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Battle Turns Into Close-Quarters Rifle Duel(EDITOR’S NOTE: Charles Black, Enquirer military writer, has returned home after four months in Viet Nam. He was with men of the 1st Cavalry Division during many of their recent engagements with Communist guerrillas, and his articles on the war as he saw it will continue in The Enquirer daily.)By CHARLES BLACK Enquirer Military Writer |
Nix is one of my favorite acquaintances. In fact, Mrs. Nix had sent me a book of air mail stamps when she read something about my difficulties in obtaining those civilian necessities in a military world blessed with free mail.
As always, his equanimity,
which was typical of these professional commanders at moments of great
stress,
was the first thing which impressed me.
He was very cool and composed as we talked.
He said that his Bravo
Company had come through a field about a mile from our seat in the
woods by the
clearing called “Falcon LZ” and had run into some pongee sticks.
“They had three casualties,”
he said. “The sticks were set in the
grass and were old ones.
“They decided to carry the
casualties to a small clearing near a creek right there,” he said,
indicating a
spot just north of us.
One platoon jumped “six or
seven PAVNs” as it entered the field and gave chase, killing two of the
retreating North Vietnamese. When the
Americans were well into the field a solid burst of automatic weapons
fire struck
them from a line of brush along the creek.
“Another platoon assaulted
and put fire on the PAVNs and the boys got their casualties back to a
gully and
it turned into a close-quarters rifle duel,” Nix said.
“I tried to get them to pull back and let
the artillery handle it but they were too damned aggressive! I’m getting such heavy casualties because
they are so aggressive. They want to
get in there and fight it out with their rifles.”
Charlie Company had flanked
the PAVN position then and had hooked back, overrunning a section of
woods
between two Communist companies, and then had been engaged in a
360-degree fire
fight.
“They are fighting hard in
there,” Nix said. “They hit right into
a battalion position and were right in the middle of it before they
stopped
their assault. It is all mixed up in
there and it is hard to get the air in because they are fighting so
close.
“I’ve got a battalion of
artillery, mortars, and a good reserve force, and we will have an LZ
open
before long,” he continued. “I don’t
think the PAVNs will be able to break the contact and run as close as
this fight
is.”
The 105mm howitzers in the
field were keeping up a steady bombardment, making conversation very
difficult. Word came from the 15th
Medical Evacuation Company that the med’ evac’ choppers couldn’t get
into the
area because of ground fire. Some of
the lift ships from the 227th had managed to go in and take out the
more
serious casualties, however.
The lift ship pilots have an
early acquaintance with the landing zones involved and often remember a
bit of
terrain or other local information which enables them to get into a
tight
position.
The evacuation pilots have
had a constant problem with the terrific pressure put on them to come
into a
fight in a strange area to pull out wounded balanced against the
possibility
having a helicopter shot down by taking too great a risk.
A helicopter downed early in a fight may
mean a real hitch in evacuating the wounded later in the game.
Because of these pressures
and because the regular transport helicopter pilots are more used to
the
landing zones and conditions involved, there have been some
on-the-scene
changes made in the evacuation system.
Often the lift ships pull wounded back to a “secure” field and
the
regular evacuation ships shuttle them from there to field hospitals.
The problems involved in the entire evacuation process, according to officers I have asked about it, are being studied in order to improve the system. Troops committed to an isolated area by helicopter can’t be expected to evacuate their wounded by walking - there just isn’t any place to walk to in most instances.
One possibility of improving
the evacuation techniques, an officer told me, is to have the medical
evacuation ships go in with the initial landing so the pilots will have
knowledge of terrain surrounding it.
That knowledge, as mentioned earlier, often has allowed the
regular lift
ship pilots to go into areas where the evacuation ships weren’t
committed.
Another recommendation has
been to simply to do away with medical evacuation as a special mission
and make
the evacuation mission part of the regular assault helicopter
responsibility.
In practically all
instances, the regular transport helicopters have been the ones I have
seen
come into a landing zone under fire in order to take out American
wounded, and
they have done the job in some very strenuous situations.
The lift ships were flying
from the tea plantation at the time and carrying loads both ways, so
there
wasn’t any sense in going back there.
Robin Mannick (an
Englishman) of the Associated Press went out with two of the medical
evacuation
ships and each time the craft returned without landing, so it looked as
if we
would spend the night here at the artillery location.
The final word just at dusk
made that a bit exciting, of course. We
were far out in the brush and close to a major fight, and the
helicopter
traffic and artillery noise made it a certainty that the location was
known to
the enemy.
“A chopper from the 1st
Squadron, 9th Cavalry, said there were 100 PAVNs heading down the
creek,
apparently trying to withdraw from the fight area,” Nix said. “They are getting a licking from our
riflemen now. He said it looked as if
they would try to break the contact and retreat south, which puts us
right in
their way.”
The hole we had dug received
a few more improvements just before dusk when I relayed the information
to Joe
Gallaway of United Press International and Mannick, the journalist team
in
Nix’s perimeter. Gallaway and I
decided, in fact, to stand watch, one spelling the other.
Mannick, with a certain
English dignity, announced that he intended to “pay as little attention
as
possible to the entire thing” and slung a hammock between two trees.
He joined Gallaway and me for an extended conversation, all seated comfortably in our hole, at about midnight when a spate of firing broke out. Otherwise it was a very quite night.
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