Chap 19 Trouble at Loc Ninh 012425

      Two days before the Battle of Ong Thanh, on the 15th of October, three companies of my Dogface Battalion were flown to Song Be by C-130s. I and my B Company remained behind at Phuoc Vinh. Song Be was located north of Quan Loi and a few miles east of Loc Ninh. It was very close to the Cambodian border. Since all four Dogface Companies were away from Lai Khe during the battle of Ong Thanh on the 17th, our battalion grapevine did not pick up any information about the tragedy. No news of the battle reached my ears for years to come. If we had been in Lai Khe, I would have gotten wind of it, because that's where many of the wounded were initially taken. Instead, our A, C, and D companies were far removed and operating near the Cambodian border around Song Be until the 28th. My B Company was left behind at Phuoc Vinh, which was in War Zone D, just east of Lai Khe, maybe twenty miles. 

      Dick went with the main body of the battalion to Song Be. It would have been up to him to choose which at company to leave behind. It wasn't unusual for a battalion to be separated like this. Many times, the job required companies to operate independently. They could be tasked with guarding roads, guarding engineers or pulling security for a fire support base like Phuoc Vinh. In this particular incidence Dick picked my B Company for this job, because he knew that her commander, Watts Caudill, could be trusted, to make most decisions on his own. He was a man of absolute integrity. Dick had quickly recognized that Caudill was a man after his own heart in many ways. His self-discipline was incredible, even for a West Pointer. If Dick had any reservations about Caudill it was that he seemed a little too perfect.  

      It was definitely Caudill’s turn to be left behind. Caudill’s B Company had fought three separate major engagements at the battle of Da Yeu. Most commanders never fought one major engagement, during their entire six month stretch in the field. Caudill’s men had certainly earned a break. However, I can’t help but believe that there was another reason why our beloved, but very soulish battalion commander picked Caudill, to stay behind, not just for a few days, but for the rest of Operation Shenandoah II. You see, Caudill did not cuss. He did not drink. For goodness sakes, he never once visited the officer's club at Di An. Furthermore, he only raised his voice so his commands could be heard above the clashing clamor of combat. This was behavior which would give any hard charging, man’s man like Dick Cavazos pause to consider. Caudill’s personal demeanor couldn’t help but be a little disconcerting to a carnal Christian like our beloved leader, Dick Cavazos. You see, Dick, like most believers in Christ, was very comfortable with his confession of faith, stating that Jesus Christ was Lord of all, but he was also quite comfortable with letting those priests handle the spiritual stuff. He would do just fine running his own life by what he could feel, taste, see, hear, and smell. Actually, it was a bit unnerving to be around a guy like Watts Caudill. Dick much preferred bareback associations, with all the confrontational up and downs, and yes, the foul language to go along with it. When he was in the presence of this guy, he began to feel all funny inside, like he was being condemned by just being in this guy’s presence. Dick was a horseman and sometimes on the ranch he had liked to ride fast with the wind in his face. Being around Watts Caudill, however, made him feel like he was riding in a horse drawn buggy with his pastor doing the driving. My guess is Watts gave Dick a weird feeling which he just couldn’t shake off. To top things off, a little satanic voice will always whisper in the ear of believers like Dick, telling them, that no one worth his salt could be as nice as Caudill. Yes, Watts had performed magnificently in those battles in the Long Nguyen Secret Zone, but I still believe that there was something working deep within Dick’s subconscious making him want to keep Caudill at arm's length. Here is the bottom line. Satan always works much harder at trying to make people feel uncomfortable around Holy Spirit Anointed believers, like Watts Caudill, especially during this time in our military’s history. It’s one of his oldest deceptions. This satanic lie would like nothing more than for the world to believe that Holy Spirit Anointed believers are nothing more than emotional cripples, feigning faith in God as a crutch to get them through life. On the contrary. Caudill was the real deal. Like Henrietta Chamberlain King, Watts followed that light that burned deep inside him. After retiring as a Lt. Colonel, Watts Caudill spent twenty years as a high school teacher, influencing the lives of countless teenagers. All three of his sons served in Iraq at the same time. Simply put, Watt's and Sally's lives have become living stones in that foundation which continues to make America great. Dick became famous. However, Watts did not, nor would my B Company be at the famous Battle of Loc Ninh.      

       Mac and his company would be there. He had started his tour of duty with the 1/18th in January and had caught the tail end of our former commander, Lt. Col. Denton's tour. McLaughlin was finishing his orientation week at Di An, while I and other newbies in my squad was earning our C.I.B. at Lt. Col. Denton's fiasco in Bien Hoa Province. I say fiasco because this hero of Pork Chop Hill had commanded us to charge an enemy bunker complex head on with no artillery and misdirected air support (I talked about this earlier). Soon however, even as a PFC, McLaughlin was acting squad leader. He was then promoted to buck sergeant in July. Mac, as McLaughlin's men called him, had taken over as acting squad leader shortly after that long hot day, where his squad was digging in next to my squad (I also mentioned this earlier). It was there that I got a glimpse of his Lima platoon in motion. Lima was the radio call sign for his C Company first platoon. I could tell with just this one brief glance that this was a group of guys which had a certain chemistry about them and at the time I remember feeling downright jealous. Deep down I longed for what they had, but never realized that I was the reason for not having it. Instead, I blamed it on everything except my own bad attitude. 

      Moving on and as I said, the entire unit, minus my B Company, was airlifted to Song Be on the 15th of October. Mac left on R & R a day or so before his C Company was flown to Song Be. He had been able to obtain one of the first R&Rs being issued to Australia and that break had been long overdue. On returning to Di An after having one of the greatest times of his young life, he learned that his C Company was still located in Song Be. More than likely Mac learned this first from the clerk working our unit's supply counter, because that is the first place he would have stopped when he arrived back at our battalion area at Di An. There were several good reasons for stopping by the supply room first. For one, he would have wanted to pick up his combat gear, and duffle bag, which held every personal item he owned in Vietnam. Those had been stored in the supply room while he was in Sidney. Secondly, that supply clerk could not only tell him where his unit was and when to hitch a chopper ride to get there, but also give him news about his unit while he was away. 

     After leaving the supply room, he headed for his sleeping quarters, lugging his duffle bag, with an M-16 slung over his shoulder. Once there, Mac quickly changed clothes. I remember those sleeping quarters as being nothing more than a World War II vintage canvas tent large enough to house his entire platoon. However, by this late date in 1967, Mac believes that they had been replaced by screened-in hoochs on concrete slabs. Anyway, the type of dwelling really doesn't matter. What does matter is that Mac would have been wearing his kaki uniform on the plane flying back from Sidney and also on the hot one-hour bus ride from Tân Sơn Nhất. The bus had heavy meshed wiring on the windows and no air conditioning. Thus, Mac would have been soaked with sweat when he arrived at his unit area. This was another good reason why he did not go straight to the orderly room first. He certainly was not going to report to the noncommissioned officer on duty soaking wet and looking like he was anything less than ready for duty. When Mac finished getting dressed for duty, the last piece of clothing he would have donned was his steel helmet. It had that certain back-to-work look that was all its own. The well-worn camouflage cover was stained red in places. It was also smelly from sleeping in the mud of War Zone C way too long. Sure, he could have gotten a new camo-cover while at the supply counter. However, this smelly stained one made a great statement. It and a smooth shave said, "I am back and more than ready for duty”. Of course, that was a lie, but nevertheless that's the visuals Mac's appearance now signaled to anyone, who would be looking him up and down in that orderly room, when he reported for duty. 

