are on the way to the area. Before the 49th
went to the other side, they captured a huge supply of VC ammo. There should be
a battle tomorrow!
We went out to the edge of the swamps today, and thought we spotted two
companies of VC, and nearly called in artillery before we learned that they
were actually the 49th Recon on the way to finding the ammo.
Sure, they shoot at us a lot, but calling artillery on them wouldn’t be
Cricket. We’ve learned more about the night before last. They captured the
Executive Officer (2nd in command) of the 257th VC
battalion.
Last night they overran 3 of the 9 outposts that they attacked in Trang Bang,
and blew out a vital bridge. Not bad work for two nights in a row.
Back to the night before last; the confirmed body count – bodies found and
brought back to B.T. – is finally at 184!. That’s in addition to the 150-200
they saw being carried away – either dead or wounded. I’d say the town, Recon,
and the choppers hurt Charlie bad that night, even though he did manage to
inflict quite a bit of damage himself.
We drove through the town on the way out this morning and it seems that
almost every house and building has at least one mortar hole in the rood or
yard. The concrete water tower is full of bullet holes (no leaks) and it took 3
RPG2 rounds. Why were they shooting at a water tower? There are two .50 caliber
machine guns and a mortar on top of it – ARVN and friendly. The VC failed to
knock it out and those .50s worked all night. Beautiful position for them; they
shot all over town.
144 days, 10 Jan/68, Wed.
One year in the Army – one year to go!
Charlie doesn’t give up easy. He hit Duc Hoa last night, almost as hard as
he hit here the other night. As a diversion, he hit us at the same time – about
12:00. It was just a “normal” attack. Lasted only an hour or so – no VC in the
town or anything, just about 50 rounds of mortar fire. The mess hall took the
compound’s only hit – in the same place as the other night – just a hole in the
roof. If they don’t quit hitting the mess hall, they’ll probably thing it’s us
doing the bombing.
We went out late this afternoon to hunt for a weapons cache. Didn’t find
it. We did shoot a VC as he ran from a hedgerow. He had tow grenades in his
pocket. We shot at a couple of other running suspects, but missed; you could
hardly see them, let alone shoot them, as far away as they were.
Also last night and today, the 1/27 & 2/27 working together killed 109
VC and lost only 5 Americans. The report about the 269 being cornered was false
– they’re still on the loose, but have been reduced by about 294.
143 days, 11 Jan/68, Thurs.
They’re still talking about the night of the 8th. Hicks is
supposed to be getting a Silver Star for holding off those 10 or so VC trying
to cross the road. I think that’s a rather high award for someone just doing
his job.
Everyone figures that the VC weren’t trying to overrun the compound, but
trying to raid and harass the town people, showing that we don’t actually
protect them. Makes sense. We went out today in the late afternoon, and walked
about 8 clicks in less than 3 hours – didn’t see anything but scenery.
They’ve started a tower guard every night. Two people go up on the water
tower in the middle of town (4 ARVNs are up there all the time). Our tow guys
will call artillery on any mortar sighted during any attack. The muzzle flashes
from the mortars are sometimes visible from the tower. My two nights are the 15th
and 17th of this month. The guard will go until the 26th.
142 days, 12 Jan/68, Fri.
I filled out my “Dream Sheet” in Cu Chi today. Just a little form every one
can fill out where you say how many days leave you want or have owed to you
(47) and where you want to go for your next duty assignment (Fort
Know).
There is no guarantee that you’ll get either; hence the name Dream Sheet.
Lt. Enbody is all right during day operations, but at night . . . ! Last
night we went out at dusk to the same area where we saw the two companies on
Christmas Day. We saw 4 or 5 figures about 1500 meters away and the Lt. called
artillery. A few scared farmers began running id different direction and he
told us to shoot at them – they were out of effective range!
We shot, and is so doing gave away our position in the area. That’s not
all. Next we all walked into the area in a long line – 50 men abreast – begging
for an ambush or something. We got right to the edge of the swamp and here,
where we needed fire power, he allowed only the 3 machine guns to spray the
area.
Next, we began walking along the edge of the swamp – where we had just
fired – for about 100 meters. If there had been any large force out there . . .
. Somebody finally tried to do something
sensible and decided to head back into B.T., since most of our machine gun ammo
was gone and we had given our presence away.
The ARVNs began lighting stacks of dried rice stalks for some unknown
reason – probably to illuminate the area in case Charlie tried to follow us.
All it did was draw some fairly heavy sniper fire on our position, and we had
to nearly run back to B.T.
As I said, if there had been a large force in the area, we would have been
done for. I think Bao Trai would be better off and so would we, if we’d spend
our nights at home rather than out in the boonies.
141 days, 13 Jan/68, Sat.
This morning there was a memorial service for Story, Hanson, and
Lightbourne – the 3 guys killed in the Jan 8th attack. The rest of
the day has been lazy. The ARVNs in the artillery compound behind us were
burning trash and caught the dye rice fields on fire. The fire crept onto the
berm and threatened our ammo bunker. About 4 guys grabbed extinguishers off the
jeeps and began trying to put it out.
One of the ancient Claymore mines laid out all along the berm got too hot
and went off. Luckily all the fragments went out toward the field as they were
supposed to, but the percussion might have broken Stewart’s eardrum. He’s in Cu
Chi having it checked. This place just isn’t safe anymore.
I found this enclosed clipping in the 25th Division paper. It’s
about the time Broton got shot. Corrections are as follows (there is a large
amount of news censorship here):
·Straub goofed and they
LZ was split and we landed on top of the VC
·This was us. Broton,
etc. (one VC; not too stiff).
·The other group
·One ARVN killed – Anh.
One U.S.
wounded – Broton.
·They were probably the
only VC fighters Straub had seen other than peanut farmers. He had to say they
were the best – they made an all out of him.
The rest is true. Bob
140 days, 14 Jan/68, Sun.
It seems that every Sunday we got the swamp – today was no exception.
Actually we only touched on the edge of it. Soon after we got down, the
gunships spotted something in the dense bushes and began firing all they had,
which lasted for about 15 minutes.
It seemed this was enough. It didn’t look like anything much was in there
except maybe an empty bunker or something. Just to make sure, Mahoe called in
two jets for napalm air strikes. Wow! Those jets are fantastic! You can hardly
see them coming in at tree top level until they’re right there. They drop the
huge napalm bombs like torpedoes, and the area goes up in a ball of flaming
jelly. The thing that surprised me was the lack of mouse when they exploded –
just a mild thump when they ignited on impact. They also dropped some 300 pound
bombs and shot quite a few rounds from the 20 mm cannon.
After the strikes, we went into the area and found a few destroyed bunkers
and sleeping places and several fresh footprints; there had been something
there after all. Not only does the napalm burn the area, but there are also
huge jagged pieces of metal shrapnel a foot or two long that can cut trees in
half – and VC – as they fly through the air.
Here’s the sad part. All this display of force and brilliant color going on
300 meters in front of me, and the camera was in my foot locker – no film. I’ll
probably never see another air strike again (hope not – usually you’re in bad
trouble when the jets are needed). I guess I just missed a good opportunity.
I think they were Voodoo jets, like fly around North America. Glad they’re a
little more reserved around home when they fly around.
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