Airborne Ranger’s Terrifying Tour in Vietnam

I asked to go to the most famous unit that I knew it was the 101st Airborne Division I asked for that and I got it I got sent to the Army Ranger school and the Army Airborne school as a result and joined the division at Fort Campbell Kentucky in September of 1967. and by the middle of December we were gone to Vietnam we went early they got word that the so-called Ted offensive was going to happen they didn't know where and when but the 101st was scheduled to go in April of 68. but they moved the deployment date way up uh in order to be there in time to hopefully but well we got there all right but we were sitting in our arrival Camp when everything went down Battalion Commander asked if uh one of our guys take the helicopter out and do a Recon and look for things and and the helicopter went out and called a mayday and they have been shot down for and on the way down they gave their grid Square where they were I mean they flew right to the city of way where all these NVA were but nobody knew that at the time so they flew over them and they took fire and and went down so the Battalion Commander found one of these little bubble helicopters like you see on Mash that said Aaron I want you to take that with your warrant officer pilot and go find that aircraft where he is so we I went out to that place and it's all about three miles or so away and they were I counted nine Army aircraft helicopters down not one so we we had to crank down as far as close as we could get to with binoculars I could try to retail numbers on these Huey's almost impossible we got down under maybe 1500 to 2000 feet and people guys with Brown uniforms would take their army AK-47s and start shooting at us so he said oh excuse me who the hell are these guys well it was the North Vietnamese Army walking around in formation started shooting at us I Think Jesus Christ and so I reported that and then I couldn't find the aircraft and somebody suggested well the the little helicopter I was in was running out of fuel so we went back the Airfield who by airstrip was was close enough by that would take just a short hop over to get refueled so I could come back and do more business when we got to that to the airstrip uh I asked around where is uh I I was looking for oh I know where it was I went to the morgue which was a that was my welcome to Vietnam moment I'm serious because I had studied Vietnam heavily when I was at Gonzaga and the whole so I knew the country I even spoke French enough to where I could kind of sort things out but we didn't we did not study it from the standpoint that we were going to be fighting the North Vietnamese Army and so I got there and got uh landed the pilot took care of the aircraft and went to the morgue and I was a GP medium-sized tent climbed his walls and walked in the door of it and there was a big stainless steel slab there with a a dead GI on it and they pulled a fragment of something out of him that was about the size of one of these books threw it on the floor and it clattered around and and I said geez if you guys seen you have a guy out here named Dart Sergeant whatever they said yeah wait he's out there out there someplace and I walked over and lifted the flap into the yard and there were body bags stacked four five deep all the way around the inside the fence of this dog area I said something we're not in Kansas anymore and this is not a guerrilla War not with this so I mean I was just and then I I figured out then I better go check the hospital because there were two guys missing one of them was the sergeant that was killed and he was at the at the morgue and went to the field Hospital right nearby and looked for the other guy and found the captain who was the artillery forward Observer that was his job was to go out and find Target well he had plenty but he didn't know where to start that's when they got shot down so anyway I found out about him and he survived and I got my helicopter and and the City of of Hawaii is This Magnificent old city like I said in the center is this big Citadel Fortress and on the top of it is a huge flag that was probably the size of this floor area right in here with a big yellow star on it red not yellow like the Vietnamese and I said geez what is this so in fact it was yellow and it was it was a red and blue with the big yellow star in it as the North Vietnamese flag flying over the city of Wayne as a city of way is not in North Vietnam well now apparently it is so that's I know the Guerrilla War turned into something quite different anyway I reported that back to my commander I flew Holmen that was that and then we were the next we spent quite a bit of time getting ready to move up to move out of to the area to be looking for NVA units because the the North Vietnamese Army had gotten into way and like I was telling you they were uh they had to get out they had to go back into the mountains to survive because once the air cleared and the weather got good there there were they were not long for this world with we had aircraft carriers sitting out there with every kind of death in the world sitting on a army helicopters waiting to do the same and the Air Force all over the place in South Vietnam ready to deliver the mail on these guys and they knew that so they were hurry to get out of there so they were escaping trying to escape and bits and pieces out of whey to head back into the mountains