Viets Kill 287, Beat Back Attack
PLEIKU,Vietnam — Fighting raged for the sixth day Sunday at Battered Firebase 6, Vietnamese spokesman reported Monday. An estimated Communist Battalion attempted to storm the Base early Sunday afternoon and after a five-hour battle left behind 287 dead, the spokesmen said. Units of the 22nd ARVN Inf Div defending the base, backed up by air strikes and artillery, repulsed the attackers, spokesmen said.
Meanwhile, sources here said an ARVN Infantry Battalion was locked in combat with Communistsfour miles north northeast of the base. The sources, however had no further details of that fight.
South Vietnamese Commanders have committed units of a third ARVN regiment to the defense of the base, 12 miles from the tri-border area, 105 miles south-southwest of Da Nang, sources said.
The North Vietnamese Army's 66th Inf Regt has occupied the ridge line between Firebase 6 and nearby Firebase 5, sources here said Monday.
Late Sunday afternoon South Vietnamese Air Force helicopters managed to resupply Firebase 6 after they had been kept from the base for most of the day by heavy antiaircraft fire, the source said. The bodies of 26 Communists were found one mile west of Firebase 5 Sunday afternoon,according to the Saigon spokesmen.
Communist gunners Monday continued their sporadic shelling of Dak To and Tan Canh, staging areas for the embattled fire base, the source said. The 394th NVA Heavy Weapons Bn. was reported to be closing in on Pleiku, sources here said, but added that there were normally several Battalions of NVA troops in the province. It appeared that the North Vietnamese were regrouping Monday for another assault on Fire Base 6, the source said. At dawn Monday, three North Vietnamese soldiers reportedly walked in into Firebase 6 and gave themselves up, the source said.
Meanwhile, there were these other developments:
- A U.S. Air Force F100 fighter-bomber crashed Sunday in Kampong Thom Province of Cambodia about 50 miles north of Phnom Penh, U.S. command spokesmen said in Saigon. The pilot was reported missing. Cause of the crash was unknown.
- In Cambodia late Sunday afternoon ARVN Infantry and Armored Cavalry units killed 50 communists three miles southwest of Snuol, Saigon spokesmen said. ARVN casualties were one killed and 25 wounded.
- US spokesmen updated 4 from seven to 50 the number of Communists killed in a battle with a unit of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Saturday morning 97 miles southeast of Da Nang. Seven Americans were killed and 23 wounded in the battle.
- Communist Sappers attacked a unit of the 173rd Airborne Brigade one mile east of An Khe, killing two Americans, wounding two and destroying 10 trucks, they said. Communists losses were reported as unknown.
- One US Soldier was killed and one wounded Sunday night when Communists attacked a unit of the 1st Brigade 5th Inf Div (Mech), one mile northwest of Khe Sanh. Spokesmen said two Communists were killed.
- ARVN Ranger and Armored Cavalry units killed 15 Reds a few miles north of Qui Nhon while losing one wounded Sunday, spokesmen said. Infantrymen of the 47th ARVN Inf Regt found the bodies of 15 Communists north of Qui Nhon Sunday morning.
- In the U Minh Forest on the west coast of the Delta Sunday morning a unit of the 21st ARVN Inf Div killed nine Communists, spokesmen said. There were no ARVN casualties.
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Report More Chinese Troops in Laos
WASHINGTON (AP) — Red China has sent another 4,000 to 6,000 troops into Northern Laos in recent months, Pentagon sources report. The sources' estimate Peking's military strength there has risen to between 18,000 and 20,000 men, about double last years number.
U.S. officials said it appeared the reinforcements were intended mainly to beef up protection for Chinese engineer troops working on a major road project leading from South China's Yunnan Province toward the Mekong River and for defense of the road itself. Among other things, the Red Chinese were said to have positioned large antiaircraft guns and to have introduced new radar for surveillance and warning.
U.S. Military Analysts said they doubt the manpower buildup had any connection with Chinese government warnings during the recent U.S. supported South Vietnamese drive against North Vietnamese supply routes in the Laotian Panhandle.
