Charlie Makes his Move
Sgt. Terry Foote
Company C, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 12th Cavalry
May began just as April ended, rough. We weren't going very deep
into the mountains surrounding the Bong Son plains in Binh Dinh province. Even
though we weren't going very deep into the mountains we were going on a more
regular basis in smaller units. It seemed odd to all of us that we operated in a
company size unit out on the plains and going through the villages but when they
sent us into the mountains the largest force we used was platoon size.
They began sending us into draws coming out of the mountains looking for trails
to set up on. They would split the company and platoons into 10-12 man teams for
these ambushes. Here's where military intelligence becomes an oxymoron. If I'm
Charlie sitting on the ground watching the choppers moving into the mountains in
pairs and setting down on several different LZ's. This turned into a big duh.
Charlie knew we were setting up ambushes on the trails in the draws. Who would
think the NVA was going to walk into one of these ambushes? Once in a while you
might catch a couple of stragglers but that was about all. Hell, they knew where
we were better than we did. If they chose to they could have wiped out every
ambush set up for them but they had other things on their minds. They were
slipping over the border and through the mountains in platoon size groups going
into staging areas for company and battalion size units.
Lessons learned from LZ Bird? It appears as if nothing was learned. Before we
were over run on Bird intelligence knew the 22nd NVA Regiment was operating in force in
the Kim Son valley yet they put us out there as bait anyway. Those of us that
wiggled off the hook at Bird knew there was something wrong with the picture and
we talked among ourselves about it. When we talked about what was going on you
could see the fear in the faces of the FNG's. When someone tripped a booby trap
the fear among the FNG's grew even more. Those of us that had been around for
several months knew the booby traps were standard procedure. One thing the new
guys invariably asked was "where were the punji sticks" and those type of booby
traps. We simply explained to them that wasn't the type of enemy we were facing
in the central highlands. These guys were hard core NVA and Main Force Viet
Cong. They weren't the farmer by day, VC by night type of enemy. Most of the
less than lethal booby traps were in the south in the swamps, not in the
mountains.
Binh Dinh province was crucial to the NVA. They needed it to cut the country in
half and to have a better base of operations to operate from. As we got deeper
into 1967 we all knew something was coming at us. We just didn't know what. We
were moving constantly from the mountains to the villages and back to the
mountains. Around mid May we began to run into larger elements, not stragglers,
squad and platoon size elements all headed to the middle of the Bong Son plains.
We'd have a quick hit and run fight or hit a booby trap but the difference was
it was happening more often.
We were air lifted to the top of a mountain with a well traveled trail we knew
the NVA were moving troops and equipment along. We set up in a company size
position and sent platoon patrols out to cover the smaller trails coming into
the larger trail we were sitting on. When the patrols were sent out we always
kept a few men from each platoon to secure the company command post. We would
rotate people staying back so everyone got a chance to rest a little. One day
five of us out of my platoon got the gravy duty of resting while the rest of the
platoon went down the mountain and were to come back up the other side of the
draw. Walking point was a guy from Florida by the name of Larry Clausen. He was
a hot dog but had reason to be because he was a genuine bad ass, not afraid of
anything. Behind him was an Indian from Arizona by the name of Poolaw. Very
quiet, very likeable man. He was the definition of stealth on a patrol. Suddenly
we heard an explosion about halfway down the mountain. I saw Doc Ennis running
toward my position which was facing the explosion. He wasn't running to see me.
I grabbed a rifle and ammo and was right behind him to cover his ass heading
down the mountain. One of the radio operators followed me. We ran into some
extremely thick brush. We could see the position of the explosion down the
mountain but just couldn't get through the brush. Then we heard the medevac
coming in. We saw them drop the stretcher into the jungle and knew someone was
hurt bad. At the same time we heard on the radio it was Clausen and Poolaw that
had been hit. The position of the booby trap was set in such a way that it
killed them both instantly with pellets to the head. I remember hearing the
company commander asking my platoon leader if it was Poolaw. This was confirmed
and we all just sat down and cried. That was a very unusual thing because we
always tried to block out the hurt when someone went down. I was stuck in the
brush with Doc Ennis, he was the chief headhunter (company medic), and the RTO.
