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1 Apr 1970 D company on FSB Candy We take incoming mortar rounds Our "Kit Carson Scout" gets medevaced. We found some of the tail fins from the mortars that were fired. From the depth they went into the ground before they exploded we could determine that they were set to go off after they hit the ground. The intention was to hit our bunkers and they would explode inside the bunkers. (They missed any bunkers). I remember we were all asleep in the bunker when it started. The Commanding officer came running in yelling "were being attacked grab your radio and come with me". Sleepy eyed I followed him out of the bunker. About that time a "mini-gun" opened up. We had been given a "mini-gun" to set up at one end of the FSB. One of our platoon sergeants had been instructed on how to use it. I can remember the instructor telling him "just hold the trigger for a couple of seconds then stop to let it cool down". Well in the heat of battle you just don't remember everything. The sergeant held the trigger down. It ruined the "mini-gun". I think that was the last time they tried that idea. (1/11/06) Randolph "Treetop" Foriest sent me additional names for the roster. One of the names was Mike Mazzoni. Mike was the "shake and bake" Sgt mentioned above. This was the tally of the damage from the motar attack. We lost one person (KIA) during this attack that is not reported on the log. His name was Vinture ("Vinnie") Sciarretti. His name is located on the Wall at (12W/Line 75). 2 Apr 1970 D company on FSB Candy 3 Apr 1970 D company on FSB Candy. Moving to cover convoy during the day. Each platoon of our company was assigned an area to cover along a road near FSB Candy. This was so a convoy of tanks could move down Hwy 13. This was a day long operation and everyone moved back to FSB Candy that afternoon. I remember that our Company Commander, and the RTOs from our group flew in to Song Be after the convoy had past. We got to take a hot shower, got new clothes and slept in a bed! where we were. 2nd platoon walks back to Candy. 1st platoon gets picked up. Here's what we did. 4 Apr 1970 D company on FSB Candy I couldn't find mention of it but our flight back to FSB Candy was interesting. We had two new guys (cherries) on board and the copper pilot decided to give them a ride. We flew along the Song Be river (none of these ever go straight) at about 15 feet off the water. Every time the river would turn the pilot would fly straight up about 100 feet, bank it, and dive back down to 15 feet above the water. WHAT A RIDE! This went on for about 30 minutes. When we got off the chopper the pilots were laughing their heads off. Comments about closing FSB Candy and moving to FSB Margaret. 5 Apr 1970 D company on FSB Candy During our time on FSB Candy I can remember one of the medics (I think it was Doc Brown) coming around asking for some help. He didn't say for what, but we all knew! Doc Brown was a great medic (they ALL were!). He had a personality that just wouldn't quit! Anyway..... I knew what Doc wanted help with, so I decided I would be a nice guy and help. So off we went on "Shit detail". Positioned around the FSB were 55 gallon drums cut in half. They were filled with diesel fuel and a piece of plywood with a hole cut in it was placed on top (there was never any privacy in Vietnam!). We were supposed to take the plywood off, load the drum onto the back of a "mule" drive it out to the helicopter pad and then light them on fire to "burn off" what was in them. We would then fill them back up with fresh diesel fuel and bring them back for "service". Now you can see why Doc never got any help! One of the Medics other jobs was making sure we all took our daily malaria pills (every morning the medics would go to each person and hand them a pill to take then stand there and watch them swallow it.) Taking malaria pills was a big deal! It is even recorded in each daily log report as "everyone up on the pill". 6 Apr 1970 D company on FSB Candy (closing it down) 7 Apr 1970 D company closes FSB Candy and moves to field 8 Apr 1970 D company in field 1/8 Cav takes responsibility of FSB Judie 9 Apr 1970 D company in field During this time I remember an instance where I had requested to go outside the perimeter to "take a shit". The normal procedure was to go to the radio operator and advise him to contact everyone on that side of the perimeter to let them know someone was going out side and to plan on seeing movement. They notified everyone and off I went. About 20 meters or so I found a bush and promptly squatted down to do my business. About that time about 20 or so meters further out I thought I saw movement. Now this is not a good thing since I am now in the middle of the edge of our company and supposedly enemy movement. Needless to say I no longer had the urge to make my deposit! I didn't have time to do anything except hit the ground flat out. So here I am with my pants down laying flat on the ground with my M16 point towards what I saw move. A couple of seconds later I saw something else move. Now I was getting scared! About that time I caught my first glimpse of what was moving around. It was two orangutans! One was orange the other black. I pulled up my pants and hurried back to the guys on the perimeter to let them know that they could expect movement and not to shoot without making sure what they were shooting at. I didn't have to go anymore! 10 Apr 1970 D company moves from the field to FSB Margaret then hikes off the FSB back to the field. A LOH helicopter is forced to land on FSB Margaret 11 Apr 1970 D company in field The LOH gets off FSB Margaret One of our guys falls down a hill breaks a leg and has a reaction to medication. We find a rice patty and some bunkers 12 Apr 1970 D company in field We find some "sensoring" devices, grenades and bunkers. We find more bunkers We find a bridge 13 Apr 1970 D company in field Lots of activity in the area. We find a trail 14 Apr 1970 D company in field We find a bunch of bunkers, toothpaste and other stuff. 15 Apr 1970 D company in field More activity in the area. Even more activity 16 Apr 1970 D company in field One of our guys get a splinter in his eye and we have to fly him out. Change of plans Our Company commander reports on Kit Carson Program This is the first discussion of changes in plans. They report "D-Day" pending moves. Just a reminder we are 1/8 Cav. If you read into it, this discussion is the movement of troops in preparation for the Cambodia invasion. More about "D-Day" 3rd platoon hears movement! 