My First Days with Charlie Company

April 1968

Charlie Bader, Wild Card 26

Company C, 2^nd Battalion, 12^th Cavalry

On April 5, 1968 a chopper took three brand new young lieutenants (Jim Caesar, Bill Schrader and I) from LZ Stud to LZ Wharton to join the Second Battalion, Twelfth Calvary. When we landed we were escorted to the battalion headquarters bunker and introduced to LTC Sweet, the battalion commander. He was a short man and was wearing a green T-shirt with web gear over it, a steel pot on his head and was smoking a pipe. He welcomed us to the battalion, pointed to the three of us and said A, B, C. This was our unit assignment and as I was the third in line I ended up in C Company. Bill went to A company and Jim was assigned to B Company.

The Charlie Company commander, Captain Jack Emrath came up to the battalion headquarters to take me to the company headquarters. Emrath said I would be taking over the second platoon from the acting platoon leader, SSG Coleman. He called for all the platoon leaders to come up and then introduced me to them. Looking at them you would never know they were officers. There was no rank worn on the uniforms, they were wearing dirty green T-shirts, were generally filthy and had not shaved in at least two days. Little did I know that within a few days I would look exactly the same as them. Emrath introduced me to SSG Coleman who took me down the line to where we had a number of bunkers on the perimeter. He introduced me to each man and told me where he was from. Then we walked back up the hill to the platoon headquarters bunker. SSG Coleman, the platoon RTO and the platoon medic and I sat down on the top of the bunker and no more than a minute later I heard this loud whistling noise. I wasn’t sure what it was but everyone else was headed for the bunker entrance in a big hurry. I thought this was a good idea so I managed to be right behind SSG Coleman. When he got to the front of the bunker, it appeared that he was stuck in the entrance so I pushed him in. He landed on a guy that was inside the bunker sleeping.

This was my baptism to fire. The NVA had fired over 20 130mm artillery rounds at LZ Wharton with some of the rounds landing about one hundred yards from our bunker. SSG Coleman told me the unit had been on LZ Wharton for a couple of days and had been hit  several times each day by the NVA artillery from Co Roc which was just on the other side of the border in Laos. The guns of Co Roc were dug in the side of the mountain and were not suppressed by American fire. I found out one of the NVA artillery rounds landed one bunker over from my platoon's bunkers and killed four men in Company D.

Later that evening, Emrath called a platoon leaders meeting and informed us that we were leaving LZ Wharton and going by chopper to relieve the Marines on Hill 471 near Khe Sanh. This was a strategic hill as you could clearly see the Marine base at Khe Sanh.

The next morning as my platoon was sitting on the landing zone waiting for the choppers to arrive; the brigade commander came by and talked to the men. We loaded the Hueys and flew west, about ten klicks, to an area that was 1,500 meters south of the Marine base at Khe Sanh. A battalion of Marines had captured this position two days prior when they broke out of Khe Sanh and assaulted the hill. We landed at the base of Hill 471 and as the Marines walked down the hill our units walked up the hill, passing side by side but no words were said. I saw quite a few Marines wearing first aid bandages which indicated they had been in a recent firefight.

Walking up the hill, the footing was bad as the earth was very loose. During the past three months, B-52s, jets and artillery had been heavily striking the area and it seemed as if the earth was turned over to a depth of a couple of feet. As we walked up the hill, for every two steps taken forward there was one step taken back. There was almost no vegetation on the hill, it was bare. That day the smell of death and decay was prevalent everywhere. When we got to the top of the hill we saw NVA bodies lying all over the upper slopes of the hill. The NVA had attempted to retake the hill the night before and were unsuccessful in their attempt, losing over 120 men. The Marines did not bury them but left them where they had died. By the next day, the smell was overwhelming and we had to bury the NVA soldiers.

During our second day on Hill 471, a patrol was sent to the south peak of the hill which was connected by a saddle to the main hill where we were located. They found the body of a Special Forces soldier, from FOB 3 at Khe Sanh, who had been killed on January 29^th during a firefight on Hill 471.

In addition, the patrol captured a NVA artillery forward observer who had been wounded in the head by a piece of shrapnel a couple of weeks prior to his capture. His wound was in better shape than one would expect because maggots had cleaned the wound. It sure didn’t look pretty but the maggots ate most of the dead and decayed flesh. The bunker he was in had a clear view of Khe Sanh and it was a perfect position for an arty FO to call in fire on the Marine base. One could see why the NVA artillery rounds were accurately placed on the Marine base.

On the third day on the hill, our company was assigned the mission to recon the town of Khe Sanh which was to the southwest of Hill 471. This would be my first patrol and I was apprehensive about my skills as an infantry platoon leader. To compound matters, there was a female photographer from Life magazine who flew into Hill 471 that morning and she went out with us. As we had a number of bunkers to clear I was running from dirt mound to dirt mound attempting to stay low to the ground. The photographer was taking pictures of me but I don't know if I made Life magazine or not. Our patrol went into the town of Khe Sanh but did not make contact with the NVA and later that day we returned to the top of the hill.

Based on my actions during my initial patrol, I have to say I was not very confident about my ability to lead men in combat. I realized how little I knew. My men were good; they knew their jobs and a number of them were hardened veterans who had participated in the Que Son Valley battles during January and in the fight for Hue during Tet.

While I was on Hill 471, I saw C-130s parachuting supplies into the Marine base because Route 9, the main land road from Quang Tri to Khe Sanh, had not been reopened. During the third day the road was opened by the First Cav.

On the morning of fourth day we were airlifted off Hill 471 by Hueys and returned to LZ Stud as our battalion concluded its portion of Operation Pegasus.

Later I found out I was with the first Army unit to "relieve" the Marines at Khe Sanh, thus my small place in history was reserved.

Many months later, I learned an OCS classmate and good friend of mine, Lee Adams of Co B, 2/7 Cav, was killed on Route 9 on April 6th, 1968 my first full day in the field. I had last seen him in Panama at the jungle school and we agreed we would get together in Vietnam as we both were assigned to the First Calvary Division.

Cartoon

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