Poolaw was special to all of us, there is always someone like that but the loss
of Poolaw simply devastated all of us. Yes there had been another man killed but
it just wasn't the same. The platoon made it back up to the company CP and we
were extracted and dropped into LZ Pony for a day.
Webmaster Note: SP4 Lawrence Clausen was Killed in Action on February 15th; however, Pasqual C. Poolaw Jr.
survived the booby trap. After this story was written in April 2005, Terry was
contacted by a family member and informed that Pasqual, who lost a leg below the knee, led a productive life, married and had children before he passed away a few
years ago. His father, 1SGT Pascal C. Poolaw Senior was killed in Vietnam
on November 7, 1967. He served in three wars as an infantryman and was one of the most highly decorated American Indians
to serve in the Army.
His memorial is at
http://www.virtualwall.org/dp/PoolawPC01a.htm
The next day we were right back at it. We were out in the plains checking the
villages surrounding the village of An Qui. Suddenly we heard a fierce fire
fight break out over in An Qui. We were about a click (kilometer) from there so
we were ordered to move out and move into An Qui from the west and push through
to A and B companies who had set up as a blocking force. we got to the edge of
the village and dropped down behind the rice paddy dikes. We saw movement and
some NVA heading into a hooch. The platoon leader screamed for the 60's to open
up on that hooch. That was my cue since I was then humping the 60. We pretty
well shredded the hooch. If there was anyone in there they were dead or shot all
to hell. We then got up and began to move into An Qui, 1st squad to the left and
3rd squad to the right with second (mine) squad in the middle. When we moved
into the village we had to cross an open area about 50 yards across. We got out
into the open moving quickly and all hell broke loose. Two men in front of me
and two men behind me were hit immediately and I kept moving firing all the way.
I knocked out two bunkers, one a machine gun bunker and killed 4 NVA in those
bunkers. That gave us time to get our flanking squads pulled back. As I was
moving back I saw Doc Word in the brush with wounded. One was a young man that
had just joined the company the day before. I asked Doc if he needed help. He
said he needed to get the platoon leader out of there but the new guy was
already dead along with two squad leaders. Doc and I grabbed Lt. Mordue and got
him to safety. I returned to the crossing and laid down fire to help get the
rest of the men out of the killing zone. The Lt had his ankle shot all to hell.
We finally got out of the village and had our wounded medevaced. We had to leave
three dead in the village. There was no way to bring them out then. The
gunships, jets, and artillery began to pound the hell out of that village and
pounded it all night long. The next day we had to sweep the village because the
NVA had moved out during the night. It seems we had walked right into the middle
of an NVA battalion dug in looking for a fight. We lost 7 men out of my platoon
that day and several wounded. The company commander came to me and asked me to
show the armor where the bodies were. Apparently I was the only one that had
made it that far into the village and lived to tell about it. We went in with
chains and I pointed out the bodies of our men. The armor guys thanked me and
said they would take it from there. They had to drag the bodies out with chains
because they might be booby trapped. I got back to the company position and
battalion air lifted us back to English to stand down.
Webmaster note: C Company received the
Valorous Unit Award for it's
actions at An Qui from May 31 to June 1, 1967.
For that day the Battalion Commander awarded me the Bronze Star Medal with "V"
device for valor. They also gave me a Purple Heart for scratching myself in the
bushes, go figure. I wondered why because all I did was get the hell out of
there as quick as I could. I did nothing anyone else would have done had they
been in the same position.
After that fight we stayed in a stand down position for 3 days to collect
ourselves and pat ourselves on our collective backs for still being alive and
mourned the dead.
It was getting worse and we all knew it.