17 Apr 1970 D company in field Request for hunter killer team to check out heavy movement. Rename of FSB Lolita (not even built yet) to FSB Nguyen Trai (they misspelled) 18 Apr 1970 D company in field This was a bad day. We were following a trail and our point man called back to say that he found a machine gun setting in the middle of the trail with no one around it. Just as they were calling this in he heard voices and saw 2 individuals walking down the trail towards the machine gun. One of them had a AK47 slung over his shoulder. They never saw our guy. The point man opened up with his M16 and killed them both. Turns out there were about 7 or 8 more of them just around the corner. Suddenly all hell broke loose. I got on the radio and called for air support. About then we got a call on the radio that one of our guys had gotten killed. I called for a Tactical air strike with Napalm. A few minutes later the jets showed up and began dropping the napalm. I found that if anything could stop a fire fight, Napalm would. Sure enough the shooting stopped. Our casualty was Leonard Bauer. I helped carry him to the helicopter to be flown out. I can still remember the boots sticking out of the poncho liner that was covering him and his dog tags attached to the shoe laces. (This was common practice to keep the dog tags from rattling together like they would if you wore them around your neck.) The following is the "official" record of the day. We get in contact a request air support One of our guys gets killed We request a Tactical air strike Report on machine gun we found We think it was 9 or 10 enemy We got 7 of them Info Report Final report of the day 19 Apr 1970 D company in field Request for a "pink team" and comments about documents found in the contact area. 1/8th Cav assumes command of FSB Lolita (Nguyen Trai) (pronounced WHEN TRY) Report on the documents we found We request a "Pink Team" because we are moving into a bunker complex. We request a Scout dog. Stuff we found in contact area Continued 20 Apr 1970 D company in field We find a blood trail continued This is kind of cryptic but assumption would be the approval to discuss Cambodia info at a Battalion level. A cobra helicopter has engine trouble and C company 1st platoon gets sent in as a QRF (quick reaction force) to extract the crew. Turns out they were extracted by there own LOH. Our Battalion Command and Control helicopter take ground fire We get sent into the area that the ground fire came from A Rash pilot put in some ordinance We find a trail and set up two "A/A"s They "hook" the "huey" out. (see photo) (not ours but an example of how it was done) We find another enemy dead from our contact on the 18th. 21 Apr 1970 D company in field Again lots of overnight activity in the area. I think they knew we were coming. We get in contact with enemy 22 Apr 1970 D company in field We find a trail Log day. It was about this time that I received a "care package" from one of my cousins in Minnesota. She worked for Betty Crocker company in Minneapolis and sent a package that was in a box about 2 feet by 2 feet. It had a little of everything in it. It was very well thought out since most everything could be carried easily and didn't require any special cooking or freezing. About the only thing that we didn't use was the powdered milk as we didn't have a was to cool it. I can remember a group of us sharing most everything that was sent since it was way more than I could have carried. Most "care packages" consisted of cookies, so it was nice to get something different.
23 Apr 1970 D company in field We get in contact We request a napalm strike Report on contact (we have 5 wounded) We medevac the wounded and hear ground to air fire. Stuff we found 24 Apr 1970 D company in field Here we go again! Contact with the enemy Urgent request for medevac We got 2 of them We find another one The radar on the FSB detects heavy movement but the cant fire artillery because we are in the way. 25 Apr 1970 D company in field A reporter for the Chicago Tribune shows up We find a recently used trail We find another dead enemy soldier 26 Apr 1970 D company in field 2nd platoon hears voices We find another dead enemy soldier And another We find some bunkers This was not our company but the story is funny. This took some guts! (by the way a LRRP is a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol) 27 Apr 1970 D company in field Still lots of activity in the area B company gets in a bad firefight It was during this day that we crossed a large river. Captain Perkins came up to the front of the unit to check out how we were going to get across the river. It was about 30 meters across and the river was flowing fairly fast and about 3 to 4 feet deep. He decided to call for a "pink team" to cover for us. He positioned two M-60 gunners on the same side we were on and turned to me and said I need a radio to go across with me to the other side. I grabbed the radio and about 4 or 5 of us took off across the river. About half way across I slipped and fell. Now remember, I am carrying the radio and all my stuff (over 100 pounds) on my back. Under the water I went. I couldn't do anything except hold my breath and hope somebody pulled me up! The next thing I knew I felt somebody grab me and stand me back up. We scrambled the rest of the way across and ducked behind some rocks. Using the radio I called back across the river and asked them to send more guys over and make sure they brought another radio! Sure enough just after the next group got across my radio died! It took a couple of days to get a new hand set so I could get mine up and running again. Request for a "pink team" to cover us while we cross a river. We find some bunkers Here's the list of wounded (line 2) and KIA's (line 1) from B company 28 Apr 1970 D company in field We get in contact A "Hunter Killer" team spots enemy heading our way More info on our contact We request air strike against large bunker complex. Our wounded scout dog gets evacuated and our Log helicopter spots more enemy in our area. Based on documents we found we stumbled into a NVA medical facility (trust me this was no hospital!) Here's the record of the "Weekly Summary" of activities for 1/8th cav. Remember we are located about a mile away from the Cambodia border. The official day of the Cambodian invasion is 29 Apr 1970. We were not told we were going to cross the border yet but we knew something was up. 29 Apr 1970 D company on FSB Nguyen Trai Our company was on the FSB now. However we were moving other companies across into Cambodia. I will include the reports for all finds during this time...... Get Ready! B company makes 1st find: 30 Apr 1970 D company on FSB Nguyen Trai Special instructions and a list of more stuff found by B company C company gets in contact List of C company wounded E company in contact (1 KIA) C company finds more stuff Move on to May 1970 |
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