      Although changing into dry clothes did make Mac feel better, his mind was still not open for business. Changing clothes couldn't change that. Wouldn't it be nice if it could? Doggone it, why did Australia have to be so much fun? It was everything and more than Mac had ever dreamed it would be. Now he was suffering the downside of that grand experience. Mac had grown up a military brat. This meant that he had to grow up fast and learn how to fit in quickly because his family moved around a lot. However, on his first night in Sidney there was no such thing as fitting in at a popular neighborhood bar. It was one which he had randomly chosen to visit. On the contrary. With his American accent, he stood out in a way that he could never have imagined in a hundred years. The regular patrons at this bar would not stop slapping him on the back and buying another mug of beer before he got the chance to empty the one already in his hand. All the while they called him Yank and pointed him out to every new arrival as if he was some kind of celebrity. It was one of the most marvelous, impromptu nights of Mac's young life and he couldn't quite make himself believe it was all happening in the company of complete strangers. To this very day, Mac would probably say that there has never been a night like it since. He talks more about it in his book, "Cheerful Obedience". 

     As soon as Mac slipped into his kaki uniform to board his return flight, gone was this fleeting moment of lighthearted exhilaration, and in came the dread. To counter the dread of returning to combat, he told himself all the usual reasons why it was good. He reminded himself that he wasn't new anymore. He knew his job and he was good at it. He also knew his people and they were good. His point man, Johnny O'Conner was one of the best in the business and he was training another man, Tom Mercer, who was probably going to be even better. However, Mac was not about to tell Mercer that. Furthermore, he told himself, that he had been in enough scrapes to be able to handle himself no matter what came his way. 

     However, deep down, he also knew something else. He knew that everything he was saying to himself about surviving the next few months was a lie. Yet, he kept trying to repeat this little pep talk. Still, his gut wasn't buying it. His gut said something totally different. It said that the deadly realities of this war were so random and the safe havens so few, that no guy in his shoes had much of a chance of making it out unscathed. No amount of experience or good thinking on his part was going to counter that fact. He had a little over two months left and even one month was a lifetime in Vietnam. He was that one in ten soldiers at the tip of the spear. To make matters worse, he not only had to look out for himself but at least ten other guys as well. 

      This was the sobering reality which was trying to seep into Mac’s mind on the quiet flight back. So, to counter those terrible thoughts on the long flight, Mac flipped a switch in his head and started thinking about those brief but heavenly moments again, which he had just left behind. Surprisingly, like a drug, those pleasant thoughts grew stronger on the bus ride from the airport. Now, they were still in his head as he was approaching the orderly room to report to the duty officer. It was becoming a little disconcerting. Maybe it was even a little unhealthy. It was certainly distracting. Mac quickly reminded himself that they were just daydreams of an incredibly pleasant getaway and nothing more. It was definitely not the kind of thoughts which he now had the luxury of entertaining. Yet, he couldn't seem to shake them. As he drew closer and closer to the orderly room door, Australia continued unrelentingly to loom larger and larger in Mac's mind. Finally, Mac blurted out to himself, almost audibly, "That's it. Enough is enough. This is a dangerous distraction, and I will have no more of it. Yes, Australia was great, and yes, I am probably going to die, but not now. Now, I must put one foot in front of the other and regain my composure". With that determined decree, Mac tried one more time to flip that switch back to God, country and duty, but it was to no avail. That switch was broken. These addictive thoughts were too tantalizing to be denied. Yet, Mac knew that these heavenly distractions had no place in this hellish business. Still, Mac couldn't shake them. Heck fire, to make matters worse, he not only couldn't quit thinking about his bar night, but those thoughts were now being joined by vividly vivacious mental pictures of those gorgeous Australian girls. They were so open and inviting to a Yank like him. Mac’s conscious mind had now become totally consumed with these enticing memories. They flashed ever more seductively through his head, stubbornly refusing to leave, as he neared that orderly room door to report for duty. 

       Wouldn't you know it? It took something comical to snap him back to his present reality. It was something which only a grunt-turned sergeant could appreciate, and it caught his eye just as he happened to glance over his right shoulder. That something was two soldiers working on a detail in the distance. At the back of two wooden outdoor latrines, Mac watched as those two soldiers dragged cut-in-half 55-gallon drums from the latrines' rear trap doors. Gooey human excrement was slushing around inside those barrels and some of it splashed on one of the soldiers as the bottom rim of his barrel dropped from the floor of the latrine to the ground. The man immediately let go of the drum and began hopping around on one foot while hollering out a string of cussing shouts that would have made any drill sergeant proud. Mac couldn't help but let a faint smile cross his face, as he watched and listened to the man's miserable antics. Shaking his head, Mac mused to himself. "Things could be worse. He could be returning from R & R, to be placed on a roster, for a detail like these guys were pulling. As a newbie he had caught that detail, and it had been the most disgusting and humiliating job of his life. However, those E-5 stripes he now wore on his sleeves, assured him that he would never have to do what these guys were doing ever again. No, coming home to hell was not quite as bad as it could have been. With this amusing scene playing out before him, the alluring thoughts of his amazing Australian adventure began to fade, only to reappear many times in the next fifty years. No thanks to Mac, that switch was flipped, and the timing was perfect because he was just reaching out his hand and getting ready to open the orderly room door to report for duty.  

      Finally, when Mac was aboard the C-130 which would take him as far as Quan Loi, he began to think about the first things he needed to do when he rejoined his men at Song Be. He had switched weapons with one of his squad members before leaving for R & R. No doubt, switching back for his M-14 would be the first thing he would do. The second thing he would do is say his hellos. On second thought, more than likely he would just skip the hellos and start right in with the questions. However, Mac was smart enough to know that there was one or two questions which he would never want to ask his men. Catching up by asking these kinds of questions would be something else he would have already done when he paid his visit to the supply hooch at Di An. Supply clerks not only knew unit locations and transport schedules, but they also had the down and dirty scoop, on who was recently killed or wounded and how they were killed. Getting unabridged information like this from guys who interacted with us front line people all the time and getting it before he returned to his men was vital. Mac definitely did not want to be blind-sided with that kind of bad news coming from the lips of his own men. He also did not want to hear about bad news from some paper pushing duty officer at the orderly room. Fortunately, the unit lost no one while Mac was away. 

       Mac rejoined his men at Song Be with little fanfare. Several days later everyone got some really good news. They would be returning to Lai Khe and then on to Di An for a two-week break. After returning to Lai Khe on the 28th of October, they did get to eat a nice home cooked meal, produced by the fine dine cooks in C Company's very own gourmet kitchen. It was housed in one of those olive drab World War II tents. Afterward, the men of C Company settled in for a quiet evening. Mac's unit was not required to pull perimeter guard, which was very unusual, but very welcomed. Normally, when we were resting up in Lai Khe, we pulled perimeter guard, which meant that one man out of three had to be awake at all times.    