Rather, the Chinese road construction through northern Laos seems to have long range implications for the security of Thailand and Burma they said. Both countries are considered targets for Red Chinese backed guerrilla insurgency. Thai officials long have been worried that a still limited insurgency movement in northeast Thailand adjoining Laos, might grow to serious proportions with Chinese and North Vietnamese help.
Chinese road building in northern Laos began several years ago under an agreement with Laos. If Laotian Premier Souvanna Phouma has had second thoughts about the Chinese project, there seems little he can do about it. He would be reluctant to antagonize his Nations huge neighbor to the north, especially with North Vietnatnese and Pathet Lao troops already controlling much of Laos and pressing the Lao Army in several areas.
The reinforcement of Chinese troops along what some officials here are beginning to call the Mao Tse-tung trail suggests the importance Peking attaches to the project and possibly some concern that US Air power might be turned against it. Although US Military authorities keep informed of progress on the road, there is a strict ban on any American action against it.
A main road and two feeder roads have been cut from China's Yunan Province with the chief road reaching southwest to the Mekong River at Pak Beng. US authorities describe the road as wide and the work including bridges as first class.
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'The Battle of Nui Cung Chap'
173rd Airborne Wins Bitter Fight
By Sp5 STEPHAN KROFT
HILL NUI CUNG CHAP, Vietnam — At the top of this dusty ridge 40 miles north of Qui Nhon in Binh Dinh Province Monday stood a small unobtrusive marker, scrawled in blue ink on the back of a cardboard C-Ration box. It read:
"The Battle of Nui Cung Chap, April 2-3, 1971. US Forces of the 173rd Airborne Brigade engaged in a decisive battle an unknown size force of North Vietnamese soldiers. After five gallant assaults on the hill the enemy withdrew with heavy casualties. This monument was erected to celebrate the brave deeds and selfless devotion to duty displayed by both combatants."
The hill was quiet now as men from the 2nd Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade sat amid the wreckage of heavily reinforced NVA bunkers waiting to abandon the ridge they fought so bitterly for two days earlier. One of the men had placed the transient marker on the hill.
The Battle of Nui Cung Chap will not go down as one of the great battles of the Vietnam war, but for most members of the Company that took the hill it marked the first taste of bloody conventional warfare.
One GI was killed and 11 wounded Friday and Saturday as the 1st Platoon inched its way up the steep slope only to be driven off by heavy enemy small arms and machinegun fire. When the last assault made good Saturday there were 11 North Vietnamese bodies on the hill. "There must be a lot more enemy dead down there in the Valley, Cpt John Meehan, Company Commander said, But you can't count them unles you've got them. They were either killed up here and dragged off by their buddies or died in the heavy napalm strikes after we took the hill."
The fighting began early Friday morning when elements of the Battalion ran into unexpected heavy enemy resistance while conducting a routine patrol on the southeastern edge of a large enemy base camp. Reinforcements were flown into the area while the Company received orders to take the high ground.
The 1st Platoon sent a four man Recon Team up the slope of the mountainside to check for North Vietnamese troops. "We thought there were probably three or four of them up there," Meehan said, "but we were sure wrong. The Recon Team made it within 25 meters of the crest of the hill when the North Vietnamese opened fire.
The Point Man was killed immediately, he said. Attempting to recover the body of the Point Man, the Platoon twice assaulted the ridge Friday, but were driven off by heavy enemy fire. With first light Saturday, they tried again for the ridge top while the 3rd Platoon circled around and scaled another peak to the south. Creeping up the slopes a foot at a time, the Airborne Troops drew heavy small arms and machinegun fire. There was no tactical air or gunship support. As they approached the ridge, the North Vietnamese soldiers began lobbing hand grenades toward the GIs. "It was like playing dodge ball with live grenades," Sgt Jim Myers, a Squad Leader with the 1st Platoon said.
The 3rd Platoon, meeting only light resistance to the south, came over a ridge 200 meters away and opened up on the enemy bunkers with M60 machinegun fire. Some NVA soldiers escaped the fire and made their way down the eastern side of the slope, disappearing into the heavy underbrush. Sp4 Dennis A. Terschak crawled through the elephant grass to within six feet of an enemy machinegun emplacement, waited for the right moment, and charged the position.
After firing several shots he dove into the enemy bunker, took the machinegun away from the dead NVA soldier inside and tossed the weapon down the hill to a GI who opened fire on the enemy.
