MEMORIES
A TRIBUTE TO Sp4 RALPH BLACKERBY
Read the 35th Inf Regt Assn profile on Ralph Blackerby, list him being killed by friendly fire. It was the battle of Dien Truong. "A" Co had been pinned down in an open rice field, "B" Company did a combat assault on a hill overlooking the village. I had 4.2 mortar, 105mm howitzers, and perhaps 8 inch arty going into it. I had the FAC put in 4 air strikes before dark. Recall a hook came in and dropped a hook load of LAWs to shoot into the village. "A" Company got out of the rice field when two napalms fell short. That night we had Puff raking the village, we had the front line marked with trip flares but I am sure Puff could not see it that well. It sounded like a buzz saw when we were hit. Ralph immediately put a field dressing on one of the guys hit in the arm, Ralph was saying you will be OK, calmed him down. So one said "Are you hit Ralph, OK?" Ralph felt his chest and said words to the effect" God, I am hit too" he then died, just like that. He was a brave Cacti, looking out for his Cacti brother first. To me, he showed all of us what a true man was. I am told if you say a man's name, he will never be forgotten so Ralph, we all remember you.
A TRIBUTE TO Sp4 STEPHEN PECK
“A true hero, too young to be
so brave".
I was the FO and Steve was my
Reconnaissance Sergeant. He was the
best.
It happened in a village called
Hoa Tan. We just ran into a
bunker complex of 5 machine guns. I
stepped over a berm first and you with the radio right behind me.
They just opened up, hit Capt. Nealon also.
I got you out, but too late buddy. They
awarded me the Silver Star...but it was due to you, however.
You were the true hero. Met
your Dad and Mom in later years. You’re
on the Wall of Honor with SFC Poole right next to you, a
FIRST DAY AT DUC PHO
A near disaster
"WHOREHOUSE REVEILLE"
Time to get going, guys!
For all of our "rear area warriors" in the Pleiku district, there was a very unusual morning reveille conducted. Instead of the typical bugle blowing and some barrel-chested senior NCO shouting "Fall Out", a helicopter was sent airborne and it flew low over the whorehouse district. That was the signal to the guys banging the local girls that it was time to give it up and get back to the base. As a "co-pilot" air observer on these morning flyovers, it was a common sight to see the guys scurrying to their vehicles and the girls waving at our helicopter as we flew overhead.
Village Battlegrounds:
The Untold Story
The war in the villages the world never knew
Fortified Villages: One of the enemy's favorite battlegrounds was the fortified village. This consisted of several hamlets, which have been prepared with extensive fighting positions, trench works, connecting tunnels and spider holes. The fighting bunkers often had 5 to 7 feet of overhead cover and could take the direct hit of a 155mm round. The bunkers were placed to cover avenues of approach into the village and are interspersed throughout the village to cover trails, approaches, etc. Many of the huts had a fighting bunker in one corner. Tunnels connected the bunkers and trenches allowing the enemy to disappear and reappear firing from another location. Trees, shrubs, and even the earth itself were re-shaped to conceal these positions. At first glance there seems to be no logic or method to their defensive works. However, upon closer investigation, one found an intricate, well-planned defensive position that took advantage of the existing cover and concealment, natural barriers, and avenues of approach into and within the village.
The enemy elected to use a hamlet or a village as a battleground for
several reasons:
1. He expected to inflict enough casualties on US troops during the attack to
justify his making a stand.
2. The average 19-year-old grunt had a natural aversion to fire upon villages
and populated areas.
3. The village offered the VC/NVA a "labor source" to prepare the
fortification.
4. The open valleys and coastal lowlands the villages contained offered a great
deal of cover and concealment.
5. The hamlets and villages were usually spread out and their arrangement offers
many avenues of escape.
The "plan of attack" was to allow the "grunts" to get as close as possible before opening fire, usually 15 to 25 meters. It was "hugging tactics" so we could not effectively use artillery or TAC air. The enemy felt if he could inflict several casualties in his initial burst that our soldiers would become involved in trying to get the wounded and KIAs to the rear for evacuation. He believed that the grunts would start worrying more about getting their wounded buddies to safety than about the battle. They are "easy targets" and he was correct.
What We Believed: We were told all bunkers were fighting positions, never go by one without putting a grenade in it. You could call for the village folks to come out, but in the middle of a battle, being scared and wanting to get out of the shooting, artillery and TAC air strikes, fat chance that would happen. Well, as you can guess, a lot of village folks were killed along with the enemy. Truth was...the bunkers were village protection against air attack, artillery, and smoke. We also used lots of napalm, so it was better to be in a bunker than in a grass or wood hut.
Language Barrier: We thought all Vietnamese understood the English language. Just tell us where the enemy are and we will protect you. Sure...but...what about after we left? We had 105mm artillery rounds that contained 1,000 to 2,000 psychological operation leaflets...the "Cheu Hoi" safety pass. What we didn't know was if the villagers were found by the enemy to have the pass, they were shot or put to death for possession of the pass. So, in effect, the "pass" was the "paper of death"; it was better to wipe your ass with it if you lived in a village. The enemy also had theirs (psy-war "passes"); however, we didn't believe their bullshit so, why would they?