      At 0100 hours, on the 29th of October, NVA General, Tran Van Tra, had the forces of his 9th Division launch an attack against the air strip at Loc Ninh. This was a sleepy-time dream-buster for Mac as well as every other sleepy headed soldier in A, C and D Company. The attack also meant that Mac's boys in A,C and D companies could kiss any chance of spending two weeks in Di An good-bye. The transportation people who flew those big C-130s and Chinooks were also abruptly awakened in the middle of the night. Even before his grunts were awakened, and within minutes of the news trickling in over the Lai Khe command bunker radios, a sleepy-eyed Dick Cavazos was already setting on the edge of his folding cot, lacing up his jungle boots. His snoring soldiers were allowed to saw logs for another couple hours, while General Hay and the other brass met with Dick and other available battalion commanders to get a game plan going. I have to give credit here where credit is due. Their game plan came together fast, and it was as well planned as any checker move in the history of checkers. Never mind that the game being played was not checkers but Chess. A checkerboard was the only board they had been given so it would have to do. In other words, tactically, Hay came up with as good a plan as could be expected. Strategically, the entire way we fought the enemy in Vietnam was foolish. Hay didn't have any control over that. 

      General Hay quickly decided that blocking positions around the Loc Ninh air strip were needed, which was completely in line with what any military leader in his shoes would have been able to conclude, given the overhaul strategy determined by MACV (Military Assistance Command Vietnam). Three Companies of the 1/18th Infantry would be inserted into a rubber tree plantation 3.5 klicks northwest of the air strip. The 1/26th would be inserted 6 klicks north of the air strip and Sergeant Murry's 1/16th would be inserted 7 klicks northeast. The 1/28th would later be inserted 2.5 klicks to the east-southeast, while Jim Kasik's B Company, along with C Company, of the 2/28th Black Lions would be flown directly into the air strip along with more artillery. These Black Lions would reinforce the beleaguered CIDG forces. Those forces had been forced to retreat to the southern end of the airstrip during the night, because two battalions of NVA had penetrated the north end. The NVA sappers used Bangalore torpedoes to blow a path through the Constantine wire around the northern perimeter. Then these same sappers hastily herded expendable NVA conscripts through the gaps. They carried satchel charges which would be thrown into bunkers inside the compound.  

      Dawn was just breaking when Mac and company boarded the C130s to fly them the 53 kilometers to the air strip at Quan Loi. There they quickly transferred to Chinooks to be flown into the rubber tree plantation 3.5 kilometers west of the air strip at Loc Ninh. It was not a contested landing. That's why the Chinooks could be used. Every veteran in Mac's Lima platoon picked up on this fact, and quickly settled down to take care of what they knew would be noncombat business. Every wide-eyed new guy was scared out of their ever-loving minds and unable to pick up on anything. However, that was okay, because there were enough old guys who did know what to do and they were intermingled amongst these newbies. They became the catalyst which would transform these new grunts from fearful prey into fearless predators. 

       When Dick's boys arrived in the rubber trees, they started fanning out to establish a perimeter. Not a single shot had been fired and there was no prepping of the surrounding jungle with artillery and air strikes. The general feeling resonating with most was not bad, not bad at all. It was now mid-morning and looking like it was going to be just another hot hard day of digging in and running patrols. Sure, between the noisy arrival of Chinooks, bringing in supplies, one could hear occasional explosions and heavy automatic weapons fire, off in the distance, but that could be anything. After all, they were not on a peaceful sight-seeing tour of some historic battlefield in Virginia. There was always some type of small time, but real live action going on everywhere we went.  

       As usual, the ground was hard and the digging was slow and made even slower, because the same Chinooks which brought Mac, and his friends had to return to Quan Loi and then return with the extra supplies needed to sustain the unit overnight. Among those supplies were the mattocks needed to bust up the hard ground and the Marston matting needed to be used as supports, for the overhead covering of DePuy bunkers, plus extra munitions of all types. 

      Off came the shirts, and the digging began. There was a little cussing here and there too as someone's light entrenching tool bounced off the hard laterite encrusted ground. Mac's bunker faced west. His first squad butted up to recon platoon bunkers on one side and Sergeant O'Brian's second squad on the other. I am sure recon's presence at this time was much appreciated by those veterans in Mac's platoon. As I said earlier, our 1/18th recon were some of the best in the business.

       As the morning turned into midday, the explosions to the east ceased. Most of those explosions, had been made by M-72 rocket launchers donated by Kasik's men to help the CIDG guys clear bunkers within the perimeter of the air strip. It seems that some of those NVA conscripts had been trapped in these bunkers when the bulk of enemy forces had withdrawn at dawn. By 0930 hrs. the two batteries of artillery which had been transported by Chinooks to the Loc Ninh air strip earlier, were also firing away. They were establishing registration points within their umbrella of protection, providing protection for us and those other units in the area. Although Dick's landing was unopposed, and in the middle of a rubber tree plantation, other blocking units landed in thick jungle. 

      Before my Dogface battalion had landed, Col. Hoang Cam had been instructed by Tra to have elements of his 165th NVA regiment scout outlying areas around that airstrip. Tra knew that more Americans would show up and he had no intentions of running. As a matter of fact, he was counting on our arrival. It was naïve of us to think otherwise. Hours before the attack on the airstrip Tra knew Cam would have plenty of time to get into position because any American unit landing around the airstrip would take a lot of time digging in before running those patrols. While that was taking place, he could easily move his troops into a final likely location to intercept our patrols. Then, Cam could hide and wait for just the right moment to pounce. We Americans called these deployments of our arriving troops around the airstrip blocking positions. We visualized them as being tactical instruments which would intercept and destroy the enemy as he retreated from the airstrip. As I have explained, that was not at all the case. The enemy actually planned all along to lure these units into the area and keep them there for as long as possible because the Tet Offensive was being staged at this time. We couldn’t discover staging areas for the Tet Offensive, if we were traipsing around up north and Tra knew that. 

       Tra also knew that He would not be able to overrun the Loc Ninh air strip and hold it. So, the logical question for us to have asked ourselves, would have been to ask, “Why were the communist attacking targets like this all-over South Vietnam?” They knew they had no chance of winning and holding that ground? Were they stupid? Almost every time this was done, they would lose at least half of their attacking forces. Why would anyone do that? Unfortunately, Westmoreland never thought to ask himself what was really going on. Truth is, Westmoreland had no understanding of simple tactical affairs, much less the strategic aspects of the war which needed to be addressed. However, neither did the rest of us. Americans, including me, were too busy becoming more like our enemy, instead of trying to build a closer relationship with our God. He is the only one who can show a nation’s leaders how to vanquish their enemies once and for all. All other wars fought without his guidance bring only temporary victories at best. 

       In Vietnam we were trying to use an ace band aid to cure a skin cancer. In other words, President Johnson had simply picked the wrong person to lead us to victory in Vietnam. Simply put, our generals including Westmoreland thought too small. Johnson was a very influential American president. He may have been a womanizer and a boozer, but he had an intimate understanding of how to navigate that Washington swamp to get things done while not being eaten by alligators. Like no other, he knew how to rally the support needed for almost any cause he set his mind to. Maybe some of those causes were bad, but Johnson’s cause to see that South Vietnam remained free from communism was not one of his bad ideas. God was definitely on board with this. However, Lyndon was trying to accomplish this good goal by looking to other people to get him where he wanted to go, instead of looking to God first. All believers have done that, and I believe Lyndon was a believer. Westy presented the right look and the right demeanor to sooth those insecurities in country boy Lyndon, but he never did and never would have the right stuff to get Johnson where he needed to go in Vietnam. 

        By 1967, the enemy had proven that it was impossible for us to trap and destroy their large forces with our large forces, helicopters or no helicopters. However, Westy refused to open his eyes to that reality. He showed no capacity, whatsoever, for understanding even the smaller tactical aspects of the war, so how could he ever be expected to understand the larger strategic problems facing us? Westy was much more suited to navigate the etiquette required of a state dinner at a White House than he was at handling a war in Vietnam. Sadly, his publicly attractive facade misled the one American president who not only wanted to do the right thing, but also, for a very short window in time, possessed a coalition of powers to be able to accomplish that right thing. 

