Posted on 01/29/2006 8:31:18 PM PST by indcons
A great deal has been written about the battles of Tet 1968 and the political firestorm that resulted from them. Less has been written about the danger, turmoil, chaos, confusion, contradictions and outright lunacy that confronted individual units as they responded to VC attacks on the morning of January 31. This is the story of one rifle company, and what it faced on that decisive day. Mainly it is the story of some of the finest solders to ever wear the uniform of the U.S. Army and how they reacted not only to fierce combat, but also to the fog of war.
In April 1967 I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. I had been in command for five months and had been assured that I would be in command for one year, which suited me fine. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. Since I was in an airborne unit, I was sure I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division.
I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. Not only would I not finish my command tour, I was being assigned to a leg division. When I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion. I had assumed I would be assigned to one of the battalions in the Delta where I could use my light infantry and Ranger school experience. The only contact I had had with M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) was during a training exercise at the officers’ basic course just after I entered the Army.
(Excerpt) Read more at historynet.com ...
"I understand that the Tet Offensive was an overwhelming military victory for the United States."
You are correct -our congress cut off funding leading to our withdrawl a few years later.
My father adamantly contended that after Tet, there was no measurable NVA left, only Charlie.
Click on the link to read a very accurate and inspiring article.
I understand John Kerry was a Viet-Nam vet. Can anyone confirm?
Our friend the Army colonel said his ARVN opposite number was mainly interested in getting 25 APCs to go harvest teak.
Colonel got on his talk-to-God phone and got out from under the ARVN Sgt. Bilkoism.
LBJ lost it all November 1965 when he denied the Joint Chiefs' request to bomb Hanoi and mine Haiphong: Proceedings May 1996 "The Day It Became The Longest War".
The U.S. fighting men prevailed on the field; the politicians administered the stab-in-the-back.
Said politicians (and the John Fifth-column Kerrys) have the blood of not just tens of thousands of Vietnamese but two million Cambodians on their hands a la Lady Macbeth.
So was I, Co. C, 3rd Bn., 39th Inf., 9th Inf. Division.
Ben Hoa later became our base camp for both riding canals and Huey flights.
happydogx2
It was indeed, an overwhelming victory. The VC hung on through the Spring Offensive and were mopped up completely then. The South was almost clear of Communist soldiery and Ha Noi was sending instructions to trapped units to make the best deal they could for surrender or permitted withdrawal. Then Washington stood the troops down, removed the pressure, abandoned the conquered areas. After an interval when Ha Noi realized that Uncle Sam was not going to follow through and seemed almost to be inviting the Reds to return to their former holdings in the South, Dai Tuong Giap obliged and sent the troops south again. But there were no more VC. The southern born contingent was all dead or "rallied."
Thanks sweetie.
An exciting time, I was stationed at Chu Lai, about 50 miles south of Da Nang on Highway 1. We didn't get much sleep for about a week.
I remember hustling down to our bunker positions and the
sky was filled with flares, there was an oil tank burning
up on what we called Hill 60 which was inside the base and
was the helo pad and the Americal Div area .
We were told there was a NVA Regt to our front, but it
never reached where we were.
Sappers also penetrated the base driving trucks and were
throwing satchel charges trying to hit our fuel bladders.
We were on the receiving end of 80mm mortars and 122mm
Rockets off and on for several days so didn't get much sleep. I didn't have much fear of the mortars but the
rockets were powerful enough to demolish a bunker so to
have them coming down on all four sides was, how shall I
put this...a religious experience....I prayed God to spare
my life all the while digging deeper with my hands. Not
a pleasant experience, I am in awe of those folks who were
on the receiving end of barrages during WW I and II.
We were told, that during the assault of the NVA REgt. that
if any VC etc tried to surrender we should kill them, but
that if firing ceased and they surrendered as a group that
"volunteers" ! would be sent out to disarm them !!
It's so funny, 35 years ago, and so much of it is so clear.
I remember how when the arty would fire flares the shell casing would go sailing off after the flare ignited with a
really wierd whooping sound, WhOooOoooOooOoo!
I think it was during Tet when they got lucky and hit our
bomb storage area. I also thought it was very A-bomb looking
like the article said, we were 2 miles away, and could see
the larger bombs being carried up in the blast column then
going off. The shock wave knocked me into a fox hole.
The poor ordinance guys, well they were lucky in a way, it
was the third or fourth mortar round that hit the dump, so
they were in their holes when it went off, but they lost
EVERYTHING they owned,
and some were in skivveys for a day or two.
Our hangers caught quite a lot of blast damage and two had
to be demolished, our only casualty occured when EOD blew
the remains down as a man was hit in the head by a flying
bolt, killed him. His fault for trying to see it happen.
I was on Perimeter Guard during that time south of the bomb
dump, and was manning my post during the day, I used to cut
across behind the dump to get to my post. Now Chu Lai was
on the beach side of highway 1. and had been cleared of most
vegetation, it looked almost desert like in spots, sand dunes etc. When I walked to my post that day, there were
all these grey and black twigs sticking out of the sand,
they were bomb fragments!!
I got my own bomb fragment later on when a F-4 lost a
500 lb fragmentation on take off, it hit a couple of hundred
yards a way and a chunk about the size of my hand came sailing between me and another guy who was helping me bleed
the brakes on one of our A-4s, it bounced off the strut and
went into a drop tank, we fished it out and split it.
I engraved the date on them but lost mine a few years later.
Thanks for the bump, we must learn the lesson of Vietnam,
which is that we cannot let leftists win the war for those
who are losing it at the front.
I have thought for some time, that the Northern Cadres may
have intended to have the VC slaughtered in Tet, it removed
most of the homegrown leadership of the southern communists,
and left a clear field for the north, once the democrats
managed to pull all support for the ARVN forces, when that
happened it was just a short matter of time till they over
ran the country and could institute a northern communist
government free of any input from too many southern "heros".
PTSD ? Me? The VA says no, but I still carry a gun everyday,
and sleep in four hour stretchs.....
t.
And I love Pho and Cha Gio, mmmmmmmmm.
Tiger 33, Bi Me Ba, Joe, I love you long time!!
Fire Support Officer, D/51st LRRPs - liaison from the 199th LIB
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