After eyeballing the terrain to his front, McLaughlin ordered three of his platoons to deploy on line while the fourth followed in reserve. The jungle was eerily silent as the grunts crept silently forward, their weapons off safety. Moments later they spotted several enemy bunkers. Crawling forward through the dense vegetation, the Echo Company grunts methodically tossed hand grenades into each bunker. The muffled explosions reverberated through the jungle. After the dust settled, the platoons moved forward to discover that the bunkers were all unoccupied. The company pushed on in a westerly direction. It didn’t take long to find their quarry.
The jungle suddenly erupted into murderous fire from four dug-in enemy platoons in an L-shaped defensive position. At least six light machine guns and dozens of AK-47s raked the Echo Company platoons. Several of McLaughlin’s men dropped, riddled with bullets. Others hit the dirt and frantically crawled toward the nearest cover. The grunts returned fire with everything they had to try to suppress the enemy fire. Echo Company casualties began to mount. McLaughlin directed a pair of gunships as they raked the enemy platoons with rockets and machine-gun fire. As the Echo Company grunts maneuvered forward to engage the enemy bunkers, they were hit with murderous blasts from command-detonated enemy Claymores. Several men were seriously wounded by the blasts. Two men, Corporal Junior Lott from Athens, Alabama, and PFC John Barnett from Reading, Pennsylvania, died after sustaining multiple fragmentation wounds.
William McLean, a rifleman from Philadelphia, recalled seeing his CO, Captain McLaughlin, walk to a forward position where he halted with his back toward McLean. Seconds later he heard an ear shattering explosion and his Captain disappeared in a cloud of thick black smoke. McLean thought at the time that McLaughlin had tripped a booby trap and was probably dead, but he was not. However, the Captain was seriously wounded and out of the fight.
The enemy small arms and machine-gun fire continued unabated, despite the gunship and artillery support that pounded their positions. Their supply of ammunition was “seemingly inexhaustible.” Corporal Winfield Spoehr, Specialist Anthony Mantouvales, and PFC Raymond Zimmerman were KIA, and ten more men were WIA. Mantouvales had joined the Army after attending college in Boston, though he had served a previous hitch in the Army before attending college and was exempt from the draft. He loved his country and wanted to serve.
With darkness coming on, Echo Company was unable to continue the attack. Colonel Fred Davison, the 199th Light Brigade’s Deputy Commander, who was following the fight from the air, ordered Echo Company to break contact and move to an LZ for extraction. While Echo Company moved toward their LZ, LTC Schroeder called for a flare ship, and continued to direct artillery and gunship strikes on the enemy positions. At 2000 hours, Echo Company was extracted along with its dead and wounded. Five Warrior KIAs and ten WIAs were evacuated to the 93rd Evacuation Hospital, and the remainder of Echo Company returned to Fire Base Nashua. LTC Schroeder had lost one of his best company commanders in Captain Stan McLaughlin. The wounded captain would recover to complete his tour in Vietnam as an aide-de-camp to Brigadier General Forbes, and later as the Intelligence Officer in the 3/7th Infantry, but his disabilities from the wounds he received on 19 December disqualified him from returning to rifle company command.
Combat operations around Fire Base Nashua were put on hold during the Christmas truce period, 24–26 December 1967. The enemy took advantage of the ceasefire to continue the movement of replacements and supplies through War Zone D, and did so with impunity. There were numerous sightings of enemy trucks moving through the area. Specialist Cliff Kaylor, an RTO with Charlie Company recalled that on Christmas Eve “the hillsides around the fire base were alive with truck headlights.” The buildup for the Tet Offensive was in high gear.
The Warriors went into action again as soon as the truce ended. On 27 December, F Company’s LRP Team 14 reported that an enemy platoon-size unit was moving through the jungle to the west of their overnight position. The LRP team was hunkered down in a tight perimeter along the eastern bank of a stream called Suoy Tay Loi, a little more than two kilometers south of Fire Base Nashua. In a hushed whisper, the patrol leader radioed in a fire mission on the enemy force. Moments later, five 105mm howitzer rounds roared over the heads of the patrol members and exploded in the jungle beyond.
