Christmas with Leslie
by David Dulin Dentinger
Company A, 2/12th Cavalry

 

In mid December 1967, Company A, 2/12 Cavalry was air-lifted to a small hill in the Que Son Valley named LZ Leslie with orders to build Leslie into a more defendable Landing Zone. The Battalion’s intelligence officer, Captain Krohn, warned us of an NVA build-up in the Que Son Valley and that we should expect to be attacked at any time.  

We filled hundreds of sand bags and built several indestructible bunkers. My limited training in the use of explosives such as detonation cord, known as det-cord, and the composition C4 plastic explosive was just enough to be dangerous. My squad and I made an elaborate booby-trap system in front of our positions using a Claymore mine as the primary explosive source. We strung det-cord from the auxiliary port of the Claymore to other explosives using spent 105mm Howitzer shell casings filled with C4 and mixed with M60 machine gun links and brass — scrap metal — with the det-cord positioned in the primer holes of the casings. Next, we rounded-up all unexploded ordnance we could find and wrapped it in det-cord, strategically placing the devices in front of our sector on the other side of the constantina wire. That would now be considered an IED or improvised explosive device. The Claymore detonator is a small hand-held generator that produces just enough electric current to ignite a blasting cap and that would be used to explode the entire ordnance. 

The major flaw with the location of LZ Leslie was that the hill next to the LZ was much higher. The hill was too steep and thick with foliage to use as an LZ, but the enemy could find cover in the lush jungle at a higher vantage point making us little more than sitting ducks.

Alpha Company had a very peaceful Christmas on LZ Leslie. We were sent hot food — I don’t remember what it was, probably turkey and the fixings — but, hot food was always appreciated.

 

I received a couple of packages from home, one of which was from the Meagles, my mother’s next door neighbors. The package was ordered and sent from an up-scale department store in my home town and contained Goose liver pâté, caviar, capers, and several miniature foil wrapped squares of imported specialty cheeses, along with a box of gourmet crackers.  Most of the packages we received from home consisted of cookies, some favorite snacks, such as slim-jims or jerky, presweetened Kool-Aid or anything we couldn’t get in Vietnam.  The Meagle’s package was such an unusual and enjoyable care package that we felt as if we should be sitting up straight and speaking in a proper manor as we consumed the delightful delicacies. My buddies and I fell upon the goodies and consumed them with the gusto of hound dogs. That was some pretty good stuff!

           

The other care package was from Bernie and Karlin, my brother and sister-in-law, and contained a heavy plastic rubbing alcohol bottle with the original contents discarded and replaced with Bacardi Rum and some home-made chocolate chip cookie ‘pieces’ with nuts. No matter how many times my family wrote “Fragile” on the box, the box would arrive looking as if it had been run over by a truck; but, all we needed was a nice, cold glass of powdered milk to wash them down.

After building up LZ Leslie to what we considered “perfection”, we were told that Alpha Company would be moving back to LZ Ross with one platoon staying behind with Delta Company to defend Leslie. That was shortly after Christmas, December twenty-seventh or twenty-eighth. Most of us were disappointed with the orders as we knew that Ross would also need a lot of work in order to prepare it for the NVA onslaught.

LZ Ross was much larger than LZ Leslie. Ross had a river on the east side with a water treatment plant and also a power generator with a supply shack and ammo dump. The LZ was a full-fledged base camp with all the amenities, even a mess tent and “Real Food”. There were also a couple of M48 tanks on the perimeter and it never hurts to have some armor. Also, LZ Ross was the only place in the Que Son valley where one could bathe, either by a bath in the river or by taking a shower.

Alpha Company was assigned a section of the perimeter that we hadn’t been given before. The area needed considerable work in order to enhance our ability to defend the perimeter. We reinforced the existing bunkers with additional sand bags and proceeded to run our booby-trap system in front of our assigned area, much as we did at LZ Leslie, but with the difference that we had much more to work with at Ross. I found a couple of white phosphorus 105 Howitzer rounds and as many empty shell casings and left over powder bags from artillery as I needed; and, in addition, the supply shack had all the composition C4 and det-cord that I asked for. We built one-hell-of-a booby-trap.