       Let me change lanes again and say that the guys who withstood the initial attack on Loc Ninh in the early hours of October 29, 1967 were amazing. Although most of our war leaders never realized this, the three groups of freedom fighters who fought at Loc Ninh that night were exactly the right blend, which needed to be propagated, so they could become the legs that could carry us to victory in Vietnam. In other words, they were a key component of the winning strategy which had eluded Westmoreland. 

     The first group was an ethnic group which composed probably two thirds of these fighters. They were an indigenous tribal peoples known as Montagnards. They were born on banana leaves and taught to shoot a crossbow as soon as they could walk. They were very disciplined souls, whose entire existence was one with the remote jungles of western Vietnam. They were honest, loyal, very hard working, highly intelligent and very receptive to the Judeo-Christian principles so vital to the continued survival of any free republic. They lived in areas, where the average Vietnamese of that era had no intention of going, much less think about building a home there. So, in 1967, this natural boundary tended to mitigate any racial tensions between these two groups. Yes, there was still the issue of racism between the lowland's Vietnamese and the thirty tribes of Montagnards, but, as I said, it was mitigated by the geography of the country. Also, this sin is a human failing, born out of very preventable ignorance. It is a problem which democracies have proven they can deal with in a relatively peaceful manner. That has not proven to be the case in communist countries. After the communist takeover in Vietnam, these beautiful Montagnard peoples became the victims of genocide. 

     The next group were Vietnamese who were part of a very professional ranger force. 

     The third group was our recently formed American Special Forces. 

     There is nothing like fighting together as comrades, to meld people of all walks and ethnic groups together, especially when they fight for a righteous cause. These CIDG fighters were all volunteers, and they were there because they believed in what they were doing. Many in this little band of around a hundred souls formed life-long bonds. 

      During the initial attack on the airstrip, on the 29th, this small CIDG force withstood an enemy attack, which outnumbered them at least ten to one. Gun ships and Puff The Magic Dragon did help, but it took time for those assets to show up. Long before they did, the northern perimeter was breached and enemy conscripts poured through blown gaps, by the hundreds. A combination of quick maneuvering and deadly return fire saved this little band of fighters. Bunkers on the northern end of the air strip were quickly abandoned and those on the southern end were reinforced with these fighters, from the north end. It was a great decision but not nearly as good as the next one. After his men reached the safety of bunkers on the south end, the village chief ordered supporting artillery from another fire base to start shelling the air strip. He requested those shells to be armed with proximity fuses, which exploded in mid-air just a few feet from the ground. This type of shelling killed anyone out in the open but did not harm those men who were in bunkers. 

      After the shelling continued for a while, many of the enemy conscripts started retreating, but only after many of their die-heart handlers had either been killed or had run away, themselves. It was these guys who instilled much more fear into their conscript subordinates than did the defenders of the CIDG camp itself. This type of motivating tool worked on a simple principle of terror. This terror tactic was not allowed to be used in the ranks of American draftees. Our NCOs were not allowed to arbitrarily shoot people in the head for disobeying an order. Why? Because we were a country of the people whose leaders were ultimately bound by law to answer to us ordinary folks at the ballot box. Our constitution, and the bill of rights protected certain inalienable rights. 

      Because of the intense shelling and also the fear of being shot if they retreated, some NVA conscripts sought the protection of abandoned bunkers on the north end, where they were still huddling together long after the main body of attackers had withdrawn at dawn. Later, as I have already mentioned, after the arrival of Kasik and his Black Lions, M-72 rockets were used to clear those bunkers of these hapless souls. 

      Somehow, someway, one platoon of irregular Montagnard fighters were not part of the fight at the Loc Ninh airstrip. Perhaps they were a security force or maybe a recon unit. I don't know. What is known, however, is this. Around noon, on that next day, they were operating about 1000 meters north of my Dogface NDP when they located a company of the 165th NVA regiment. These Montagnards knew this area and its trails like the back of their hand, and they would have been well aware of Dick’s landing earlier that morning. More than likely, they had already made face to face contact with Dick when his Dogface boys first landed. Maybe Dick, himself, sent them to check out that area north of his perimeter. 

      With these assumptions being made, the rest of that day for my Dogface battalion is pretty well documented, except for one thing. Here again, I will make one more likely assumption. I assume that the Montagnards made soft contact with that company of the 165th. There are several reasons why I think that. For one, Montagnards were the best in the world at slipping within earshot of the enemy, without being noticed, and they could maintain that soft contact all day, if they chose to do so. Secondly, there was no eyewitness accounts of anyone hearing the sounds of a fire fight, while my Dogface Battalion was digging their homes for the night, just south of where Cam’s forces were hiding. I Believe that is because those slippery Montagnards spotted the enemy and slipped away without being noticed. They then high tailed it to our camp and gave Dick the news. 

     Dick immediately ordered a company sized force of his own to move against that known enemy presence. They would advance in a V formation and C company was chosen for the job. Mac's first squad in Lima platoon would run point. Johnny O'Conner was point-man. Since Mac's squad was running point, he was called to the patrol briefing, given by the C company commander, Capt. Bill Annan. Lima platoon leader, Lt. Paul Zima, and platoon sergeant, John May, were there too. John May had started out earlier that summer in my platoon, training under my platoon sergeant, Sergeant St. Aman. When everyone had gathered around Capt. Annan, he gave his instructions, as he had received them from Dick, but there was a caveat in those orders, and I believe Dick knew that this caveat might give Bill Annan some trouble at the briefing. It's also possible that Dick wanted to see how Captain Annan would handle that caveat and that's why Dick was not present at the briefing, but was circling close by, within earshot. 

      After giving out the patrol route on the map and what formation they were going to use, Annan finished up by delivering his caveat. He looked Mac straight in the eye and slammed him squarely in the face with the following command. "Mac", Annan said, "This patrol is within the boundaries of a rubber tree plantation, so you will be operating in an area designated as a no-fire-zone to protect those rubber trees". Mac knew that meant that he would have to let the enemy shoot first before he was given permission to shoot back. Now Mac, though a squad leader, had cut his teeth on running point. All good point men in Vietnam were gun slingers at heart. When those words hit Mac's ears, the effects were akin to Wyatt Earp being ordered to let those Cowboys at the O.K. Corral take their best shots first, before he was allowed to shoot back. To say the least, Mac was jarred to the bone. Without hesitating, Mac blurted out, "Sir, those orders don't make sense. We know the enemy is there". Annan replied, "Mac those are our orders". It was a short and unvarnished reply. 99% of all junior officers in Vietnam would have responded just as curtly as Annan. However, Mac had not gotten to sow sergeant stripes on his arms, by being shy, so he repeated again, "Sir, it just doesn't make sense". Now, Bill Annan was stuck. He didn't know how to respond to Mac, who was now questioning his orders for a second time. To make things doubly hard, he was being second guessed in front of everyone by someone whom he considered to be one of his best young NCOs. Only one in a thousand young commanders would have been able to deal with a nuance of command as complex as this. Bill wasn't that one in a thousand.  

