Part
4
Duties in Country
One of my first duties upon arrival in country was an assignment as the
Battalion Prosecutor for Courts Martial. Any case requiring military
adjudication was my job. Investigate each case, and then prosecute as
needed. It was a month long assignment and started with two cases.
The first was easy. At this time, and ahead of the civilian courts
system, if charges were made, you only had so many days (30) to actually
prosecute the individual. If the case went more than 30 days without
approval, it was tossed. My first one was at the 30-day limit. I
took it back to the battalion commander who had convened the board and advised
him to use a Field Grade Article 15 action. Almost as much punishment,
but wouldn't be overturned on review for missing the deadlines.
Success with the first promptly got me a new one. Seems we had a soldier
go to Da Nang, and be caught in an Off Limits area with a hooker and drugs.
He was on trial and pleaded innocent after being caught by the MPs while
having sex with the girl.
Paul Cuda (mentioned earlier) was the defense counsel. Neither of us had
lost a case in trial at this point. Paul did!
While we were waiting on the aircraft to arrive from Da Nang harbor, building
continued in the company area. Flight operations was being established
and operational. This was where all flight missions for the aircraft and
crews were put together. When running smoothly, a mission would come in
from Battalion Operations, and be posted on the mission board.
Maintenance would call and give the aircraft that were flyable the next
day. Paul Cuda and I, as platoon leaders, would come in at night, assign
pilots to the aircraft and missions for the next day.
Building Operations Bunker
Flight Operations also posted all the pilots by name and the total hours of
flight time they had during the previous 30-day period. No pilot could
fly more than 120 hours in 30 days before seeing a doctor. If the flight
surgeon cleared the pilot to continue past 120 hours, it would be for 10-hour
increments, up to 140 then automatically grounding. No one could legally
pass 140 hours in a 30-day period.
The 30 day period worked like this: if you flew 8 hours on the first day of the
month and X number of hours a day for 30 days, and did not exceed the 120 hour
mark then on the 31 day you could drop 8 hours (from the first day) from your
total, then fly up to 8 hours, or the total amount of hours to reach 120.
E.g., the 29th day you had a total of 115 hours. The next morning
you dropped 8 hours meaning you had 107 hours in 30 days, and could fly up to
13 hours that day to reach 120. This continued each day, adding and
subtracting, for each pilot. Some nights (missions and crews were posted
at 9 PM for the next day) we would spend an hour trying to find pilots and
times to meet the mission.
Flight Operations was the hub of the aviation unit. It was also the
communications center. All vehicle radios and aircraft radios had
matching sets in operations. All unit communications were run through
Operations. Therefore, a secure area was needed in case of rocket attack,
or sapper attack on our area. I was assigned the mission to secure
operations.
The distance between operations and the supply building next door was about 25
feet wide and 50 ft long. It was just big enough, if packet tightly. A
building on each side would provide a lot of "blast" protection and
require fewer sandbags to secure. Top and both ends were the only
areas to secure, and plenty of room was available.
I secured 12' X 12" timbers 15 foot long. Truck loads of them.
I had a crew dig holes for vertical timbers every 8 feet down the length
of the open area between supply and operations. With the vertical timbers
in place, the roof timbers were next. 12" X 12" timbers were
then run across the vertical timbers, as well as long ways.
By this time viewers would gather, laugh and joke about "Lee’s Folly". I was building a Fort Knox, etc.,
I smiled, and assured each and everyone that when it came time for rockets,
they would NOT be welcome and then we'd see who laughed last!
The sides of the building were lined with steel planking or PSP used for
runways. 1/4 thick sheets of steel, 12 ft long. Each sheet locked
to the other the full length. It was then drilled and nailed with 40-60
penny spikes to hold it in place for the outer walls. (All four sides)
the floor was constructed out of 2 X 6 planking and left rough. The
front end, exposed to the road, was then banked with 15-foot thick sandbag
walls from the ground to the top of the structure.