and they did and some whole units did that and they'd hole up in villages outside of whey as they were moving to head back into the mountains and we found them one at a time put a cord on around them and Bob the existence or bombed them out of the plant so they their timing was a little late trying to get out of way now that was the bulk of my time in up until I left the northern part of the country was Finding and destroying North Vietnamese units that's what we did nothing I was going to say nothing why am I said well it's kind of glamorous you know if that's what you're there to do we didn't go over there to do when Arts of mine who went over there to to me destroy the North Vietnamese Army that's why we went that's what we did I have got to tell you what the first Combat Action that the Delta readers the name of the unit I was in their first eyeball eyeball confrontation with the North Vietnamese Army we were in a base camp called LZ Sally which is north of way about maybe 10 miles and we'd set up this camp and then we had our our Brigade headquarters was in there and three battalions of us inside of this encampment with dug in positions around the perimeter and um we went out on this on February 15 1968. the the unit had only been out in the field on any operation the one day before and it was a short Excursion out and they lost a guy that day the very first day if I was the first reader that got killed in action there the next day the mission was to go back out on what they call a Search and Destroy operation but you go out anew go in your area and you look for the bad guys where are they and we'd seen or had an idea where some of them were so the the company Commander his mission order was I'm going to take two platoons and we're going out there and going to go look for these guys says you erno you stay here you're the EXO gather up all the stuff the wounded guys that do your Exo stuff I and I hadn't he met these guys Now understand I flew in the night before I mean it was just dark as I got in there hadn't met a soul in that unit the only one was the company Commander who'd recruited me to become his EXO so I was delighted that I was coming he was the only guy I knew in this whole company and I'm their second command so the next morning they're saddling up I had no two platoons of guys with the company Commander they're heading out to do their thing and I'm sitting there again with Wounded guys and and uh material material that had to go and come and and we hadn't been I don't know they'd out they'd gone out the door and the place where we were is called PK 17 and it's I'm not sure what it means what it meant what the PK was for but it's an old French Fort and a small Fort is a triangle shape kind of walls around three sides of it it's kind of convenient for a spot for a rifle company to hold up for without any other place to go so that was our jump off point and I had gone around that night and met most of the guys said I have the new whatever and they roll their eyes and think yeah right you know but they were great about it it was fun but here's a big you know Airborne Ranger Lieutenant a little knows a little bit about what we're doing so they were they were very accepting about it bottom line it was we're in that in the camp we had our cup of coffee in our and we're kind of gathering up stuff and we knew there was a helicopter going to come in and and move guys and supplies in and out so we're getting ready to wait for that and we hear the enormous firefight Breakout maybe two three maybe two and a half three miles away right where the in the direction that the rest of the company had gone and we heard it going on and on and on and I could hear the radio traffic that we just turned onto the net and hear him and they had they were running low on ammunition why why we just this left here how could they be well from listening to the firefight too many guys were firing on automatic and they were burning up their ammunition which was a discipline thing you learned early on to not do that well when I heard it become a little more acute about the absence about the the shortage I I didn't even wait for the commander to say anything I just went I grabbed every box of ammo we could find grenades and and uh 556 meaning the rifle cup and M60 ammunition the machine gun have them and I grabbed the of the other guys that were there there were two or three of them who were ambulatory wounded guys that we were going to evacuate and and they always say maybe tomorrow but not today so and that's that's to their credit we I gather together this band of guys probably I don't know six or eight guys at least and we ran across about let's see how many kilometers would that be better Park like close to six to five k across open ground no trees absolutely naked out there they'd have seen us we'd have been but we ran carrying all the ammunition and everything we could carry and ran three thousand maybe closer to between three and five k out to where they were right in the middle of the firefight is Raging when we got there and we've got the ambul redistributed among guys and and that's when it became apparent to me that this was not the way this thing was supposed to have gone the platoon leader of one of the platoons the lieutenant had been killed by a short round of artillery Friendly Fire Can't rain down on top of them and five other guys we lost six guys killed in action