On the other side of the hill one of the men lobbed a grenade into another bunker and the Company went over the top of the hill.
The Battle of Hill Nui Cung Chap was over.
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Cambodian Strong Points Hit in Fierce NVA, VC Attacks
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP)— North Vietnamese and Viet Cong Battalions Sunday night unleashed smashing attacks on Cambodian positions on the east bank of the Mekong River opposite the northeastern provincial capital of Kompong Cham.
The Cambodian High Command spokesman said attacks on four government strongpoints came at roughly the same moment. All were hit at about midnight and first reports from the field said some 5000 enemy troops were involved. "This figure should be treated with some reservation," Cambodian spokesman Lt Col Am Rong declared.
He said he had no details of casualties on either side but that one report said Cambodians had been forced to abandon their position at the village of Kompong Russey, five miles northeast of Kompong Cham and about 52 miles northeast of the Cambodian capital. Am Rong said the enemy also hit at the village of Rokar Thom, two miles north of the ferry station of Tonle Bet which faces Kompong Cham, at Prek Chik, three miles to the south of Tonle Bet, and at the major highway bridge of Moat Khmong, about five miles southeast of the ferry station.
Am Rong attributed the sudden upsurge of activity on the east bank of the Mekong to Communist reaction to probes by the regional Commander, Brigadier Gen Im Tam, into the region on either side of Highway 7, on both banks of the Mekong where the Communists currently maintain the bulk of their forces in Cambodia.
Three enemy divisions, the 5th, 7th and 9th, have their command posts in the rubber plantations within a 20 mile radius of Tonle Bet on the eastern bank. The high command last Saturday told reporters that latest information showed that COSVN, the overall Communist headquarters for operations in southern Indochina, is located on the west bank a few miles north of Highway 7.
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North Viets Build Up Strength in Laos
VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — North Vietnamese troops are bolstering their power with antiaircraft weapons near the royal capital of Luang Prabang while stepping up attacks around the Plain of Jars, the Laotian Defense Ministry said Monday. Defense Ministry spokesman Gen Thongphanh Knoksy said North Vietnamese reinforcements recently arrived northeast of Luang Prabang with 12.7mm antiaircraft guns capable of shooting down helicopters and T28 bombers.
Government forces have been unable to advance more than a few miles north of Luang Prabang along the Mekong River as North Vietnamese forces continue to occupy mountains overlooking the Mekong Valley from the east, Thongphanh said. Other North Vietnamese forces captured the government position of Muong Nham southeast of the Plain of Jars over the weekend in what Thongphanh described as a continuing campaign to demoralize front line troops by harassing their dependents in the rear.
The Communists, meanwhile, continued an almost constant shelling of Ban Na on the southwestern edge of the Plain of Jars and Sunday overran a position just three miles from the besieged outpost, Thongphanh said.
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Going, Going...
The pullout from Khe Sahn
in northern South Vietnam
continues as Vietnamese troops
board a US helicopter and
American Troops toss sandbags
and empty ammo boxes into a
trench where they will be destroyed.
(AP Radiophotos)
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Hop Home: A Skip and a Jump It Isn't
By HOLGER JENSEN
IN FLIGHT, Vietnam (AP) — "Buddy, if I knew where your plane was I'd jump on it myself and fly the hell out of here," says the Flight Sergeant. Flies buzz around his head. The Chu Lai air terminal is awash with perspiration from more than a hundred GIs crowded under its mercilessly hot tin roof. A baby with the family of a South Vietnamese soldier cries fitfully.
The U.S. Air Force has temporarily misplaced a 70-ton C130 cargo plane. Its 16 prospective passengers are beginning to bug the Flight Sergeant: "What happened to the 1:30 pm flight to Quang Tri?" At 3:30 pm the departure time is moved forward to 5 pm, when the Flight Sergeant is relieved by a new man. He earnestly announces: "All personnel desiring transportation to Quang Tri must wait. As soon as we find your plane we'll let you know." "No emergency or anything like that," he adds in a friendly aside. "This happens all the time at Chu Lai. They get lost in the shuffle."