When the top beams were in place, Steel planking (PSP) was laid across the
beams for the first layer. A rubber mat was next and three rows of
sandbags were added. Another row of PSP, a rubber mat, and another three
rows of sandbags. A third row of PSP, rubber and sandbags completed the
entire roof.
When finished, there were 3 layers of steel, 9 rows of sandbags, and three
layers of rubber for waterproofing. Within days of completion we had our
first rocket attack in the area. When I arrived at the bunker to dispatch
the reactionary forces, there were so many people inside the new "Lee’s
Folly", I couldn't get in!
The next morning we posted a sign " Authorized Personnel Only".
No one was allowed but command, operations and myself as reaction force
leader. My "folly" turned out to be the safest point in camp.
As it turned out, there was only one other bunker built on the base (100,000
personnel) that was built stronger. It was for a 3 star general and the
engineers used concrete walls and bulldozers to move dirt to the sides and top.
Still, with hands, chain saws, we built one almost as good. No one
using it ever complained.
Emergency Resupply
As the Platoon Leader, each night at 9 PM Paul and I would report to Operations
and post the pilots for the next day's mission. We would also post the
night’s emergency flight crew. Two pilots and one aircraft were always on
call for emergency resupply missions at night. The aircraft was
preflighted and made ready before dark. At 9 PM the crew was selected and
notified. They could not drink, and would have 15 minutes to report to
operations if called.
Only one time did we have to use the resupply crews. As luck would have
it, I had forgotten to post the mission and notify the crews. I had not
been drinking, therefore I put myself up, and also the unit safety officer.
He had had a drink or two, but only two by the time I notified him.
It was a foggy, nasty night and we hadn't flown much in three days so I figured
it would be a quiet night. For three days we had been hauling more
sandbags and steel PSP than ammo, so all must be fairly well off on the
Firebases.
At midnight, we got the call. Reese and I went for the aircraft and found
the mission was to haul 155 howitzer ammo to a firebase at the bottom of the
Ashau Valley. Bad guy country.
For this mission, we had flown for 20 minutes to the west to Fire Support Base
Birmingham, picked up the ammo as a sling load, then taking a heading of 210
degrees we flew for 20 minutes and would be at the Fire Base named Spear.
The normal flight altitude was 2500 foot above sea level.
Our altitude to Fire Support Base Birmingham was 4500 foot. We landed and
picked up the load, took off and immediately climbed to 7,000 foot and headed
southwest. As we flew the crew talked of tracers arching under the
aircraft from the ground. A military weapon normally has a range of 1
mile. We were high for a reason.
About 1/2 the way to the firebase I had the feeling the instruments were not
working. I woke Reese up and told him I thought I had a case of Vertigo.
He took the controls and cussed.
From 7,000 foot and 120 kts of airspeed, heading in a SW direction, I went into
a tight turn and spiraled down to 2500 foot when Reese took the controls.
We were lost, and almost dead.
Reese began a climb back up into the passing clouds. And started SW again.
The clouds would give us some protection from ground observation and
heavier weapons. I began calling the pathfinder on the firebase and told
him to have an artillery flare fired directly overhead of the firebase.
An artillery flare is a bright flare (not unlike red roadside flares) and hangs
below a small parachute. It will drift with the wind but is a great light
for an aircraft to fly toward.
As we approached the firebase on the mountaintop, a jeep was turned on to light
the area where they wanted us to place the load. We started what should
have been a normal approach to landing. Somehow, we terminated the
approach at 300 ft above the base. We descended straight down, dropped
the load and turned, climbing out to return home. So far, so good.
The flight home should be no problem. The old imperial city of Hue was
due west of Phu Bai. We were above the clouds for most of the trip.
If we kept the city of Hue to our Right Front we would fly by it, turn
east, a couple of miles and we would be home.