in the in in that group of 60 guys that walked out that morning 10 of them were dead and a whole bunch more that were wounded and so here I am EXO delivered the Mayo with the with the ammo and I've kind of participated trying to size up where everybody is the the battle is still going on and I'm over trying to set up a hell of a safe place for a helicopter to come in and pick up the wounded guys and anything they could drop off on the way would be nice like any more ammo or anything else as it turned out we uh got the helipad set up and we started moving wounded guys back and of course the dead guys you rule number one you've never put a dead guy on a Medevac helicopter because you're putting a dead guy in a space of where a live guy needs to go to be evacuated and we also got these Logistics Birds which come out to deliver that's where you put the dead guys so we have to do that right you have to you don't leave anybody behind you know you got to put everybody up there and all that so we we got that uh uh the the pickup point for the casualties got that set up got them out of there and then the fireflies started to wane and it looks like we couldn't tell what happened but whether the NVA had pulled out which appeared what happened they kind of pulled back out of there yeah we reorganize ourselves redistributed our ammo again our our command structure setup and it was clear then that we were needed to evacuate a move back to PK 17 before which is what they did and I was asked to to be the company or be to act as the platoon leader for one of the platoons to be the rear guard we protected people who were coming out and so that was the way that story that was my introduction another introduction their first introduction of Vietnam was the CEO of those guys in that and then look at and let that sink in about what you were seeing this is not this is those are our soldiers out there stacked in body bags hundred of them at least or more and and not supposed to be that way so then the other part was this firefight my very first day on the job as a Delta reader but I had great training I knew exactly what I was supposed to do is go do it and we we did that got everybody out of there and uh got them settled up got him back to PK 17 and I'm it as you can imagine from all of that I had plenty of of XO stuff to do for the next several days making sure that we got people evacuated and brought back and got uh requested more if we'd lost equipment we got everything kind of get ourselves back stacked up to reap to go for wherever was next we were operating in the mountains outside of whey and we were working with two other companies in the mountains securing these hilltops which the North Vietnamese been using is observation posts to make sure to keep an eye on what we were doing and they were by doing that they could fire particularly large borders and other things on top of us from those positions so we want to clear them out and that's what we did we spent a long this particular day we ground all the way up to the top of these mountains and took the got rid of the NVA that were on top of the hill we were holed up for the night and we were kind of camped out on top of these mountain tops and our sister company was on the Mountain next door and they have been given their instructions everybody got their orders for the night now it's to you know do provide defensive positions to in case they counter-attacked and came up and bothered you at night well the system that I was in the company that company and Charlie Company before I joined the Raiders for because they just downsized and I was a spare Lieutenant so they sent me to Delta the Raiders well anyway that company Charlie Company of the second of the 501st our sister company who was on The Mountaintop next door and the company Commander had told one of his platoon leaders his name is Fred holges he was a a military we didn't go to the military academy he went to the Citadel and he he was the same training I had was an Airborne Ranger did all that he was told to take his platoon out about a mile out and set up on this knob on the end of his Ridge to protect that approach because there were like I was telling you when you're that many North Vietnamese soldiers in the area you don't leave yourself like that so he went out Maybe maybe half a mile I don't think he went that far and his soldiers have been griping and moaning the whole time about we got to stop I can't go another foot here and his mission was not to stop there the mission was to take and these guys go set up out here to protect these Buddies well he didn't do that he said okay we'll just do what they call a rucksack flop you just sit down in place and they didn't put out any security didn't do anything like that and they were they were sitting there and I don't remember how long after that probably two to three hours probably toward midnight or so at night and we again heard of Felicia Alicia's firefight break out and I'll be damned if the North Vietnamese Army had not sent a unit up that hill right through them to head up to our the location coming after us Came Upon these guys sitting in the rucksack flop with no protection and had at it with them I heard Freddie holgers my buddy my former roommate I heard him die on the radio trying to explain to him what was going on that is such a massive leadership failure that it just I mean I just I mean I went to Gonzaga we