FSB LANCE- So sure of themselves that they carried no firearms, an NVA sapper team bit off more than they could chew recently when they attempted a suicidal night attack against a Company of Paratroopers from the 4th Battalion, 503d Infantry near the Cambodian Border.
    The vicious battle took place at 03:30 in the morning at Fire Support Base Lance, a remote artillery site surrounded by triple canopy jungle two miles from the Duc Lap Special Forces camp, the scene of much recent heavy fighting. The NVA left 14 dead bodies and indications of more wounded in their wake.
    "We first thought it was mortars when the explosions started going off," said Private Lester Viekko of Sacramento Ca, a forward observer with Alpha Company. "Then a trip flare was hit and we saw them running in the perimeter." "They had come from the high ground, cut the barbed wire and moved in quietly," said First Lieutenant Karl Roberson of Virginia Beach Va, recalling the night's ordeal. "They carried no weapons, were wearing only loin cloths and sandals. They had satchel charges and grenades tied to their bodies."
    Roberson surmised that the sappers had done a good job of casing the Fire Base before they tried to execute their attack. "They apparently knew where everything was," he said. "They went after the fire direction center first and then the artillery positions."
    Viekko first spotted the NVA as they headed toward his bunker. "He was heading right at me with a satchel charge in his hand said Viekko. "I let him have it with my M16."

Sappers Zapped

    When Viekko's muzzle flashed, two more sappers spied his position and went for him. Viekko fired them both up. The 24 year old Paratrooper then grabbed a wounded buddy nearby, put a tourniquet around his leg and dragged him to a bunker. As the battle raged, casualties mounted on both sides. Two Medics, Sp4 Henry Dunn of Washington DC and Sp4 Doc Carter, began pulling the wounded into the gunpits and treating them.
    Faced with merciless M79 fire the NVA began rushing the bunkers in suicidal efforts, blowing up the satchel charges along with themselves. "When the enemy gets psyched like that," said 1LT Roberson, "even bullets won't stop them in their tracks."
    The close quarter fighting raged for over an hour before the NVA began retreating, dragging their dead and wounded with them. In addition to the 14 dead left behind, one wounded attacker was apprehended. "I believe all of those who escaped were wounded," said Lieutenant Roberson. The Americans suffered nine killed.
    At first light, Charlie Company of the 4th Battalion pursued the trail the NVA had left behind. Less than a mile from the Cambodian border they uncovered a bunker complex and an assortment of B40 rockets, demolition charges, chicom hand grenades and wire cutters. "We also found a lot of bandages," said 1LT William Brewster of Cheyenne, Wyoming. "They no doubt headed for the border to lick their wounds."
    The Battalion Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Weyand, who arrived soon after the battle, noted that "Alpha Company reacted extremely effectively to what was obviously a well planned and cleverly executed night attack."

    LZ UPLIFT- Lieutenant Colonel Francis J. Percy has assumed command of the 1st Battalion, 503d Infantry in ceremonies at LZ Uplift.
   The 37 year old Colonel from Coeur d'Alene Idaho, takes over for Lieutenant Colonel Raymond E. Gunderson who has joined I Field Force Headquarters in Nha Trang. A 14-year Army Veteran, LTC Percy is a 1954 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and comes to the 173d Airborne Brigade from a staff assignment at I Field Force Headquarters, where he served as an assistant operations officer.
    In accepting the Battalion Colors, LTC Percy noted that while traveling throughout Vietnam he had heard many exemplary words in reference to the 173d Airborne Brigade and the 1st Battalion specifically. "The word I came to hear most often in connection with the Battalion was 'PROFESSIONAL,' said the new commander. "I only ask that you continue what you have done."
    LTC Gunderson in his departing remarks thanked the Battalion for their untiring devotion to duty. "I will remember this tour with great pride," said LTC Gunderson, "pride that comes from being the best. Airborne, all the way!"

    BAN ME THUOT- Procrastination on the part of a band of NVA bushwackers proved fatal to them recently when Paratroopers of the 4th Battalion caught them still setting up their ambush site.
    "I guess they didn't expect us so soon," said SGT Robert Smith of Boston, Mass. "They were still moving by the roadside preparing their camouflage when we spotted them." The NVA, however, spotted the troopers at the same instant and leaped for their spider holes. Members of a Reconnaissance team with Echo Company, nicknamed 'The Raiders', the Paratroopers had been moving along an ox cart trail near Ban Me Thuot in the South Vietnam Central Highlands.

Contact Quickens

    "After some initial shots, we began exchanging heavy fire," said Smith. "A grenade landed right in front of me. I yelled, rolled over, got a bead on the guy who threw it and zapped him with my M16." Savage fire continued from the entrenched enemy position, and Echo moved back to call in helicopter gunships.
    The NVA attempted to confuse the Chopper Pilots by dropping smoke grenades. The airstrikes nevertheless scattered the ambush platoon. "After the strikes, we moved in and took the positions," said Smith.

