Introduction to The Nam - Page 2

Late Winter thru May, 1969-Touring Vietnam

I hung around the Aid Station until the 25th when Ron Hamilton and I were sent out to A-troop. Ron went to the 1st platoon. I went to the 2nd at the Tu Duc water plant along side Hwy. 1 from Saigon to Long Binh. I replaced Gene Garrison who was going to be the Senior Medic of A-Troop. Life so far was pretty tame. I was fortunate to be able to acclimate myself to the climate and field conditions. We escorted convoys of infantry out on their patrols. Drop 'em off in the morning and pick 'em up in the evening. After nightfall we’d run “Thunder Runs” up and down the highway to discourage the bad guys from mining the road or causing any other mischief.

An Armored Cavalry platoon is made up of three M48A3 tanks and seven M113 ACAVs, each with a crew of four. The tracks ("track" was a generic word used to refer to a tracked vehicle; not just to the tracks, and track links, used for locomotion) were numbered from A20 to A29. A24, A25 and A27 were tanks; the rest were ACAVs. . The #6 track, was the platoon leader's track (16, 26 or 36 respectively for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd platoon leaders) and the troop commander's track was A66.

The TC (track commander) was usually the most senior of the crew in regards to time in country, ideally nine or more months; he sat in the center, behind the 50mm, and directed the operation of the vehicle. The gunner on an ACAV operated the M60 on one side of the back (even numbers on the left and odd numbers on the right); his time in country was usually six to nine months. The gunner/loader on a tank loaded the main gun (90mm). The driver (Delta) operated the vehicle and took care of regular maintenance and had three to six months in country. The "Oscar" was the observer. He usually was the newest member of the crew. His job was to observe, stay out of the way and hump ammo for the machineguns as needed. When the TC ended his tour everyone would move up to the next position (Oscar to driver to gunner to TC) and a new guy would become the new Oscar. This was a very good system and it kept continuity within the team. If someone got hit and evaced, adjustments needed to be made and members from different tracks might be switched around. There might also be times when there may be more than one new guy on a track. For my part I was perpetually an Oscar because I might need to "unass" the track if there were casualties and therefore wouldn't be around to perform any usual function.

An ACAV's armament consists of one .50 cal. machinegun (with about 5,000 rounds of ammo), one M60 machinegun (with 7,200 rounds of ammo) and each crewmember's personal weapon-usually three M16s and one M79 (I was issued an M1919 45cal. pistol). Additionally, we carried several dozen hand grenades, six or more claymore mines ("FRONT TOWARD ENEMY"), several pounds of C4 explosive (great for heating up C-rations), trip flares, a machete and various knives. We also were equipped with an eight-foot length of chain link fencing which was strung between engineer stakes at night as an RPG screen (it worked). During the rainy season we fashioned a poncho with its hood strapped to the antenna, its front corners to supports at the front and the rear corners to the jeep seats in the back. This created a dry space that covered the cupola and almost the entire main hatch.

The tanks were M48A3s (diesel fuel). The main gun was 90mm. Ammo consisted of four HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank) rounds and seventy Beehives. Imagine shooting eight belts of 1 inch darts in a bore of 90mm (3 1/2 inches). It made lots of little holes in the jungle. I heard of blowing a beehive on a gook-now you see 'em, now you don't! The tanks were truly awesome, the bad guys couldn't match their firepower. A good loader and TC could fire one round every four seconds!

There is a big misconception that medics were noncombatants. Although most conscientious objectors (C.O.s) were medics, very few medics were C.O.s. In the 1/4 Cav, that I was aware of, there were only two C.O.s out of about eighteen medics. I was issued a 45cal pistol although I didn't usually carry it. I'd leave it for the driver and use his M16 when we were driving around. If we made contact and I was lucky, I might get the M60 and shoot up my side of the formation. This was great fun as long as no one got hit. Usually no one got hurt except the bad guys.

The rats at the water plant came with a reputation. I am from the northwest side of Chicago, so I don’t know anything about sewer rats. I have seen field mice and expected the rats to be like plumped mice. PSgt Sanders had been bitten on his face by a rat just before I got there. No one seemed to be overly concerned. In the bunker, I heard squeaking and looked under the floorboards. There were several plump mice. What’s the big deal? My crew consisted of Richie Guerine, TC, Charles (Hoagie)Lamb, driver, Robinson, gunner, and me. Robbie and I slept in the bunked. Richie and Hoagie fought off the mosquitoes in the ACAV. One night Robbie opened a #10 can of shoestring potatoes and he and I finished off 2/3s of it. I was awakened by something munching on the shoestring potatoes. If the can was six inches high and it was 2/3s empty, this “mouse” must have been about ten inches long to be eating without knocking over the can! I yelled and scared it away, but later seriously thought of how I could eliminate it with my 45. If I had discharged the pistol in the bunker, Robbie would have probably strangled me for scaring him that way.