By the time we got past Hue, something wasn't right. I called Phu Bai
tower, an Air Force and naval runway to the north of our helipad and asked for
the NDB frequency and to spot us on radar. After a chewing out for not
having proper flight documents on board showing the frequencies they told me I
was 50 miles to the North East, and over the ocean about 20
miles. Apparently I was heading for Alaska.
I refused to believe them; I could see the lights of Hue. Again he
repeated that I was the only aircraft in the sky. I made a turn for
identification, and yes it was me. He guided us back to the airport and
we made it home to Playtex.
Our short flight had expected to be 40 minutes at the maximum. We had
taken almost 3 hours, and landed with less than 45 minutes of fuel on board.
All in all, we should have been court martialed for stupid mistakes and
almost killing a crew of 5.
It became policy that it had to be a real emergency before we would launch
another bird at night. Division policy was that cargo helicopters were on
the ground at dark and remained there.
Combat Assaults:
Chinooks were not used in Combat Assaults. A 20,000 lb aircraft, 100 ft
long with 33 soldiers on board is too much of a loss if shot down.
I had been on a bus run, taking soldiers from the different fire support bases
to the PX in Da Nang. We would pick up troops along a bus route, drop
them at the PX, return at 2 or 3 PM and take them home. This was more of
a morale thing for the troops.
On a trip back from the PX we get a call to drop all the soldiers off at Camp
Eagle refueling point, tell them to wait, move over to an infantry company
compound, pick up a combat platoon, and make an insertion for a downed
aircraft. The area of the downed aircraft is hot with enemy; it had just
been shot down.
Actually it had been shot down just before we flew by the same spot. I
found out later the pilot was killed, and he had been a classmate of mine in
flight school.
We dropped off the guys from the PX, loaded the combat soldiers and moved to
the crash site. Low, fast, and quick to the ground, drop the ramp, off
load the infantry with cocked and loaded weapons, pull pitch and clear the
area.
Smooth, quick, fast operation. We're through, safe and enroute back to
pick up the guys and take them home from the PX.
About 2 minutes from leaving the crash site the crew chief calls on the
intercom and ask what we are going to do with the civilian. I thought he
meant the PX crews. He replied no, the one on board!
To my surprise and horror, a civilian engineer from PA&E engineering
contractors had been on board and not gotten off with the other guys from the
PX. We had taken a civilian on a combat assault. Had he been shot,
we would still be doing the paperwork.
I scolded the chief for allowing him to stay on. Later the chief said the
guy's eyes were like saucers from fright. The loaded rifles and approach
had scared him so bad; he probably would never get on another helicopter. All
in a days work for us.
VanOpstal hurt in old bunker
Van Opstal was the first man hurt in the unit. We were in the breakfast
line when the first rockets were fired into our area. The chow line broke
for cover and WO VanOpstal headed for an old bunker. As luck would have
it, as soon as he entered the bunker, a rocket hit the top. It had been
well constructed, but was old. Van wasn't hurt from the rocket, but the
timbers holding the roof collapsed and one fell on his back. We were
afraid that he would have to be sent back to the states with a broken back. If
only he had been so lucky. It turned out to be a minor injury; he stayed
in country and was to face much worse before it was over. Not physical
injury, but mental.
Van Opstal was 20 - 21 by the time he arrived in country. By the time he
left country, he had had 3 aircraft shot or crashed under him, almost rolled
over a 1,000 cliff, flown 1200 hours plus, at times was flying 20 - 40 hours a
month more than the flight surgeon allowed.
He left the army after Viet Nam, went to work for FAA and flew for FAA until
retirement. He was an example of what we had for pilots. Young,
indestructible, and able to get the job done, no matter what.
Initial duties
Arrival in country meant that unpacking the unit, setting up operations and
becoming an active army unit was first priority in almost everything. The
extra duties of Court Martials, etc., were just that, extra duty.