The LRPs heard screams from the enemy in the distance, an indication that the rounds had found their target. For the remainder of the night the patrol lay silently staring into the darkness, listening and waiting for the night to pass. At dawn, the LRPs retrieved their Claymores and moved silently westward. At 0735, they made contact with an unknown-size enemy force. In the ensuing firefight, four members of the patrol were wounded, two seriously. The team broke contact, called for reinforcements, and made their way to an extraction LZ.
At 0750 hours, the aero rifle platoon from 3/17 Cav was inserted into the area of the LRP contact to cover the extraction of the badly shot-up LRP team. Meanwhile, LTC Schroeder ordered Charlie Company to stand by on Nashua’s LZ for an airmobile assault to reinforce the Cav’s aero rifle platoon. Charlie Company was in better shape than the other Warrior companies to undertake the mission, having suffered fewer casualties in the preceding weeks. The company also had a new First Sergeant who was an experienced combat infantryman with a star on his CIB.
First Sergeant George Holmes was a 17-year veteran, on his second tour in Vietnam. As an 18-year-old private he had spent his first night in combat on “Old Baldy” during the Korean War. He was one of a handful of survivors who walked off the hill the following day. Before he left Korea, Holmes was promoted to platoon sergeant. On his first tour in Vietnam in 1963, he was assigned to an aviation unit supporting the ARVN. There were no US infantry units in-country at that time. He returned to the US where he was promoted to First Sergeant in the prestigious “Old Guard,” 1/3 Infantry at Fort Meyer, Virginia.
Thus, Holmes knew how to be a “spit and polish” soldier, but he also knew how to run a combat outfit. Over the previous two weeks, Holmes had spent most of his time reorganizing the company’s rear detachment. There were, in his opinion, far too many able-bodied grunts lingering in the rear doing meaningless tasks. He cleaned house, sending the men back to their platoons in the field. Then he headed for the field himself where he planned to spend most of his time. December 27th was Holmes’ first combat operation with Charlie Company, and it was to be one of his most challenging.
Charlie Company went in heavy with all four platoons, a total of some 120 men. First Platoon was lead by 23-year-old First Lieutenant Richard Solczyk, a Chicagoan by birth. Solczyk had attended the University of Illinois at Urbana, joined the Army in 1966, and arrived in Vietnam in early November 1967. Second Platoon was led by Second Lieutenant Al Lenhardt, and the 3rd by newly assigned Second Lieutenant Robert Stanley. First Lieutenant Paul Viola led the 4th Platoon, normally armed with 81mm mortars, that was the company’s reserve. This time the mortars were left behind at Fire Base Nashua with a minimum of crew members while the majority of the platoon deployed as reserve rifle platoon.
As the troops lined up in chalk loads on the PZ, Specialist Bob Archibald, the XO’s former jeep driver, lined up with his 3rd Platoon stick. He spotted his friend PFC Guy Kistner, a machine gunner with 2nd Platoon, on the opposite side of the PZ. Kistner and Archibald had arrived in Charlie Company as replacements at the same time. They were both Californians and Kistner grew up a few miles from San Mateo, where Archibald attended high school and junior college. Archibald recalled that he had had a terrible premonition about Kistner the day before. He debated whether or not to talk with Kistner about it, but in the end decided to ignore it. He didn’t want to alarm his friend.
The morning sun’s incandescent rays glinted off the Hueys’ windshields as the flight of ten touched down on the PZ. Troops lined up in chalk order and ran to board the helicopters. The chopper pilots brought their engines to full RPM as the troops climbed aboard and scrambled for space on the floor of the aircraft. It w
as less than a fiveminute flight to the LZ, and grunts slid toward the open doors and stood on the Huey’s skids as they touched down. Charlie Company’s first lift was on the ground by 0815. There was no enemy opposition. Minutes later the second lift touched down, and the company was ready to move out. It was the beginning of a very long day for Charlie Company.
The company moved south from the LZ to link up with the Air Cav rifle platoon. At 0925 hours, the two units linked up in the vicinity of the earlier LRP contact. Two enemy bodies were found near some abandoned bunkers. After finding a fresh blood trail, the Charlie Company CO radioed the battalion TOC and requested that a combat tracker team be flown in. The team arrived some twenty minutes later, and the company moved out following the tracker team.
