My First Major Firefight
Sgt. Terry Foote
Company C, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 12th Cavalry
During the first couple of months of my tour is
was the same old thing all the time. Humping the bush, going out on squad size
ambushes, hearing explosions as we knew someone hit a booby trap. We humped the
mountains between Pleiku and An Khe for a few weeks. We were then moved over to
Binh Dinh province in the center of Viet Nam. This was a critical area because it
was fertile and the North Vietnamese had to control the central part of Viet Nam
if they were to be successful.
The NVA drastically underestimated the 1st Cav Division's tenacity, mobility,
and fire power. They thought they could just walk in and take over this crucial
province in South Viet Nam. To the west was an unbelievable mountain range with
river valleys running all through it. The city of Bong Son was out in the plains
of this province. That is exactly where the Cav located it's forward support
base (LZ English). To the east was rice paddies, villages, and sand before you
ran into the South China Sea. By this time I had been on easily between 15-20
combat assaults without hitting one "hot" LZ. (A hot LZ was a landing zone that
was drawing fire from the enemy while landing).
We air assaulted into a field of sand near the coast line. This LZ was hot if
you could call it that. We were drawing sporadic small arms fire. A few rounds
were close because for some strange reason a person can never forget the sound
of that "crack" as a round went over your head. We didn't have any causalities
but it woke us up in a hurry. We rapidly set up a defensive position behind an
elevated row of scrub brush that ran along side a trail. The trail was well used
as it connected two villages as a road would.
As all our troops hit the ground we found out we
were to be a pushing force. What I mean by that is we were to push the enemy
through the village into two of our sister companies set up in an "L" shape
blocking force. Whoever had been shooting at us must have been set there just to
slow us down a little and let us know they were there. Gun ships were making
pass after pass into a village and in between the gun ships artillery was
pounding the hell out of the village with 105's and 155's. When we began to move
into the village word was passed back from man to man to be on our toes because
they had caught an entire NVA battalion out in the open in broad daylight. That
meant we were in for a fight. Suddenly the attitude changed from the normal
humping attitude to one of everyone paying attention to every little thing we
saw. My platoon was the second platoon in the column and my squad was the second
squad in the platoon. As we moved through the village I heard gunfire ahead of
me coming the point squad of our company. I knew they had run into something.
The one thought I can remember throughout this
entire firefight from beginning to end was I can't remember being scared. I
think I was too stupid to be scared. I guess I still thought it was a war game
since this was the first time we had run into an entrenched force waiting to
fight. Up to now all I had seen were booby traps and an occasional sniper. I
simply was not afraid.
As we moved through the village I saw a few bodies lying along side the trail
and in the fields. They were all NVA. Sgt. Biaza told me and Eddie Harris
(another guy that had been assigned to the unit the same day as me) to move into
the field and check the bodies to make sure they were dead. Eddie just laughed
(you would have to know him to understand him. He was laughing because that was
simply his nature. He didn't know how to get mad at anyone or how to disagree.).
He and I moved into the field and Eddie checked one body as I checked another.
They were both dead but I called Eddie over to look at this dead NVA. He was
lying on his back and looked pretty strange to me. Eddie flipped him over an I
saw immediately what was strange. Looking at his face I had seen no eyes or
teeth. There was one small hole in his forehead, the entire back of his head was
gone. One shot from an M-16. We didn't pay much attention to it, just smiled and
moved back to the column.
About 10 minutes later the column came to a complete halt. Word came back to dig
in any place you could because the NVA resistance had stiffened and we were
really in for a fight. They instructed my platoon to set up in a column parallel
with the 1st platoon's line. The third platoon was to cover the trail and link
up with alpha company to the east. We were just about set up when Sgt. Baiza
came back to the platoon asking for two men to move up and cover the end of 1st
platoon's line. We had a battalion "U" formation encircling the NVA and that
would have put me in the exact spot the NVA would be trying to slip out during
the night. It was a critical position and sure to have a lot of fighting going
on during the night. Dumb Ass that I was and eager to get into a real fire fight
for whatever reason a 19 yr old does I volunteered. Eddie Harris just shrugged
his shoulders and said OK, let's go. We got to the end of the line of defense
the 1st platoon had set up only to discover what I had honestly hoped for. I
would have NVA attempting to slip out of our trap in that position all night.
About the time Eddie and I set up the 1st platoon sergeant came up and told us
they wouldn't need us because they didn't want to stretch the line that far out
due to artillery fire during the night. A little disappointed I packed up my
ammo that I had set at the ready and Eddie did the same.
He looked at me and said "don't do that shit
again. You and I came together and we are by God going to leave together". We
got back to the platoon and set up protecting the backs of the first and third
platoons. There wasn't any sleeping going on that night. Eddie and I could hear
the sounds of some very heavy fighting going on in the area of the 1st platoon
where we would have been. A lot of small arms and grenades plus several screams
and GI's cussing. The fighting died down about 0430 AM as the sun was about to
come up. Eddie and I just sat there. The look on his face was "damn I'm glad we
got out of there". Sgt. Grant, my squad leader came by to check on us and asked
me if I thought I had finally earned my Combat Infantry Badge. I had really seen
no fighting and felt as though I hadn't. He told me to take a walk with him. We
walked over to the area of the 1st platoon's positions, the same one I would
have been on the end of. There were NVA bodies piled 2-4 high in front of their
positions. I would have been right in the middle of that and Sgt Grant told me
if they had broken through the 1st platoon we were next. He asked me again if I
had earned my CIB. I honestly told him no because I had not really been a part
of the fight. All I did was sit back and stay awake all night listening. I was
very young and very dumb. I still didn't realize they were trying to kill me for
sure.
As it turned out our entire battalion had suffered two causalities and killed
over 300 NVA that day and night. That made FNG's like me feel like Superman.
Sgt. Grant told me he wouldn't put me in for my CIB until I asked for it which
was fine with me.
From there we went on a sweep through the entire area to see if we could find
any NVA hiding anywhere. All was quiet so the choppers picked us up and moved us
to another ridgeline overlooking the Bong Son plains to see what kind of trouble
we could stir up there. The LZ we landed on was only large enough for two
choppers at a time which meant they would only be unloading 10 men at a time to
secure the LZ. I was on the first chopper in. The LZ was quiet. I guess Charlie
decided the LZ was too small to worry about. We began our movement across the
ridgelines looking for trouble and found none. We then went through our daily
chore of setting up for the night as if the previous day and night had never
existed and we hadn't done or seen anything. Life was beginning all over again
for those of us that walked away from that fight so we put it behind us.
As you've all heard before, "Don't mean nothing". Staying alive was what meant
something to everyone except a few of us. I still had that gung ho stupid
attitude and thought I was there to help those people. I guess I kept that
attitude, although buried for the most part, for my entire tour. I learned the
first thing was taking care of each other first, the country of South Viet Nam
was second.