Baptism Under Fire
Rod Jefferson and
Don Corbin
Company A, 2/12 Cavalry
The month of May, 1968 had a little bit of everything when it comes to a combat soldier’s baptism under fire. Approximately 19 of our guys, First Platoon, Co A, 2/12, had come to the unit in March, April and early May. There wasn’t a lot of experience in the unit due to the high number of casualties sustained around Hue during January and February. Only 9 of our guys were left in the Platoon after the Que Son Valley and Hue area actions of January and February.
On the night of May 11, First Platoon was ambushed in the area of LZ Sharon and lost 1 man. The following night First Platoon was moving to another ambush site and was caught in a Marine mad minute as the Marines from some firebase opened up with quad fifties and other automatic weapons. Talk about communications? This was a scary moment, but thankfully the small hills were between us and the Marines and no one was hurt. The next night First Platoon and Second Platoon moved to another ambush site with plans to ambush 2 trails leading to a junction. The platoons were to be approximately 50 yards apart, but shortly after separating the two Platoons walked into each other in the dark and Second Platoon opened up on First Platoon and we had 2 more casualties. During these three days we had been ambushed, ambushed each other, and had faced serious danger from the Marines and this was a real greeting for the new guys. This was the first time in the bush for several of these guys and the first time to be fired on by many of them. Their arrival to the unit had not been easy, but they were about to get a first hand look at one of the combat soldier’s worst nightmares, the booby trap.
During the morning of May 16, Co A, 2/12 left LZ Jane on a search and clear mission. First Platoon was on the point and left out the gate of Jane and circled to the left. The terrain was fairly open with small trees and low growth bushes. Within an hour or so the CO radioed the point platoon leader wanting to know what the hold up was as the unit was not moving fast enough. First Platoon continued forward and most of the Platoon had crossed through a small hedge row/bamboo row/bush row, etc. and had entered a small clearing. The Company Commander and three RTO’s (radio telephone operators) had moved up behind First Platoon and was crossing the same path when a 105 artillery round exploded (the after action report stated that it was a 155 artillery round). Lt. Valadez, the FO, told the point Platoon leader that it was a 105 round, as he dug up some of the fragments. The point Platoon leader saw a detonator wire leading away from the blast site.
Darrell De Priest and Jerry Pedicone were killed and 5 others were wounded, including the Captain. We all knew the booby trap was command detonated. This area of movement was used often by units moving into or out of Jane. We believed the bad guy just sat and waited for a unit to cross this way. Our belief that the booby trap was command detonated was due to the detonator wire leading from the blast site and due to the fact that the path of the unit was small and at least 25 men had crossed over that path prior to the explosion. Also, the explosion did not occur until the Captain’s RTO and two other RTO’s were in the kill zone. We believed the RTOs were the target selected by the bad guy.
Immediately after the blast, the unit formed a defensive perimeter around the dead and wounded and the medics began trying to save lives. There was a lot of ticked off combat soldiers, cursing and soldiers begging for a fight. What had just been done to us was like a sucker punch and these combat soldiers were ready to fight back.
De Priest and Pedicone were dead, Janich (sp) lost his legs and the Captain was hit in several places. The Captain was walking in circles, hurting and fighting at the pain he was enduring. His flak jacket did not totally protect his upper body as he had chunks of meat knocked out of him. He was chewed up and he probably couldn’t hear very well, but, his ticked off state of mind may have helped him with the severe pain that he had to be enduring.
After the dead and wounded were flown out, the XO and the platoon leaders met and we started out again to our destination. First Platoon again took the point. A short while later the terrain opened up to small hills or rises with limited vegetation. Whoever took over for the wounded CO gave the order for the point man to recon by fire with grenades. The point man had been drafted the prior year and at the time of his draft he was the starting catcher on his College baseball team, so this use of his arm was welcomed. From time to time he would throw a grenade well out in front of the unit and at the time he thought what a waste of grenades, as the area, due to the lack of cover, was the last place the enemy would select for an ambush site. Grenades kept being passed to the point as the march lasted for several hours.
The reason for the grenade recon was not known at the time, but years later we came to believe that who ever made the decision to use the grenades was brilliant. This combat unit had just lost seven guys and saw up close the mangled bodies of their brother soldiers and they were ticked off, mad at the world, disgusted, etc. The periodic explosion of a grenade, during their long march, had to break some lines of thought and take their minds off of the carnage they had just witnessed, even if it was just for a short while. They knew the explosions were by grenade recon and many had their minds anticipating the next grenade explosion.
Eleven days later we lost 3 more of our guys and the March, April and May arrivals had been welcomed to Vietnam. May’s casualties included 4 of our 9 Hue survivors (Doss, Himebaugh, De Priest and Hambrick, with Doss and De Priest being the two squad leaders) and now First Platoon would get ready to welcome the new guys who would be replacing our 7 casualties of May.