Shortly after 1000 hours, the tracker team located another enemy body. The man had been carrying an RPG-7 and extra rounds on his backpack. One of the extra rounds had apparently been struck with an M16 bullet. The anti-tank grenade cooked off, burning through the man’s back. It was not a pretty sight, and a couple of the grunts “tossed their cookies” on the ground after viewing the body. Upon checking the area further, the tracker team picked up the trail of the dead man’s companions, and Captain Jones ordered his platoon leaders to move out. The aero rifle platoon received orders that they were to move to a nearby PZ where they would be extracted.
LTC Schroeder was following Charlie Company’s progress closely. An aerial “People Sniffer” mission detected a group of enemy to the west of Charlie Company’s location. Schroeder decided to insert Echo Company into an LZ southeast of Charlie Company’s location. He ordered Charlie Company to hold their position until Echo Company was on the ground. Schroeder’s plan was to have Echo Company follow a route behind Charlie Company close enough to exploit any enemy contact.
Echo Company’s second lift was on the ground by 1115, and by 1245 Echo’s point element had visual contact with Charlie Company. Schroeder, orbiting overhead in his C&C ship, gave the OK for the two companies to move out with the combat tracker team in the lead. The trackers were on a trail that led east into the jungle. Charlie Company moved in two columns with two platoons forward and two back, 1st and 2nd Platoons in the lead, followed by the 3rd and 4th Platoons.
The combat trackers moved cautiously and silently through the deep thickets, examining the ground for tracks and any disturbed foliage that would indicate an enemy presence. The sun’s rays blazed through occasional openings in the triple canopy, and insects buzzed around the men’s eyes. For the grunts following the trackers it was an agonizingly slow pace. The men tried to force their way through the thickets with as little noise as possible, but the swishing of saplings and rustle of bushes could be heard by an alert enemy. There was no way that a large body of men could move through such intricate landscape undetected.
Shortly before 1400 hours, the tracker team spotted three enemy soldiers setting up a huge Claymore-like mine next to a trail. The diameter of the saucer-shaped mine was at least 36 inches. The trackers cautiously backed off and passed the word back to Charlie Company’s 1st Platoon that was halted about fifty meters to their rear.
PFC Gary Coufal, a member of Charlie’s 1st Platoon recalled, “The scout told us that there was a Claymore mine to our front. My squad of the first platoon was up front and directed to proceed and try to make our way around it and disable it. Half of the team went around to the right and another part went to the left… the platoon leader was with the group that went to the left.”
Approaching the area where the mine was set up, Lieutenant Rich Solczyk, 1st Platoon leader, decided to have a look for himself. Ordering his men to stay put, he moved forward with his RTO, 20-year-old Specialist James Loudermilk. The lieutenant spotted the mine next to the trail, but the VC were gone. Inexplicably, the platoon leader with his RTO in tow then walked directly toward the device. When the lieutenant was less than ten feet away, the concealed VC detonated the mine. The powerful blast killed the lieutenant instantly and mortally wounded Loudermilk, his RTO. The concussion shook the ground and sent a shockwave through the trees and bushes all the way to the rear of the Charlie Company column. Specialist Tim Szelagowski was also wounded by a piece of shrapnel, but ignoring it he moved forward to assist the wounded RTO. Specialist Loudermilk’s wounds were extensive and he died as Szelagowski held him in his arms.
Captain Jones, the Charlie Company CO, moved forward to the scene of the blast. He was visibly agitated at the sight of the mangled bodies of the dead lieutenant and his RTO. They resembled bloody bundles of discarded clothing. The Captain jerked his eyes away from the scene and mumbled to his RTO, Cliff Kaylor, to radio for a dustoff. Kaylor recalled that his CO was badly shaken.
It took more than an hour to cut a one-ship LZ for the medevac chopper to land and evacuate the two KIAs and wounded man. Captain Jones then ordered the company to move out, putting 2nd Platoon in the lead. Bob Archibald recalled seeing his friend Guy Kistner walk by him as 2nd Platoon moved out. Once again, Archibald had a premonition about him. The two friends nodded at each other, but neither man spoke. Meanwhile, the tracker team picked up the trail of the VC and followed them eastward toward a base camp six hundred meters away.