Some time in late December or early January, Captain Krohn made the rounds and alerted us of an impending massive assault on the LZs by a large contingent of NVA.  We felt we were ready.

One afternoon several of us were sitting in our bunker just relaxing, smokin and jokin, and chewing-the-fat. The Claymore detonator attached to the booby-trap was lying in the aperture of the bunker with my hand gently squeezing it against the safety wire. The detonator is a spring tensioned V-shaped device with a safety wire to keep the two legs of the V apart. To detonate the Claymore, one needs to fold the safety wire down, thus allowing the user to squeeze the two legs of the V together.

As I sat gently squeezing the device with the belief that the safety wire would stay in place, I heard an unmistakable “bling” sound as the safety wire popped-out and the detonator was compressed. The ground shook and the entire area in front of our sector lit up ‘like the 4th of July’ with the largest explosion I had seen at such close proximity.

Men scrambled for their helmets, flack-vests, weapons, and ammo, as the 105s were being cranked down and loaded with anti-personnel rounds in the event that firing at point-blank range was needed. I reached for the PRC-25 (radio) to announce to Command what had happened, but I couldn’t get through due to everyone trying to use the frequency at the same time. People fired their weapons outside the perimeter with no apparent target and the locals in the village next to LZ Ross scrambled for cover. I ran up the hill waving my arms and yelling at the top of my lungs, “Cease fire... Cease fire”, and, finally, someone got through on the radio and Ross fell silent again. The explosion left a large cloud of white phosphorus smoke hanging over Ross for several minutes.

When the smoke cleared, I was told to report to the CP command post to explain what had happened. I don’t remember who the officer was to whom I reported; however, I do remember that he shook his head in disbelief as he chewed my ass out for such a stupid mistake, all the while fighting back a laugh. After all, what was he going to do? Send me to Vietnam?

All’s well that ends well; no one was injured in the fiasco; and LZ Ross returned to normal, whatever normal was. We didn’t get the opportunity to rebuild the booby-trap, but at least we got to see how well it worked.

All I have to say is: “If you don’t do anything, you won’t make any mistakes.” I’ve made my share of mistakes and I’ve had my share of successes. It’s in my nature to want to be where the action is, and, if there is no action, then I just may create some.

Just after midnight on January 3rd, LZ Leslie was hit hard and their perimeter breached. That had to have been the worst kind of hell, what with enemy soldiers running around inside their perimeter. I was told by several of our troopers left on Leslie that the booby-trap we built was a big success. At daybreak, they found that sector of the the perimeter littered with the bodies of NVA soldiers.

The NVA had coordinated the attack to hit LZ Ross simultaneously; however Ross was considerably more impregnable; therefore our perimeter was not breached. That story is for another time.  I was thankful that we were moved to Ross before January 3rd; I am also appreciative to have had the opportunity to spend “Christmas with Leslie” before she was breached.

The Daily Staff Journal for January 3rd at 1705 hr. reads.

“Total casualties for the 2/12 are as follow: A Co. has seven (7) WIA and four (4) KIA; B Co. had seven (7) WIA; C Co. had nine (9) WIA; D Co. had thirty-six (36) WIA and nine (9) KIA, with one (1) MIA. B 1/1 has twenty-one (21) WIA. A Co. 39th Engr had six (6) WIA. B 1/30 has four (4) WIA. C 177 Arty had four (4) WIA. B 3/18 Arty had three (3) WIA. At LZ Leslie B 1/21 had two (2) KIA and six-teen (16) WIA. The Blackhats at Leslie had one WIA. The Quad-Fifty team had two (2) WIA. The Search-Light team had one (1) KIA.”

The one missing soldier was Sp4 Billy Ellis whom witnesses say took cover in an ammunition bunker just before it exploded. However, there is no substantial proof to that fact, so Ellis continues to be listed as Missing in Action.

Webmaster note: The Lost Battalion of Tet-Breakout of the 2/12th Cavalry at Hue by Charles Krohn states on January 3rd there were fifteen US casualties at LZ Leslie and fifty five wounded. In addition, sixty three NVA soldiers were buried. One Trooper from D Company, Sp4 Billy Ellis, was missing and witnesses said he took cover in an ammunition bunker just before it exploded. His story is on the 12th Cavalry Missing In Action page.