The Night Position
Pete (Torch) La Count
Artillery FO - Red Dagger 42
Company D, 1/12th Cavalry, 1967
According to the company CO, the battalion CO required companies to set up their night-positions only after the sun set (this was not very smart for a number of reasons). So what normally happened was, as soon as the BN commander made his last trip-of-day in his Charlie-Charlie chopper (checking out the company locations), our company CO moved us quickly to our night-position while we still had light. But in doing so, he told me not to report our actual night-position until a hour after sunset.
Later, when I returned to my firing battery as the XO (in the artillery, it is the XO who actually commands/fires the guns - not the Battery Commander). Now I had a problem, having been in the field as an FO, I know as the sun goes down the reported unit locations are probably false. Many a time, I hoped and prayed that I wouldn't get an early evening fire mission.
I am fairly certain a number of friendly-on-friendly fire incidents were the result of such location reporting errors.