The solitary lemonade stand closes and the waiting GIs prepare to spend a thirsty night. All the water coolers are broken and a Saigon soldier with three Frescas in his dufflebag makes new friends. The loudspeaker squawks to life with more bad news. It seems the flight to Cam Ranh Bay has also been misplaced and the Da Nang flight was delayed by engine trouble. Groans fill the terminal. Most of the GIs are waiting to go to Cam Ranh to catch the Freedom Bird for home. Some read. Some sleep. Most just sit on the hard wooden benches with a glazed expression endemic to military air terminals in Vietnam.
A Spanish-looking soldier with the Quang Tri group, was in an armored personnel carrier near Khe Sanh when it was hit by rocket-propelled grenade. One of his buddies was killed but he escaped with ear damage. "They gave me a month in the rear, now I'm going back," he explains. "I still can't hear so good in one ear but you think those doctors care? I lost all my possessions in that track, all my clothes, all my money. I had $640 stashed away for my leave in May. It went up in smoke." No one expresses any sympathy, and the speaker does not really expect them to. Such stories are common in Vietnam half of them are true.
At 11 pm drunken cries fill the air terminal. "Kill the lifers !"
Some homeward bound draftees apparently killed a bottle and now they want to do the same to career Officers and NCOs who ordered them around in 'Nam. Everyone perks up. Nothing like a few killings to alleviate the boredom. But the drunks only succeed in breaking a wooden exit sign. Sobered by the enormity of their sin, they flee into the night pursued by two lifers.
The man on the loudspeaker entreats the waiting passengers: "Stay where you are. The planes are coming, I think." It is getting late and no one believes him. The crowd thins as the GIs return to the bunkers and hootches they had hoped to leave forever.
Only nine of the "Quang Tri sixteen" are left when a C130 lands at Chu Lai. It's the Quang Tri flight, 11 hours late. Wearily the nine board the lane. Wearily they disembark when the pilot tells them they'll have to wait until he refuels. More wearily, they re-embark when he decides he doesn't have to refuel after all.
At 1 am the plane is airborne but there is something wrong with the pressurizing system. Fog rushes out of the vents so thick you can't see your boots. It swirls inside the aircraft for the one-hour flight. "Welcome to the Turkish bath," laughs an anonymous voice. The Loadmaster helplessly tries to beat off the fog by flapping his arms.
The Air Force gets you there. But it doesn't say when or how.
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Flying the 'Little Bird' - It's Like Poking a Beehive
QUANG TRI, Vietnam — The Cobra Pilot peered through his blue tinted cockpit window, down upon the Light Observation Helicopter (LOH) 1,500 feet below him. He was reminded of a small tropical fish as the LOH darted, circled and explored the shadows and depths of the mottled green and brown algae like terrain below.
Occasionally the "Little Bird" would stop as if suspended, hovering over a single spot only to dart away or glide airily to a nearby gully or hilltop. The entire scene, when viewed from above, appeared tantalizingly tranquil, as if the Pilot were watching a hummingbird drift from flower to flower on a lazy summer afternoon.
"Taking fire, breaking left!" The voice barked sharply into the headphones of the Cobra Pilot. Even as the words were being transmitted, the LOH suddenly dipped its nose and then veered sharply upward and to its left as the Gunships started their run, spitting death and fire down over the LOH's right side, where a white phosphorous grenade was marking the spot of contact.
Again and again the heavily armed Cobras fired into the dense jungle, thick gray smoke billowed from explosions, and soon bright red flames licked up into the sky. It was the Gunbird's show now, the LOH or Little Bird scout had done its task well. It had found and exposed an enemy position and had escaped with only minor damage. One bullet hole through the rear fuselage and another in the center of the plexiglass bubble of the cockpit. Sometimes the LOH does not get hit at all.
Nevertheless, any abstract tranquility that a LOH mission may evoke from 1,500 feet above is abruptly and repeatedly dispelled by the more realistic perspective gained from the Scout Pilot's seat in the cockpit. The Scout Pilot can hardly help but think of a go-cart as he climbs into the small seat and straps himself in behind the stick.