As the unit motor officer, we had delivery of all the vehicles except the
Forklift. For some reason it went to Tam Ky, a small resort city north of
Phu Bai on the coast. Everything else we owned had been off loaded in Da
Nang, to our south, and driven or trucked to us. My Forklift was
north and I had to go get it. I called battalion and arraigned to have
the Loach (* Hughes OH-6A helicopter) fly a driver and me to Tam Ky. We
landed, found the Forklift and proceeded to drive the 20 miles back to the
unit. It was a major highway, actually QL1, which ran from Saigon to
Hanoi, and was the main thoroughfare from the days of the French occupation.
It took about 3 hours to return to Phu Bai. The driver drove while
I rode shotgun with an M-16, just in case there were ambushes. We were
lucky. No incidents occurred and we arrived safety back in camp.
Perimeter defense: We had begun stringing concertina or barbwire around
the company area. This was actually a defense inside a defense. The
main defensive line for the Phu Bai area was the outer perimeter or Base
Perimeter as it was called. The compound was approximately 2 miles across,
and a giant circle. We were on the south side with "C" company,
our sister company was "A" Company on the north side of the complex.
In the center was the Phu Bai civilian airport, which was also the navy
and air force fields, as well as many other units. Army Aviation repair
units, 5th Transportation Group, an Air force Signal Unit with towers and radio
connections around the world. There was 24th Corps headquarters, which
was the army headquarters for the I corps area and commanded by a 3 star general.
All in all, the compound probably held 100,000 personnel.
At any time there might be 100 army helicopters parked on airfields inside the
compound. There were 2 Chinook companies, A and C; a cobra ARA battery,
two Huey lift companies, plus marine and Air Force aircraft.
Our Chinook company sat within 100 yards of the outer perimeter of the entire
compound. Between our Chinooks and the wire, were two Huey helicopter
companies also from the 101st Airborne Div.
All the units inside the outer wire or perimeter were tasked on a daily basis
to provide personnel. Units were tasked based on their size and strength.
So, in addition to internal guards we might post, and normal workloads, we
supplied troops to be used on the external wire each night as guards.
Because we were so short of personnel and later flying so many hours, we would
have flight crews, fly all day (12 - 15 hours), land, pull maintenance on the
AC for 2 - 3 hours, eat, and then be assigned to guard duty for the night.
No sleeping while on guard, then up at first light, back to the airfield,
preflight, fly all day, land, maintenance, then supper and bed. With
crews pulling these hours and flying in heat, rain, mountains, maximum gross
weight, 99% of the time without accident or incident, it was a remarkable job
for each and everyone. Hard to believe it was accomplished.
Later, in April when I moved to battalion as the S-2 or security officer, about
3,000 meters of the external wire was my responsibility to man and maintain.
24th corps had a 2 LT assigned as the commander of the area, but because
it was our aircraft, buildings, and men, he really worked for me! I was
the one supervising him the closest anyway.
The same policies for external perimeter was true on the north side of Phu Bai
with Alpha Company, and in Da Nang with the detachment of Ch-54 Cranes attached
to us. All in All, we had responsibility for about 10,000 meters of
perimeter, and internal security for 5 airfields and company areas.
- Infantry desires - common sense upon arrival in country, all the basic
tactics taught at Fort Benning began to surface. Problem was, few of the
basics were being followed. The external area outside the perimeter wire
was just open ground. It was about 5 miles from the mountains to the
south to our base. Nothing was done to patrol or secure the area. I
initially thought that patrolling it at night would be a good idea. Stop
the bad guys before they arrive at your front door.
A lot of thought was given to the matter. It was never carried out.
We had never been hit from the open area, probably because of our
mortars, artillery and aircraft. And until the end in 1973, no one would
ever try to breach the wire. I dropped the matter.
Later I found out that one Lt. Carpenter, West Point Grad, and almost winner of
the Medal of Honor, had been patrolling just to the south of our base. He
had been told not to go into the area, but went anyway. He was put up for
the Medal of Honor when he called an air strike in on his own position as it
was being overrun. Problem was that he was not supposed to be there in
the first place. No Medal of Honor, but almost a court martial for
endangering troops and disobeying an order.