Our Tactics: We used PSYOPS teams to broadcast instructions directing the people to gather at a particular location in or outside the village. Then one of our platoons would enter the village to check for the enemy. All left in the village were, of course, the enemy.
Searching the Villages: A thorough, organized search must be conducted in the occupied villages because the enemy went underground and hid in their numerous concealed spider holes and tunnels. I believed it was imperative to search wells, hedgerows, bamboo groves, and, for sure, livestock pens. However, I could not get the grunts to search the livestock pens because the job was too shitty. I used smoke grenades, dropped them into the holes and tunnels, and sure enough, the smoke would come out of the air holes in the bamboo and the pig pens. We found lots of weapons that way.
Enemy's Timing: I found most of the action the enemy initiated was late in the afternoon. That gave him a few hours to inflict as many casualties as he could and then escape after dark. He didn't have enough ammo to conduct a sustained defense nor could he do a resupply. So, after searching all day long in the heat, most of the grunts flopped out, got careless, and...surprise! We were attacked. More than once I had to wake up the guys in the village goofing off.
We Were Careless: The troops also had a complete disregard for the skills of the enemy. They were "dinks", "gooks", couldn't shoot, poorly equipped, wouldn't stand and fight. I think that 58,000 guys on "The Wall" know the difference. We, on the other hand, were "supermen". Except...I found poor noise discipline, talking, shifting positions, slamming of weapon bolts at ambush areas. Once I had to wake up a grunt that was sleeping in a hammock on the front porch of a hooch. We left the night positions full of C-rations, loose rounds, and, in one case, a box of ammo. Hand grenades, claymore mines were left in night locations. Troops walked by lots of artillery shells every day. As an FO, I carried material to blow them up. I had the guys call me to blow them up, but lots of times we had to move out and did not have the time. Well, the next time, they blew up as a booby-trap.
Sighting The Enemy: One major belief was that the enemy wore black. In the "free fire zones", anyone running around in black "pj's" were enemy, so they were fired upon. If there were any workers in the woods that had not heard of our free fire zones were regarded as the enemy. I wondered how they were supposed to be told about the zones. From the local government?
Tensions Cause Terror: You had to be there to "experience" the tension and the reactions from the troops. If we got a sniper round from a village, the next thing was that we were calling in the artillery: the 105mm, the 155mm, the 8-inch, and the mortars. We used lots of White Phosphorous (WP). I remember standing on a hill looking at a village we had a battle in. A hook (helicopter) brought in a load of LAWS (M72, Light Anti-Tank Weapon). We started firing at cows, huts, anything we could hit. Our mood was "complete destruction". After several air strikes with napalm, it was not likely that the farmer could rebuild or replant the fields. Of course, that was not on our minds at the time. Then you have the Agent Orange to insure that the farmer never planted for the NVA or the VC. That was not our concern then either.
Women Soldiers: I believe that our upbringing in the US was that we would protect our girlfriends, moms and women in general. It was so hard to picture a young girl as an enemy. Yes, it's true, women were in combat against us! One day, our "point man" was killed by a woman who was the enemy's "point man" coming down a trail. He froze...she didn't! The soldier next in line killed her so I know what happened all too well. I also saw a bunker on 6 March 1967 after a battle in a village where a woman with a baby was feeding a belt of ammo into a machinegun that had just killed my RTO. {See my tribute to Sp4 Stephen Peck above} Do you think we were prepared to fight like this?
Why My Lai? Poor leadership. At the most crucial level, the squad there just simply did not have enough experienced junior NCOs. Over half the squads in Vietnam were led by Specialist Fours (Sp4). This is not to say that they weren't good. However, most had just come over from AIT (Advanced Individual Training in Infantry) and lacked a tested military background. I walked with a "platoon" of seventeen grunts (supposed to be thirty), so the squads of the platoon were always short-handed. MAJOR POINT: the unit involved was getting hit day-after-day by snipers, booby-traps, etc. The area involved was firmly in control of the VC, booby-traps located everywhere, and kids following the troops to report their location. On 16 March 68, the men of "C" Company, 11th Brigade, Americal Division, entered the My Lai village, they became a mob in killing 300 civilians. It was a tragic event, but not unheard of in past wars.
Elephants As Delivery Vehicles
There are no limits in unconventional warfare
After my FO duties, I was sent to Pleiku in the highlands, where I was a bird dog L19 backseater. One day when we were searching for rocket positions and checking trails, I noticed an elephant loaded with boxes going up a trail. Well, the pilot had a full rack of smoke and white phosphor rockets, he rolled in and put a smoke round right up the ass of the elephant. We could track the elephant by the smoking rear end. Now you know why there is a new highway in in the highlands, that elephant was better then a rome plow. After about a 1/2 mile run, there was a huge explosion, in this instance, a base camp. I conclude that the rocket cooked off the munitions.