The high pitched whine of the 314 horsepower turbine engine brings the Little Bird to life as it gently vibrates with the increasingly fast revolution of the rotors. The LOH lifts off the ground from the F Troop, 8th Air Cav pad and zips away, barely skimming over the elephant grass and mud caked water buffalo grazing contentedly in the fields below. The Pilot pulls pitch, adding power as he pushes down on the stick, and the LOH eases upward in a gradual arc until it levels off at about 2,000 feet.
Cruising west at 90 mph along Highway 9, the LOH, the two Gunships and a Huey Slick of this Visual Reconnaissance Team will provide escort for a convoy moving from Khe Sanh to FSB Vandegrift. The thin dusty line of vehicles is spotted snaking its way eastward along the meandering sandy ribbon of highway. The terrain is hills and gullies interrupted by occasional stretches of flat grassland.
Radioing that he is going in for a closer look, the Scout Pilot depresses the stick and dives the LOH toward the road. The Doorgunner sitting on the floor behind the Pilot's seat checks his supply of smoke cannisters, hand grenades and ammunition. He adjusts his M60 machine gun in its sling and then esases himself onto the lip of the doorway, with his feet dangling out over the skids. The LOH is now at treetop level and has slowed to about 20 mph.
For a while, everything remains quiet. The convoy stirs up dust but nothing else as it inches along the road. High above a C130 cargo plane lumbers through the misty air of the pass toward Khe Sanh. The Helicopters scurry out of its way like minnows darting away from a predatory pike.
The voice of the Huey Pilot crackles into the headphones, advising Little Bird that the convoy is nearing a stretch of highway that harbored an enemy ambush the previous day. The road is bordered by steep hills and a dense woodline, making it ideal for hiding enemy positions. Circling lower and lower, the Pilot and Gunner scan the shadows and thick underbrush. The LOH alternately darts and glides from area to area as the Pilot seeks to use his maneuverability to cut down his exposure time to enemy fire — the basic rule of scout flying.
Topping a ridge and dipping down into a gully, the Pilot spots a trail not more than a foot wide winding its way into a dense tree line. He hovers the LOH a scant 10 feet above the ground using the rotor wash to sweep aside the foliage. The Doorgunner points to some freshly cut tree stumps at the top of the trail.
"OK let's keep moving down there." It is more a command than a suggestion from the Huey Pilot above. "We don't want you losing your feathers, Little Bird." The LOH slowly circles the area and then dips down for another close look. The rotor wash again sweeps aside the elephant grass like parted hair and reveals a small enemy bunker. "Gun Bird, we have a narrow trail down here leading to a bunker, so far no sign of Charlie."
This is typical. An LOH can fly over an enemy position all day and not draw fire. As long as the enemy doesn't think he's been seen, he'll sit still. "I'm going to drop a grenade down there and see if we can stir someone up," the LOH Pilot says. Watching over his shoulder as the Gunner tosses the grenade, the Pilot immediately pulls pitch and the LOH bobs upward to avoid the explosion. For a moment there is nothing. The smoke from the grenade drifts away from the bunker and the Scout swoops in again. "If anybody was home, we either blew him away or else we sure made his ears ring," the Pilot says.
Suddenly a guttural, barking "ack-ack-ack" shatters the air. The Pilot had been looking down, and his head is snapped violently backward by the force of an AK47 round. The Doorgunner sees that the Pilot is hit and immediately starts hosing down the area with a hail of M60 fire in anticipation of a forced landing. Suddenly the LOH veers upward as the Cobras come screaming down into the fight. The LOH Pilot, his head ringing as if he'd been hit with a baseball bat, radios instructions to direct the Gunships' fire. The Gunner looks at him and motions to his head. The Pilot gingerly reaches up and his fingers brush over a gaping slash in the top of his helmet.
The Cobras continue their gun runs and finally call in air strikes to get at the well-fortified position. The LOH meanwhile has suffered a punctured fuel line and the Pilot radios that he is going back to Quang Tri for repairs. As the LOH settles onto the pad and the whir of the rotor begins to diminish, the Pilot removes his helmet and pokes his finger through the shredded lining. The Gunner hops out to see how badly he's injured, but smiles when the Pilot points only to a small bruise on his head. Lady luck is always a welcome Co-Pilot.
Story & Photos by Sp5 Howard Lavick
2/4/2001
Many Thanks to CWO James Bradley, E/17th Cav,'70-'72 for Contributing This Issue
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