Friendly Fire
Doug Steiner
Company C, 2/12th
Cavalry
Friendly Fire, that is a term that makes me want to cry.
July 27, 1967, I can’t remember where we were. The company was sent to a forward fire base to help secure the perimeter. Before we were put on the line we had orders to leave and move some distance from the fire base to act as a reactionary force in case the base was attacked. The intel was that there was a large NVA force in the area.
That evening the company set up a perimeter some distance out from the fire base. We were digging in and I was at the CP setting up the radios for a night waiting for something to happen. The FO was calling in defensive concentrations for the night. He was shooting at high angle on the gun target line. He shot smoke into a draw out to our front. They landed where he wanted them so he called for two HE rounds. You could hear them coming and they just sounded too close. The shells didn’t clear the canopy and exploded in the trees right above us.
It was like a scene from hell with men screaming and dying. For some reason I will never figure out why I never got a scratch. The man I was talking to lost an arm. We used shirts and anything handy for bandages. It got real crazy trying to get Medevacs in during the night. We lay there all night knowing we would be over run any minute but that never happened.
Killed that night were Myron Lucas, Phillip Myles and Richard Smith. Many more were wounded.
That was the saddest day of my life.
Webmaster note: On July 27, 1967 Charlie Company was operating in the vicinity of LZ Sandra. In addition to the three men killed, there were seventeen men were wounded by the artillery short round.