Alerted by the Claymore blast, the VC hunkered down in their bunkers and interconnecting trenches waiting for the Americans. They could hear the Charlie Company grunts pushing through the jungle toward their positions. The enemy soldiers peered through their gun sights down pre-cut firing lanes in the brush. The lanes were cut low, about knee high, and were difficult to detect. Camouflaged commanddetonated Claymore mines were positioned at ten-meter intervals in front of the trench line. Some of the mines were hanging from trees to shower thousands of bits of razor sharp shrapnel downward on the attackers. By 1600 hours, Charlie Company’s lead platoons were less than 100 meters from the enemy bunkers. The Vietnamese held their fire.
Charlie Company was moving in two columns, 2nd Platoon leading on the left and 1st Platoon at the head of the right column. A distance of about 75 meters separated the two columns. Specialist Larry Norris was walking point for the left column, and his buddy Frank Mascitelli was his cover man. Walking point was tedious and nervewracking work. Norris moved slowly, stopping every few paces to scan the area ahead and to his flanks, and to listen for any telltale noises. Visibility in the dense brush was limited to about ten meters in any direction; therefore he could not see the column moving to his right. In Norris’ words, “Moving through the brush became easier and I slowed down,… I noticed a couple of bushes cut off at ground level…. I got down on one knee behind a bush…the rest of my squad was about ten yards back.”
Charlie Company’s 1st Platoon kept moving when Norris stopped the forward movement of 2nd Platoon. When the 1st Platoon was about 10 to 15 meters from the enemy fortifications all hell broke loose. Chicom and Russian-made AK-47 and AK-50 assault rifles and RPD machine guns fired short and long bursts at the attackers, and several Claymores were detonated on the exposed Americans. Several men near the front of the column went down immediately from the volley, including 20-year-old Guy Kistner, who was almost on top of an enemy bunker. Kistner was hit in the chest but managed to crawl forward and drop a hand grenade into the bunker’s firing aperture. The grenade went off, killing the enemy soldiers inside the bunker. Staff Sergeant Skelton, who took over 1st Platoon when his lieutenant was killed, crawled forward trying to reach Kistner, but the fire from the adjacent bunkers was too intense. He pulled back far enough to engage one of these bunkers with a M72 LAW, destroying it, but the backblast from the weapon pinpointed his location for the enemy and they concentrated their fire on him. Skelton managed to get another LAW round off at a third bunker before shouting to his men to pull back and find cover.
Staff Sergeant Billy Walker, a squad leader with 1st Platoon, reorganized the men as they withdrew for another attack to recover the platoon’s wounded. Having arrived in Vietnam as a PFC, Walker was promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant in less than a
year. The tall, serious-minded Texan and former schoolteacher-turned-soldier was a natural born leader. Walker personally led the next assault to recover the platoon’s wounded and dead. Crawling close to the enemy emplacements, he personally extracted many wounded soldiers while under heavy enemy fire. For his actions, Walker was awarded the Silver Star.
Second Platoon was 50 to 75 meters from the enemy bunkers when the fight started. Larry Norris was still on point when the enemy opened fire. He wrote, “Suddenly there was a loud explosion and all hell broke loose everywhere. I was taking lots of fire…. I was as close to the ground as I could get and I could hear the knocking sound just inches from my ear…. Every time I moved I would get more directed at me. I was yelling for the M79 and finally the platoon opened up to cover me.” Norris’ cover man hit the dirt when the VC opened up. He too was pinned down and unable to move forward or backward. Although the 2nd Platoon suffered several casualties when the enemy opened up, the platoon was not taking the same volume of fire as 1st Platoon.
David Taylor, who was moving about midway in the 2nd Platoon formation, wrote that “Bullets were flying in our direction, but we did not receive a great deal of small arms fire to our position.” He wondered, “Why we were not readjusting our positions for better cover and assisting the fighting ahead of us.” The situation became further confused when Taylor’s platoon got the order to don their gas masks. Apparently, someone had passed the word that CS gas was going to be used to dislodge the enemy from their fortifications. The grunts donned their masks and desperately tried to get protective masks on the wounded, but some had head facial wounds. After several minutes the order was cancelled.
Days of Valor Page 10