We never even flew over the area!
Firing Platform
Immediately after we started flying missions someone at a much higher level of
command than us decided that there should be a demonstration. Some company in
the US had designed an Artillery Platform for all terrain. It was large, steel,
and had adjustable legs. Its concept was, put it in swamps, rough
terrain, an artillery tube on it and you could fire anywhere, anytime.
The demonstration was to be in front of a large selection of Division and 24
Corps generals and colonels. It was staged so that a Chinook from our
unit would fly the "platform" in and set it on the ground in front of
bleachers. The second aircraft would bring in an artillery tube, ammo, and gun
crew. The artillery tube would fire, and the demonstration would be over.
The local commanders would request the army buy it for use in Viet Nam.
The company would make thousands of them and be rich.
To be sure the "demonstration" went right, we spent an entire
afternoon practicing sling loading this artillery piece to the platform.
They decided that the platform should be in place instead of being
brought in by helicopter. Maybe because the "Platform" that was
to be used anywhere and moved by helicopter was too heavy to be moved by
helicopter. It didn't have to make sense, just demonstrated.
The afternoon was spent "practicing" making approaches and placing
the artillery piece in place. Something we were now doing 8 - 12 hours a
day to firebases all over the area of operations, including some very small
hilltops in the Ashau Valley. But practice we did.
The demonstration was conducted the next morning at 0900 hours. The
aircraft and crew that flew the demonstration was not the one that practiced
all afternoon to "get it right". We did the rehearsal, and the
day of the demonstration we were 100 miles SW flying ammo to hilltop firebases
in the jungle.
Never heard any complaints on the actual demonstration.
Putting in fire bases on mountains
The operational plans for the area, both mountains and seacoast areas were
insert a "Fire Base", use it to protect or harass the enemy, move it
when it was no longer needed.
A typical "Fire Base" would be an Artillery battery of 6 towed 105mm
howitzers, firing crews, fire direction center, an infantry platoon or company
for security, depending on how big the area was.
A Fire Base might be just a sandy area along the beach, or the top of a small
mountain somewhere in the jungle. Each Fire Base was close enough so that
the artillery fire from one base would protect the next. Large interlocking rings
of artillery fire. The theory was that even though they were isolated by
terrain (mountains, valleys, jungle, etc.,) they would be protected by calling
in artillery fire from another base.
If the hilltop was jungle and a new site, it had to be cleared. A Huey
would normally drop engineers off to the site. If able, they could be
dropped while the Huey hovered above the trees and the engineers repelled down
ropes with enough gear to begin work.
By this time the army had "det" cord. Actually it was called
Detonation Cord. A highly explosive or fast burning cord about 1/4 inch
in diameter. If wrapped around a tree, then lit with a match, the speed
it burned was like a small explosion and would cut the tree like a knife
through butter. The cord had a burn rate of some 40 - 50,000 ft. Per
second. Really fast! Lightweight, easy to carry and use, one man could do a lot
of clearing in a short time.
When the Engineers were through clearing the large trees from the area, the
CH-54, Sky Cranes, (helicopters) would begin lifting mini dozers into the area.
Caterpillar D-3/4s were used. This was the largest dozer we could
move by air at the time. The Crane would lift the dozer from one supply
point and move to a firebase or landing area within 10 minutes of flying, land,
take on enough fuel for 10 more minutes of flying, move to the next point,
until he had the dozer at the desired location. By reducing the fuel on
the aircraft, more weight could be carried as the dozer.