    BONG SON- A Platoon of Paratroopers made their first Amphibious Combat Assault recently when a Navy 'Swift' patrol boat landed the Infantrymen at the edge of a VC infested village. It all started when the patrol boat, PFC 90, and Delta Company, 2/503d Infantry were assigned to the same area of operations near the mouth of the Lai Giang River, east of Bong Son.

Army Hospitality

    A hospitable group of soldiers, the Paratroopers of Delta Company had invited the sailors of PFC 90 to hot chow. The Paratroopers have one hot meal coptered in every three days. The next morning, with PFC 90 anchored off shore, Delta Company received a report that 30 VC were in a village 22 miles down the coast. Returning a favor, PFC 90 volunteered to land the troopers at the village. Accustomed to Heliborne Combat Assaults, it was the first amphibious landing for the Sky Soldiers.
    "They dropped this rope ladder over the side and we all climbed aboard," said PFC Vincent Miller of Treverton Pa. "It sure beats walking," he added. PFC Michael Florian, of Coatsville Pa, was also with the Platoon that made the one hour nautical sojourn. "When we got there," he said, "we just jumped overboard into the waist deep water and ran ashore." There was a brief fire fight at the village and a number of VC were detained.
    PFC 90 harbors at Qui Nhon and operates on a 36 hour on, 36 hours off patrol basis.

    AN KHE- Four months ago Captain Robert L Powell of Columbus Ga, an Infantry Company Commander with the 173d Airborne Brigade lost a knife while fording a stream near An Khe. This wasn't an ordinary knife for Captain Powell. It had been given to him as a small boy. His named was engraved on it, and he had carried the knife for nearly his entire life including two tours in Vietnam.
    The chances of recovering his keepsake were minimal at best but when his Battalion left that particular area of operation he was certain he would never see it again. However, by a strange quirk of fate, the Captain's unit, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 503d Infantry, recently Combat Assaulted into his old locale. Approaching a Montagnard village only an hour after landing, the Company made contact with several NVA soldiers, killing four. On one of the bodies, believed to be an Officer, Captain Powell's knife was found.

    BAO LOC- A Rifle Platoon of the 3rd Battalion, 503d Infantry, recently found nearly a ton of rice where they expected to find only a couple of VC.
    The Platoon from Charlie Company was moving through thick foliage alongside a creek bed when they spotted a small lean-to made from a poncho. "We expected a couple of VC to be relaxing underneath," said Squad Leader Sp4 John O'Keefe "so we fired the place up." 1LT Bobby Stewart of Portsmouth Va, then moved his Platoon up to the shelter, but instead of finding dead enemy, found the rice sitting in a large depression.

    BAN ME THUOT- Friday the 13th proved an unlucky day for the NVA, as elements of the 4th Battalion, 503d Infantry destroyed a regimental size enemy base camp while killing 14 North Vietnamese.
    In the 10 hour battle Bravo Company and Echo Company's Reconnaissance Platoon "Raiders", accounted for the NVA's bad luck by overrunning their fortifications and accounting for the dead, 11 weapons and a large quantity of enemy equipment. The action took place in the thickly jungled Highlands two miles from the Cambodian border, west of Ban Me Thuot, where the 4th Battalion was working as the major manuever element for Task Force Bright under Operation MacArthur.
    Moving through the dense terrain the Paratroopers evidently surprised the base camp's occupants. "The base camp was near a previously bombed area," said Platoon Sergeant Luther K Bernhart. "I guess they figured we wouldn't hit the same place twice."
    "We had filed out of our night perimeter less than two hours before," said Lieutenant Philip Reid of Alexandria Va, "and were within 50 yards of their fortifications when their lookouts spotted us and opened fire." "At first we thought it was snipers," recalled Echo Company's SGT Robert Smith of Boston Mass, "then they opened up all the way across our front."

Surged Forward

    Dropping their rucksacks, the Sky Soldiers shoved forward to gouge a path through the thickening undergrowth and boldly shoved into firing lanes, laying down such a tremendous volume of counterfire that the dug-in NVA were temporarily stunned. The embattled Platoon and sister Reconnaissance element from Echo Company then stubbornly held their ground until the enemy barrage was quickly matched by the drone of miniguns and the crash of gunship rockets.
    Attempting to pick off the Infantrymen one by one, NVA snipers moved into large trees above their bunkers. However, Staff Sergeant Michael LaShells of North Highlands Ca, then brought up his 90 mm recoilless rifle crew and "leveled both the trees and the snipers."

Methodic Work

    Pushing methodically forward, the Infantrymen finally overtook the complex, bunker by bunker, destroying fortifications with LAW's and grenades and completely demolishing the area with automatic weapons fire. "We had to fight for every foot," explained Sergeant Smith. "It was unusual, they just didn't want to give any ground." By dusk, after 10 hours of fighting, the complex was overrun. In addition to the 14 dead NVA, the Paratroopers found 11 weapons and a large quantity of NVA equipment. Only two 4th Battalion troopers were killed.
    "I didn't know how many were there when they first saw us" said Bravo's Commander, Captain Bruce Sisco of St Petersburg Fl. "It was obviously a delaying action that they fought. We found no heavy weapons, but the base camp could have easily accomodated a regiment. I think it was a headquarters. It was a prize catch."