     However, as I said,  the ole man had been circling close by. Now, Dick realized that Bill was stuck. So, he swooped in like momma goose, but with more finesse. "Sergeant Mac, what is the problem?", Dick asked in a stern but calm voice. Mac, not the kind to be easily intimidated, never batted an eye as he briefly repeated the situation. Dick listened until Mac was finished and then he spoke these few wise words. Mac has remembered those words from that moment until this very day. It was a teaching moment for everyone standing in that briefing. "I and Capt. Annan expect you to make the correct decisions to safeguard your men and you under any circumstances. Do you understand what I am saying?" “Yes Sir”, Mac replied, as he visualized himself receiving a pat on the back by Dick for drilling every single rubber tree in the area. Yes indeed, after hearing those few words, Mac understood exactly what Dick was saying. Bill Annan not only understood exactly what Dick was saying, but he also realized what Dick had done. The ole man had just bailed him out of a sticky situation. Bill was in a position to lose face with his men, but Dick intervened masterfully. 

      While in the field, I felt very comfortable patrolling in rubber tree terrain, because I could spot the enemy at much longer distances, and it was much easier to perform tactical maneuvers. As we maneuvered, I could see other patrol members much better than in thick jungle. Our senior leadership didn't like fire fights in rubber trees because they got their butts reamed for destroying the rubber trees. We lower-level people really didn't give a hoot. As I have just explained, our ole man knew how to put to rest any concerns we may have otherwise had, about getting in trouble for destroying those rubber trees. On the other hand, our NVA enemy loved the jungle, and that was his first choice for ambush sites. The jungle was much more advantageous, because it allowed him to get close to avoid our artillery. 

     On this particular day, the 29th of October of 1967, enemy soldiers, who had been spotted by the Montagnards were almost certainly an advance party sent out to either start preparations for an ambush inside the jungle curtain to the north or to begin preparations for a night attack on the NDP. Cam would have thought, that he had all night, to make those preparations. I don’t believe that he had any idea that the CIDG patrol had spotted his troops and reported their location to Lt. Col. Cavazos. 

     When he was notified, that American soldiers were moving toward his troops so soon it had to be very disconcerting. Running communication wiring and establishing points for watchers with radios to relay those communications between Cam and his troops had not been established. That alone was a big problem. He had thought that these naïve Americans would wait until morning to start their patrolling. Yet here they were coming closer and closer. The ghosts of the jungle, better known as Montagnards had really thrown a kink in Cam's plans by warning the Americans. Cam still thought that the patrol was routine and had no knowledge that his troops were in the area. So, with that false assumption, he felt he had two choices. He could either scramble to get some of his troops into those irrigation ditches for a quick ambush or slip away unnoticed. Cam chose to stay and use the irrigation ditches to stage a hasty ambush. That turned out to be the wrong decision. His men did not have time to stockpile enough weapons and explosives to stage a proper ambush. After the first shots were fired, those trenches wouldn't offer all that much protection against American Artillery or even those nasty little M-79 thump guns. Firing locations coming from those ditches could also be easily pinpointed. Furthermore, when his troops were forced to withdraw, and they would be forced to withdraw, they would become easy targets, to be picked off. The reason for that was because they would be running through more open ground in the rubber trees. Yes, those sneaky Montagnards had foiled Cam's plans big time but at this point he didn’t know it. If he had, I believe that he certainly would have tucked tail and run. However, Cam was not nearly as smart as Triet, so I could be wrong. 

     The jungle was a Montagnard's living room, and he was completely at home there. The jungle was not the home of either the North or South Vietnamese. The NVA conscripts endured it because they were forced to endure it by their communist overlords who commanded the power of life and death. The dope which those communist henchmen provided helped quench the pain of having to exist in the most miserable circumstances imaginable.  

      No matter how winnable this fire fight was for the men of Charlie Company, Sergeant Mac and Johnny O'Conner should have been killed as soon as the fighting started, because they were walking point. As the patrol advanced, Mac came within fifteen meters of an enemy machine gunner. Johnny was the first to spot him and then warn Mac. The machine gunner smiled and then opened fired on Mac but missed. Johnny was 10 meters to Mac's right, when the shooting started, but made it through the entire fight without a scratch. Mac was able to lob a grenade into the ditch and kill the entire machine gun crew. It was a minor miracle for the Army and a major miracle for Mac and Johnny. I am not going to rehash the details, but the reader can read those details for themselves. They are compiled in a book which the guys of C company put together called "Dogface Charlie". 

      I will say this much. Lima platoon rushed those irrigation ditches, clearing them very aggressively with hand grenades and good shooting. Soon, Mike Platoon to Mac’s right flank came under heavy fire. In an incredibly good piece of maneuvering, Capt. Annan noticed what was happening and had Lima platoon withdraw to the south and circle around to Mike Platoon's right flank. They then got online and advanced forward, shooting ahead at anything which moved. That maneuver worked to dislodge the enemy shooters on Mike platoon’s right flank. The entire fire fight became a Wyatt Earp type shootout on steroids. Mac’s boys sent the VC packing. Only one American was killed in what was later called the Battle of Srok Silamlite I. 

      The night passed without incident and the next day C Company secured the NDP and A Company went on patrol south of the NDP. That next morning of October 30th, 1967 brought nothing out of the ordinary for Mac and friends. Yesterday's events were now filed away in some corner of their minds for future processing. Today they would try to enjoy a day at home. It was A Company's turn to take care of this day's patrolling. 100 strong, A Company patrolled east in the morning. It was a faint by Dick to make it harder on Cam to organize an ambush. The company was halted and ordered to return to the NDP. They were then sent south for 700 meters and directed to turn southwest advancing parallel to the elongated ridge of Hill 203. The hill was only about 100 feet high and on a rather gradual slope downward toward A Company’s line of march and to its left. 

      At 1230 hrs. the sound of the very recognizable repetitive clacking of an enemy RDP light machine gun could be heard in the NDP. That sound was immediately joined by other sounds of AK 47s, M-1 carbines, M-14s and M-16s. The sheer volume of fire told everyone in the NDP that a major fire fight was breaking out. 

     The Battle of Srok Silamlite II was beginning. Routines in the NDP immediately came to a halt. Those, whose jobs included the use of a radio, moved closer to those radios and listened intently. Others looked to their surroundings, checking to make sure that they had plenty of their favorite security blankets handy, be it hand grenades, rocket launchers, or just more ammo. If there was a supply helicopter in camp, it would have rushed to unload and get the heck out of Dodge. 

      Maybe Dick thought about jumping into his observation chopper to survey the trouble, but I doubt it. Dick and my unit had come a long way since he flew over my head looking for ambushers just outside Fire Base Thrust. He was not the kind to make the same mistake twice. By now Dick realized that using his two-man chopper could become a big distraction. At this moment he had more important things to do than trying to get a look-see at the battle, in a noisy helicopter. Besides, he already knew what he needed to know at least for now. His A Company commander had just given him a good sitrep and Dick had not picked this guy, because he could play a mean guitar. Dick knew his A company commander could handle it. He had long since weeded out those who couldn't. By now, his hands-on leadership didn't need any rookie knee jerk reactions from him. All four of his handpicked company commanders were the best in the business. Dick decided to be patient, stay put, and let things develop. 

      One of the main reasons why he needed to be patient was because soon a flurry of questions would come flooding across the radios and some of those were from senior command. Why complicate things by jumping into his chopper, where he would immediately isolate himself from the rest of his command group. Yes, choosing to command from his chopper would create many distractions, not to mention having to dodge friendly artillery and airstrikes, while perched above the battle. Things needed to be kept simple. Those long antenna radios in his present position assured him of quicker and clearer communications with everyone plus he was standing face to face with the rest of his headquarters people. If he needed something from them, they were within the sound of his voice. Staying put was definitely the right decision. It was the one Lazzell should have made during the Battle of Xom Bo II.  

