Tanks and Armored Personnel Carriers:
A Combat Operation in the Que Son Valley or Things Are Not Always What They Seem To Be
Paul Becker, D Company, 1967-1968
This operation took place to the west of LZ Ross on January 10,1968, just three days after Ace High and Wild Card had been ambushed by NVA Forces. Its purpose was to make contact with remaining NVA forces and determine their disposition: how many were still in the valley. Of course, if found, killing some of them would have been a good thing.
Five tanks and some APCs gave their support to the operation. It kicked off shortly after dawn with Stacked Deck troopers riding on the tanks as they departed from LZ Ross. Undoubtedly, the tanks gave everyone a sense of over-confidence. Or perhaps it was just the expectation that things couldn’t be any more intense than they had been during the past ten days. Anyway, no one had any sense of urgency or unusual anxiety. The NVA would have to be insane to attempt an ambush on such a formidable force. A photographer from Stars and Stripes tagged along with us.
A makeshift staging area was established next to a dried out rice paddy a few klicks away from Ross. From there we traveled across the rice paddy to the higher ground on the opposite side. My platoon rode on the lead tank. One of my troopers had received a care-package box of fruit from home. He and others riding on the tank were chowing down on it as we moved away from the paddy.
An explosion caused the tank to lurch and come to a halt.
Had it hit a mine or been hit by an RPG. There was lots of smoke.
All the troopers were thrown off the tank.
I lay there flat on the ground.
Was I alright?
Had any damage been done?
I felt no pain.
I could move so no broken bones.
There was a bright red blob looking object lying in the mud just a few feet away from me.
Was it one of my organs or someone else's?
I padded down my abdomen.
No blood stains were immediately evident.
Who had been wounded?
I looked closer at the object.
It was nothing more than a bright red apple that someone had just begun to eat!
Luckily, everyone was alright, tank members included. Just a few minor bruises from the fall. The only casualty was the tank, one of its treads blown off in the front.
Before this operation came to a close a few hours latter, three armored vehicles (tanks or APCs’) would become casualties too, abandoned there in the field. And although there were sporadic exchanges of small arms fire between us and the NVA, to the best of my knowledge we suffered no human casualties that day.
The operation broke off when we were ordered to return to the staging area. Without tanks to ride on, we all double-timed it back across the dry rice paddy bed. From there we rode on top of APC’s back to LZ Ross.
A few weeks latter, the operation was reported in Stars and Stripes. On its front page was a picture taken by the photographer who been with us that day. It was a very dramatic photo, a frontal shot of what appeared to be an assaulting line of soldiers.
Its caption read: Troopers of the 2/12th Cavalry assaulting across a rice paddy in the Que Son Valley.
Think about that: how would a photographer get himself between enemy positions and a line of soldiers who were assaulting them.
What it actually was was a shot of us double-timing it back to the staging area!
Ever since then, when ever I see a live action combat photo or video clip, the action of this day replays itself in my mind and I question the validity of what I’m seeing.
Bright red apples bring back the memory too.