At the time, a CH-54 Crane would lift about 15,000 - 18000 lbs of load and
could fly for 10 minutes with reduced fuel. Every gallon of JP-4 weighed
6.5 lb. By dropping 500 - 1000 gals of fuel, a lot of weight could be
added for short trips. (Later new Chinooks would lift more without
losing flight time)
The Chinooks of the time were C- models, meaning we had new frames, but the
engines were older models and our lift capacity was reduced. Our standard
load for a Chinook was 10,000 and a full load of fuel (2 hrs and 45 min).
We could reduce fuel and sometimes get 12,500 off the ground. We
then ran a problem with the engines not strong enough to keep the blades
turning.
Once the Cranes had the dozer in place, it would push the cut trees off the
side of the mountain, clear most of the stumps so fortifications could be
built.
The tree clearing, from Engineers to Dozer operation might take two or three
days. Then the Crane would come in, and remove the dozer, leaving a bald
mountaintop.
Once the dozer was gone, or ready to go, Huey helicopters would lift a small
infantry unit in. This would keep the area secure until the main force
was in place.
Within a day or two, we would be called to lift in the artillery. On a
well-planned firebase, we would know a day or two in advance and have the ships
on station, on time. If it was a quick insertion to an old base, or one
that had been hammered out with artillery fire and bombs instead of engineers,
we might be called while we were flying other missions.
In the event there was no planning, and we were conducting other missions, we
would get a radio call from our unit operations. 6 birds would normally
get a call at the same time. In turn we would finish the mission we were
on and then report to the lift area to pick up artillery tubes.
Generally, this would be a rear area base camp.
Six Chinooks would hover and wait until the artillery tubes were ready, then
one at a time move into place and secure a tube. The first aircraft
normally landed, took a jeep, trailer, and 5 - 10 soldiers on board. This
would be the artillery fire direction center. In the trailer would be plotters,
tents, all the equipment needed to direct and plot fire missions for the unit.
The aircraft would then lift, and move over to pick up an artillery tube
(105mm howitzer) and a bag of artillery rounds slung in a second net under the
tube. The first aircraft was usually a max gross weight when he took off.
Each of the next 5 aircraft would hover up, hook up an artillery tube, lift it
and the net of artillery rounds below the tube, and follow the first aircraft.
Each load would take approximately 1 - 2 minutes to hook up and take off. This
gave 1 - 2 minute spacing between aircraft once in flight, as well as 1 - 2
minutes between aircraft when they arrived at the new Fire Base.
Six aircraft, six loads would put an artillery battery on the ground from 1st
to 6th tube, and ready to fire within 6 minutes of the first aircraft landing.
Pretty impressive when it's actually done.
When the last aircraft left, the artillery would be shooting. The FDC or
Fire Direction Center would be up and operating within minutes of landing.
The nets under each gun (second sling load) would hold enough ammo for a
105 howitzer to fire at maximum rate for about 12 hours, allowing plenty of
time to resupply the unit with pallets of 10,000 lbs of ammo shells weighing 65
lbs each.
Normal resupply for the first couple of days would be steel planking, water,
sandbags, building materials, etc., to let them build bunkers and get out of
the mud.
This was the normal time and requirement for inserting a firebase on a
mountaintop.
Years later in the advance course at Fort Benning, the "School
solution" to putting in a fire base for a "hit and run"
operation of artillery would call for 37 Chinook loads of men, artillery,
ammunition. And we couldn't get them to change the books.
A speedy insertion would be the same, except instead of Engineers clearing the
mountain, artillery bombardment, and air strikes would be used. A day or
two of strikes would clear it off enough to get the infantry in for security
and the tubes in for fire missions. They could then clear the area with
manual labor and chain saws.
It is interesting to note, the trees in the jungle and on the mountains were
Mahogany. Not Philippine mahogany, but a special type indigenous to the
area. We asked why not let us haul the trees cut on the mountains, back
to the cities, make it into lumber and export it?
The answer was, the mahogany was to Hard to cut with anything less than diamond
tipped saws. It apparently wasn't economically feasible.
Wonder if it would be today. We burned thousands and thousands of trees.