      Here’s another thing or two for you would be leaders to think about. Adapt it as you see fit to any non-combat situations. During battle talk on the radio, no field commander in the entire division could dress up their radio conversations like Dick. He could come up with more of the right colored word pictures to satisfy the most discriminating tastes, in a senior commander. Before talking to a superior on that radio, Dick had already read his mind. He knew exactly which page to paste what word picture. The sheer beauty of Dick’s unscripted and simple word pictures over the radio, where all could hear, persuaded any senior commander into doing his every bidding. What was Dick’s secret? Well, for one, Dick had the confidence, to make his way seem like the way it was always done. In that way, his ideas became his superior’s ideas too. This approach not only convinced senior commanders that he was the best thing since sliced bread but reassured them that they were too. 

     They say knowledge is power. Well, okay. Dick could not only talk the talk, but he could walk the walk. However, there was one thing he knew, which he would always keep to himself. He knew that all senior commanders were too far removed from the fast-paced actions on the ground to give competent commands to ground troops. This was true whether they were in a helicopter or not. Directing ground forces was not a senior officer’s job. Therefore, he was never going to be as good at it as the guy on the ground, who made his living that way. Furthermore, Dick knew that it would be disastrous to put a senior commander in that situation in the first place. A senior officer’s job was to be able to pick competent field commanders to do the other jobs. There-in lay another problem in Vietnam. There were just too few competent field commanders. A major reason for that was the way the system operated. You see, Vietnam was the first rodeo for most field commanders. By the time they learned a few things, their six-month tour in the field was over and another newbie took their place. However, as Dick later reminded us over and over. Vietnam was not his first rodeo. 

        The first gunfire, which Mac and company heard, coming from a distance, was Sergeant Joe Amos’s lead platoon of A Company. It had made contact with a much larger enemy force on Hill 203. I never met Platoon Sergeant Joe Amos, although we had been traveling on a parallel course for over a year now. In the summer of 1966, he had been one of hundreds of drill sergeants, who trained raw recruits like me at Fort Jackson South Carolina. He was there while I was there. Upon his arrival in Vietnam on October 17, the Korean veteran had immediately been rushed to the front and assigned as a platoon sergeant in A Company. Now, less than two weeks later, Joe’s Platoon was in the lead position, when A Company was attacked by Cam. 

     Joe had been born in the segregated state of Alabama on April 21, 1931. When he was a boy, Americans like Joe were not only made to ride at the back of the bus, but they were also required to use different public facilities like restrooms, restaurants, and hotels. When they traveled, they usually had to sleep in their cars or beside them on the ground. Good paying jobs were all but non-existent for young men like Joe Amos. To say Joe started his life as a second-class citizen would be an insulting understatement. Even the United States Army was segregated when Joe was a boy. It would be a lie if I said these conditions did not phase young Joe. Yes, they hurt him, but he didn't let these persecutions stop him. Many Americans, who shared those same obstacles, buckled under the steady stream of humiliations. However, there was a different kind of fire burning inside the Baptist heart of Joe Amos. No doubt, it had been kindled by those truths which he had been taught as a child in that little all black church, where he attended each week. This kind of fire is not dampened by adversity. Adversity simply makes it grow brighter. It’s the same fire that burned in the heart of the missionary’s daughter, Henrietta King. Joe learned early on two important things that many people never learn. The first thing he learned was never let other people's opinions shape his own opinions unless they made sense to him. Secondly, he learned from those church bible stories, that life is not fair. He also learned that he shouldn't let that stop him. The teenaged Joe first got to put these truths into practice when he got the opportunity to play football at Wenonah High. The team sport of football helped greatly to prepare the young Joe for a career in the U.S. Army. After the Korean War, more and more opportunities started opening up in the U.S. Army. Though still prejudicial in many ways, it was no brainer for Joe to take advantage of the doors in the Army which were opening to him. Yes, he learned some valuable lessons about being part of a team, first with football and then in the Army. Joe continued to build on what he learned. 

     After high school Joe served in the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team during the Korean conflict. There are two occurrences, which I was able to glean from researching Joe’s early life, that are a testament to his fearless nature. The first was a statement made by one of Joe’s buddies concerning an incident he experienced with Joe, while they were in combat in Korea. His friend said they were being shelled by enemy artillery and were running for a fox hole to take cover when an artillery shell exploded in that very fox hole. It exploded before they reached it, so Joe jumped in anyway. He then turned to his friend and said, “Come on. They can’t hit the same place twice”. The second example of Joe’s fearlessness was when Joe took on all comers while he was still in Korea to become the Regimental heavy weight boxing champion.  

     With knowledge of these facts, I think it is safe to say Joe was a real man’s man, who did not have to seek out the respect of his fellow soldiers. He just naturally conducted himself in a way that made his fellow officers and men respect him. They automatically gave Joe the type of respect that most men long for, but few obtain. In 1965, Joe, again, entered a combat zone, when his 82nd Airborne Unit was sent to the Dominican Republic. 

     All who have faced combat are changed forever by that experience. That's easy to know but here is a fact which is a little harder to understand. It is a rare person, indeed, who is able to face combat in two different wars and be able to volunteer for yet a third combat tour. Yet, that's exactly what 36-year-old Sergeant Joe Amos did. I have read the comments of friends, and I know what the battleground conditions were, at that spot on the earth where Joe fought his last battle in this life. I also got a taste of Joe's world after he returned from war number two, when he became a drill sergeant at Fort Jackson.  

     Those drill sergeants at Fort Jackson were some of the finest NCOs whom I ever had the privilege of knowing. As a whole, they seemed to possess a fathering spirit which said do as I do, instead of do as I say. Like Dick, they walked the walk. Even I, as a mixed up nineteen-year-old kid, marveled at the character, which, to a man, these men possessed. Most of them, like Joe, had been tempered in the cruel fires of combat in Korea and had been found to be made of a very fine and rare metal. My training unit's forty-year-old first sergeant ran the five-mile run every morning at the head of our company. After graduation, one of the guys in my platoon got married and that same first sergeant stood in as the father of the bride to give her away. We trainees developed the utmost respect for this man, and it was very unusual for a bunch of draftees to do that. 

     Knowing what I know, I now realize that Joe was forged from the same material as my first sergeant at Fort Jackson. Yes, war had changed Joe Amos, but he had defied the odds to become a much better version of himself. He had become a fathering spirit to every young grunt under his command. However, Joe had also gotten married and now had two children. In Korea, he had no one to worry about except himself. Now there were other lives, which were his responsibility to shepherd. Now, there was a conflicting choice to be made. Was he going to stay in an environment where he could continue maintaining the high level of respect which he had worked so hard to achieve? If he was, that would mean hitting the ground running by volunteering for a one-year tour in Vietnam. The other choice was to stay stateside and retire in two years. If he chose to leave the Army to become a functioning husband and father to his family, Joe knew that he would probably be limited to accepting one of a list of demeaning civilian jobs, because those were usually the only ones available to Americans like Joe Amos in 1960s America. This would turn out to be the most fateful decision of Joe's life other than confessing Jesus Christ as his Lord. He chose Vietnam and his grunt sons and gambled that in one year he would have the rest of his life to be a father to his children. 

      Here is why that dream was stolen from Joe. As Joe's point men in A company were skirting Hill 203 to the west, they were being watched by ambushers entrenched slightly to their left flank in irrigation ditches on the side of Hill 203. They were separated through the rubber trees by maybe three hundred meters from the first enemy entrenchment. 