learned the basics from that then I go to the Ranger school you know there's just you have orders you do that that's that's what you do you don't sit back and listen to your soldier's whine you take care of your soldiers of course but there's a time when the mission is going to dictate it first and that's what you go do and that's what happened and that was another very important and I've used that example a lot and I've told it public a lot and I I know that everybody has had moments like that because you give in to the uh to a more favorable I won't say favorable an easier solution than what your orders are and you have to make the decision at that point either you get to boss to change your mission and in this case it wasn't going to happen we had to secure that part and look at what happened became a self-fulfilling prophecy so I don't remember how many guys they lost that night out there but it basically wiped out that platoon but I was I could never because I wanted to be an infantry guy I wanted to be out there doing what I was doing and the reason for that is we you spent all your time at in high school and college learning history and about all how much is written about war and I I had to I had to go see for myself why so much was written about war and and you could you don't even know where to start with it be our Revolution you you go back way back into the history of Europe and all these places of War around the Roman times the Greek times and all of this stuff about war the glory of it and and the uh and the political the politics of it you only hear from written from the winter side anyway so you kind of wonder what about what about what is this all about and I I could not I had to go see for myself I said oh by the way I'm pretty well trained to do it but I had to go so I have a poli-sci student a graduate from the Jesuit school come on so I had to go see and I did and by the time I went I because of my my bet my major in political science that I I had studied this maps and I had I knew I talked to people who had been there and uh before I went and all that so I had a pretty good idea what was coming and but when I got there it was just as mind-blowing as it would have been if I hadn't known a thing unbelievable greatest single thing I would use for describing what war is waste of time resources and lives it doesn't matter what side you're on somebody's going to win somebody's going to lose but there's going to be a huge amount of waste of treasure resources and everything else and that's what that's when people talk about a deployment of U.S troops to some place that's what comes out of the woodwork as the first argument why are we wasting American treasure to do or do wherever and that's a fair question and I found that that to me was the overwhelming impression I got there's no glory in it there's no no but you you look at human sacrifice and all that but that's part of the wastage you got human beings that are dying and miserable lies look at what's going on in the Ukraine now depending on Whose version you're going it's an enormous waste whether it be written by Russians or ukrainians so that was my impression of of the of that I got from down there and the thing is was that huge disparity between the great number of Americans that are deployed to South Vietnam and their ability to go have a beer go have a steak dinner uh take a cab ride or something into Saigon and go to go do something hang out they could do that up north are you kidding me you know we lived in a base camp in a pretty austere example we're the sharp end of the spirit you don't get sharper by hanging around in the cat houses of of Saigon or someplace without you you don't you live a monastic kind of life the the adjustment home is more I don't know probably more personal in the sense at you personally what effects are left over for you that maybe you didn't get over maybe there's some really difficult times and that's where if they don't get treatment and that's the problem after Vietnam is that there was no serious mental health planned for this like there is now and like the veterans court that we started and they and the veterans form was to try to provide a a medium to address combat veterans issues right away and and help that give them an alternative to be around other vets early when I came home I was around other vets all the time because we were in the Army still doing it and especially in a training error environment where the European my next assignment after basic training was at Fort Benning training infantry officers so when we were all Vietnam vets so to me it's an easy answer for me personally because I got to decompress if you want to say that around other vets who were going through the same issues so it's that's not I don't have no way of trying to characterize the way it was for everybody else but I have to say that in my case because it's true it was a huge help for me

Channel: The Vietnam Experience

Views: 229,795

Keywords: Vietnam war, Vietnam Veteran, Vietnam vet, Vietnam vet interview, Vietnam veteran interviews, Vietnam war songs, Vietnam war music, Vietnam War stories, Vietnam, Vietnam veterans, Airborne Ranger, Army Ranger, Vietnam War hero, Vietnam music, Vietnam war movie, Vietnam war documentary, Vietnam veteran stories, Vietnam vet stories

Id: iCgBayQFL1s

Length: 25min 31sec (1531 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 01 2023