Next day Momma San came by and I used the picture from a comic book to ask her if she could get me a “Mouser”- Cong Mau! Apparently she didn’t quite get the idea. She shows up the next day with a kitten with a crooked tail. The “mouse” would have eaten it instead of the other way around. We argued a while, but the cat was so cute and maybe just its presence would give us some security, so I gave her a pack of Salems for the cong mau co (little girl cat). After only two days the cong mau wandered off and probably got picked up by the infantry-or eaten by the “mouse.”

After several weeks at the water plant we went in to Di An for Q-service - Quarterly maintenance on the vehicles. The tracks took a lot of abuse from vibrating down the roads. The crews unloaded everything from the inside, cleaned it all up, fixed anything that needed fixing and then put it all back; neatly this time. After the servicing we got to go on an ambush. Armored Cav in ambush may be an oxymoron. I couldn't figure out how the bad guys could not see a tank sitting in the middle of a field. My concept was for us to hide in a tree row waiting for them to waltz in front of the 90mms. On my first exposure to night ambushes the only excitement occurred when a klutz tripped and set off his claymore. He wouldn't admit it but we all knew who did it.

During our next visit in March to the Tu Duc water plant, both B and C Troops were preparing to sweep the Michelin Rubber Plantation. We gave two of our guys to B Troop as reinforcements because they were shorthanded. On the 30th of March Dan Curran died while on a mine sweep team. The other, John Holland, made it back and could tell us what had happened. Contact had been made in the Michelin with an enemy force. I'm not sure of the outcome. After several weeks at the water plant it was A-troop's turn to sweep the Michelin.

On one of our last nights at the water plant, a jeep with red seats entered the compound and stayed overnight. The next morning, it left minus its passenger seat. After they were long gone, my crew installed it on A21 for me. This was much more comfortable than what I had sat on previously, thanks guys.

The previous action must have driven out any NVA from the Michelin; we didn't see any. Maybe they saw us coming and got out of the way. I did see a road with many Ho Chi Minh sandal tracks on it and some bunkers. Some of my serious training came from watching reruns of “Combat” on TV. One of the stories was about a 16-year-old who somehow wound up in France with Sgt Saunders. (Isn’t it appropriate that my first PSgt was named Sanders?) When he was found out to be underage the squad was ordered to send him back but they were having problems with snipers and the kid was into collecting leaves. He’d say, “Well, leaves don’t belong there” pointing to a crotch in a tree. And Saunders would grease the Kraut snipers. Those accumulations of leaves in the crotches of the rubber trees were usually red ant nests. Shoot them up and you get a red ant shower. The bad guys also put claymores up in the trees. I wonder if shooting them would set them off. I heard of them, but never actually saw one and didn’t shoot any. It was during this time that the 1/4 Cav moved its HQ from Di An to Lai Khe in the rubber trees.

We got a new platoon leader, Lt. Mike Armstrong, some time in March or April. All I remember is that I first met him at Thunder I. Our previous Lt got hit by a rocket while in Lai Khe after he had rotated to the rear. He sent a letter to one of the platoon saying, “Beaucoup money for the rest of my life.” I think he lost body parts, maybe an arm and a leg. May found us going in an entirely new direction. I'd seen Hwy 13 all the way up to the An Loc/Quan Loi area; that was north (Indian Country). I'd been to the Iron Triangle west of Hwy 13 (the Rome Plows turned it into a vast field of elephant grass). And I'd been south to Saigon and beyond, but now we turned off Hwy 13 to the east. We called it the Song Be Road. This was a road all overgrown with foliage that hadn't been used in several years. We were to, first sweep the road, then, provide security for teams of Rome Plows while they cleared the brush away from the road for several hundred feet on each side. The Rome Plow is named after an enormous blade; manufactured in Rome, Ga.; made for cutting trees and clearing brush, which is attached to a caterpillar tractor. There were no trees too large for them. Soon the bad guys began coming and harassing us. They'd fire an RPG at the plows and beat it out of there before we could figure out where they were. Also in the vicinity was the 16th Mechanized Infantry. An RPG team blew up one of their APCs on the road. We showed up too late at the scene to find any of the bad guys. The war was now getting close.

It was at this time that the rains began. At night we stayed in an NDP (Nighttime Defensive Position) with an artillery unit. The furthest we got up the Song Be Road was a Montengnard village near a river. Around the first week of June we got put back on convoy duty; escorting resupply trucks up Hwy 13, from Lai Khe to Quan Loi. We would also do sweeps of the jungle north of Ben Cat in the Trapezoid. On the 9th of June the war became real.

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