     The fire fight started this way between the two sides. Joe’s point element spotted a lone VC standing on the hill halfway to the top. They engaged him and drew fire from the entire hillside. This time Cam had sent not just a company but an entire battalion to kill Americans. Even before Dick started walking artillery down the side of that hill, Cam knew what was coming and telephoned orders to charge the Americans. The NVA conscripts came out of their ditches and charged down the hill. A Company withdrew fifty meters and formed a three-sided perimeter with two platoons covering each flank. Joe’s platoon covered the front facing their enemy. There was an enormous amount of small arms fire and machine gun fire and Joe’s platoon was catching the brunt of it. Joe and his two buck sergeants repeatedly exposed themselves as they worked to form a line facing the enemy. Most grunts hit the ground between the rows of rubber trees and laid still in the grassy weeds where they became almost invisible. The enemy conscripts charging down the hill were shooting high. However, some members of A Company were wounded in the initial bursts of machine gun fire. I don't have those numbers. 

     From the very start Joe’s combat experience in Korea kicked in. It didn't scare him to be moving around rather than laying low, so that’s what he did. Instead of shouting orders from a distance, Joe did what he had always done. His two buck sergeants followed his example. Joe had always led from the front. He was not about to change now. First, he and his buck sergeants helped move the wounded. Then Joe continued to move from soldier to soldier, directing fire on the charging enemy. Joe needed to make sure every man in his platoon was spread out, online, and controlling their return fire. That return fire was crucial to cover the maneuvering of A Company's other two platoons. Each of those platoons were now moving up and spreading out to cover both flanks. Any soldier who wasn't returning fire was instructed by Joe in no uncertain terms to start returning fire in the direction of incoming enemy tracer rounds. Once a perimeter was established and Joe had everyone returning a good volume of fire, the NVA started feeling the heat. 

      At 300 meters the M-16 return fire wasn't very effective, but the fire coming from the charging enemy’s AK-47s was even more inaccurate. As I said, most of these rounds went high. If Joe had stayed down and issued orders to others, he would have survived the battle, but he wasn't made like that. Besides, there was a lot to be done, and he was going to personally see that it got done. Extra belts of M-60 machine gun ammo were soon needed. Almost every soldier carried two one hundred round belts of that ammo. However, that ammo now needed to be collected and got into the hands of the platoon machine gunners before they ran out. This was not the personal responsibility of the platoon sergeant. He was supposed to assign that task to others. That's what a good platoon sergeant would have done but that's not what a good father would have done. As I have already explained, Joe Amos did not see himself as just a boss, but as a father figure to the grunts he commanded. A good father could never leave his sons alone in a desperate situation without circulating among them, looking them in the eye, and making sure they were doing what they needed to be doing to stay alive. The platoon leader lieutenant was just a kid, himself. He certainly wasn't going to fill that role. Besides, he had his hands full on the radio, coordinating artillery, and communicating with the company commander.  

     Joe and his grunt family did have help coming from two good buck sergeants. They were Kenneth Hanson and Michael Kenter. Both had been in-country since the beginning of the year. Both had earned their C.I.B. in the same battle, clearing those same enemy bunkers, where I had received my C.I.B. Both, like me, were twenty-year-old draftees, who had started out their in-country combat experiences as 19-year-old privates. However, that is where the similarity ended. Both had made the transition to become good young leaders. I had not. Both went from private to sergeant in less than a year while I remained a private. Although these two young men were my close contemporaries, they were definitely more mature than I. Both probably felt more comfortable around authority than I. Now, both men would follow the lead of their grunt father, Sergeant Amos, and expose themselves in those first intense moments of heavy enemy machine gun fire. They would help Joe to rescue other wounded men. Unfortunately, in those first few minutes of the battle, while exposing themselves to tremendous volumes of enemy machine gun fire, all three men were killed. 

       There were at least 600 VC attacking less than 100 Americans at the beginning of this battle. Dick wasted no time ordering D Company to saddle up and go help, while he called in artillery on the side of the hill. It was too late for that artillery to save the lives of Joe Amos, and his two grunt sons, Hanson and Kenter. Still, by now, their work was beginning to pay huge dividends. Their actions had been crucial in organizing a perimeter which was firing from prone positions on an enemy who was going to overwhelm them if they hadn’t done exactly what they did. Needless to say, that organized return fire stopped the enemy dead in his tracks. Joe Amos, Kenneth Hanson, and Michael Kenter saved A Company from being overrun.  

       D Company moved out to help Company A in record time. Mac's C Company spread out into vacant spots on the perimeter. Everyone knew that they were a skinny force called upon to defend the NDP. At this moment, if Cam had been that storied commander that the leftist press loved to present him as being, he would have also attacked the NDP. If he had done that, he would have most surely overrun it's lightly defended perimeter. Also, he could have possibly enveloped the other two companies on Hill 203. The 165th had 1800 men. We had roughly 450 counting the Montagnards. 

      As D Company left the perimeter and disappeared into the rubber trees to help the battling A Company, the lone C Company was left to defend the NDP. However, they did not cower down as most Hollywood directors would have portrayed them doing in their movie version of this story. Yes, C Company was now having to man bunkers that required three companies to properly man, but anyone not able to deal with the prospect of the NDP becoming another Alamo had long since been assigned elsewhere. At this point in Dick's reign, he had weeded out the ranks of his officers who couldn't hack it. At the same time, the likes of NCOs like McLaughlin and O'Brian had done the same with the grunts whom they commanded. Those solid dependable newer guys, like Tom Mercer, took note of this and continued their policy. I now wish I had possessed that same boldness. However, God has given me the wherewithal to bring to the attention of the world men like these who did.  

    There was a real mood change in C Company, as they were left alone to defend the perimeter. They were forced to again thin their already thin defensive lines. As they went about doing this, they narrowed their focus to just the one priority. That’s when the mood changed. It became more “matter of fact” and somber. Oh sure,  everyone went about the business of addressing the main priority a little differently, but the mood and the priority were the same for everyone. The mood was somber, and the priority was simply to get ready to kill as many of the enemy as fast as one could without getting hurt. Most grunts didn't have to be told what to do. No C Company NCO would have tried to dominate by barking out orders at a time like this. This was not the right time for barking. Quite frankly, every level of C company leadership was too busy gathering their own thoughts to worry about their grunts, whom they had already prepared and come to trust. If there was any doubting Thomas's in leadership, they could see with their own eyes that everyone was doing what they needed to be doing. Besides, the ole man had their back, even if he had left them alone and was now heading out with D Company to the fray. That mattered not, because this guy could handle anything on his plate and still have room for dessert. Knowing they had this Rock of Gibraltar was a big stabilizing force. How many different ways can I say it? Yes, the mood was somber, but it was also fearless. A somber mood without fear sharpens one’s focus to be able to discern the right actions. A fearful mood paralyses and prevents one from being able to think, much less do.  

        Ole timers went about making sure that they had quick access to every available tool, which would help stop hordes of attackers if it came to that. Extra claymores were always a good option, and more were strung out in weak spots. Extra crates of ammo and hand grenades were divided up and placed in easy reach. Extra M-60 machine gun barrels were placed near the gun. An extra LAW (light anti-tank weapon) or two was never a bad idea but these were harder to come by. Let me say once more, “Yes, the sounds of battle one thousand meters away would have been noted, but it would not have produced that helpless fear ladened response which Hollywood script writers are so fond of portraying. Feelings of fear might come later, but not now. Small talk would again return, but not now. Barking orders would also again be heard and NCOs like Mac and O.B. would again attend to the potty training of new guys, but not now. No, not now. 

      When D Company joined the melee around Hill 203, they spread out online to the left flank of A Company, but this time Dick was with them. Dick instinctively knew when it was past time for him to stop talking on the radio and do something. If only poor Terry Allen had known that too. By now, the attackers had exposed themselves enough for him to read their mail. He had already studied the terrain and realized how he would like to counter this attack. Maybe, he had seen something similar during one of those nasty little battles in the hills of Korea. I have no way of knowing. What I do know is this. Due to the withering fire of A Company’s 3rd platoon and the artillery barrages just loosed on the left flank of A Company, it was relatively safe for D Company to take up positions on that side. When Dick arrived with D Company, he also brought along his entire headquarters company, plus recon, and about thirty of those formidable Montagnards. They were the guys who had warned him the previous day, of Cam’s impending sneak attack to his backside. They had spent the night in our NDP. Dick probably left his operations officer in charge of the NDP, although I don’t know that for sure. William Fee in D Company wrote in his memoirs that Dick got into some irrigation ditches with his men and started organizing a single line, to assault up the hill. However, the after-action report gave me a little twist to Fee’s eyewitness account which I almost missed. 

      Here's how I believe things went down. Those Montagnards lined up on D Company’s left flank. D Company was to the left flank of A Company. When everyone was in line at the base of the hill, Dick made a maneuver with his men which I don’t believe was ever repeated by any other field commander in Vietnam. However, he took his good ole time in doing it. You see, those irrigation ditches which followed the contours of Hill 203 gave fairly good protection to the enemy, making it much harder to destroy them than would have been possible on more open ground. So, while everyone held their fire, for a good solid two and a half hours, Dick pulverized the hillside with artillery and air strikes. Fee said that Dick brought napalm in so close to his D Company that he could feel the heat from the burning napalm. However, it's important to note that Cam was able to spread his conscripts out over a wide area of that hillside and into the cover afforded by those numerous irrigation ditches. As I said, these offered fair protection from artillery, and the one canister of napalm dropped per plane required multiple sorties just to cover the hill to the front of D Company. 

     The after-action report says that Dick used A Company for a pivot. Here is what I believe he did. Dick had the airstrikes drop their ordinance on the side of the hill in front of D Company during that two-and-a-half-hour bombardment and he also created a demarcation line so the artillery could continue shelling the top of the hill. That napalm would have burned up almost every enemy soldier on that part of the hill making it easier for D Company to then advance up the hill. It was not a very steep hill, and it wasn’t very high. Dick followed close behind his D Company people, as they advanced. Rather than charge online straight up the hill, he had D Company also pivot to their right across the hill in front of A Company. At this point, A Company held their fire. It was a brilliant but complicated maneuver. Dick had long since studied the battlefield and his enemy. He knew that maneuvering in this rubber tree terrain could become complicated, but doable, if he went along to direct things, using some of those lessons which he had learned in Korea. So, that’s why Dick chose to become a sergeant for a day and go with his men instead of commanding from the safety of the perimeter. This decision had nothing to do with trying to showboat or prove anything to anyone. As D Company pivoted and came across the hill they approached those irrigation ditches from their ends instead of head on. Only the NVA soldiers at the end of the ditches could fire at D Company people sweeping across the hill. That negated any chance they had of gaining fire superiority. It also allowed many more grunts in D Company to engage those trenches running perpendicular to their line of attack. Fee mentions them using grenades and their automatic weapons to clear those ditches. The maneuver was pure genius. 

     There was some hand-to-hand fighting, but mostly between the enemy and the Montagnards, who tended to break formation and run ahead. Those Montagnards had a lot of pent-up anger and many old scores to settle. It is important to note, that almost every one of those poor souls who fought with us that day lost their lives later when the communists took over Vietnam. Wikipedia reports that over two hundred thousand Montagnards were slaughtered after we left Vietnam. On this day, however, the 165th was soon put to flight. In my mind, I can still see Dick slowly and very calmly walking along with his mouth to a radio mic, giving the senior brass flying above a blow-by-blow description of events on the ground. It must have made them want to wet their pants for the joy it brought to their crusty ole hearts. 

     If that one NVA soldier had not been spotted, then A Company would have surely moved further into the jaws of Cam’s ambush, before the trap was sprung. Had that happened, then the NVA would have possibly wiped A Company off the map, before they had a chance to react. With their superior numbers, they could have quickly advanced down the hill. Fee mentioned that there were numerous RPG teams. These teams interspersed amongst the regular troops could have devastated the ranks of A Company as Triet had done with the Black Lions at the Battle of Ong Thanh. However, they didn't. They didn't because they were not the highly trained troops that we were conned into believing they were. 

      No doubt, the quick responses of the lead platoon, led by Sergeant Joe Amos, Hansen and Kenter got the ball rolling for the rest of A Company. They paid the price with their lives, but A Company did not lose another soul during the entire battle. 

      As the 165th broke and ran, A and D Companies continued their advance, over the hill. Enemy conscripts helped other wounded members of their cell groups run down the backside of that hill into a gorge to the southeast. Dick did not have his men follow them. Instead, as they clawed their way through thick jungle until they found a trail, any trail, to escape, Dick called in anti-personnel bombs and napalm to be dropped in the gorge. As that hell from the sky descended on these conscripts, they were forced to abandon many of their dying and dead comrades along the way. Those hapless souls were then ripped to shreds by the bombs and artillery landing in the gorge.    

     Dick later received his second D.S.C. for his performance on this day. Many years later, after his death in 2017, he was also awarded the Medal of Honor by President Biden. As I described, Dick used artillery, air power, and ingenious tactical maneuvering to defeat the enemy, while losing only four men. However, most of the credit would be given to our artillery and especially our air power. This was the case in many other battles too. Our artillery and air power were tremendous assets, as in other wars. However, unlike other wars, reports seemed to overemphasize the role of our artillery and especially our air power and underplay the role we grunts played. It was the grunt on the ground, risking his life, finding the enemy and guiding that American fire power to the target. That included the contact where my patrol never fired a shot. It was my squad, warned by The Holy Spirit of God, who risk our lives locating that enemy base camp. Yet, in the after action report, only the air strike was mentioned.   

     I know now that the denigration we Vietnam grunts experienced from other Americans was only a small part of a much greater evil. It seemed as though the minds of not only my generation but their teachers and mentors, in all walks of life, were being swayed by a gigantic unseen and very evil force. The personal attacks on us Vietnam Vets were symptoms of this bigger problem. As our people turned from more personal relationships with God, we, as a nation, were losing our own unique moral compass among nations. Until Vietnam, we had been a nation, which could discern evil and then chart a course to vanquish it from within and from without succumbing to false condemnation. By the time the Vietnam War came along, however, confusion about what was right and what was wrong was spreading like wild fire. We were losing our ability to distinguish between good and evil, friend and foe. Many of my fellow Americans were beginning to court the very evil which just a few short years before we would have soon recognized for the evil it was. President Johnson was a throwback to that earlier era. He may have not known what to do about the spread of communism in Vietnam, but he understood that the communist ideology was an evil which could strangle all civilized life on planet earth. He also understood that a constitutional democracy like ours, which is grounded in those thoughts put in writing by our founding fathers is the only antidote. Without this antidote, some variation of the communist virus shall infect the entire globe sooner or later.