Boots on the Ground: The history of Project Delta

by Carpenter, Stephen

  “Recon Team 1A (17 - 19 Jun 69).

  (1) 17130H vic coord ZC088001 team heard A/C throughout the night either A C-119 or C-47, stopped at 0500 hours, no incident throughout the night. (Team heard spooky 13 over station friendly aircraft.)

  (2) 180620H vic coord ZC086002 E/NE of location team heard rooster crow approx 800 meters.

  (3) 180630H, same location team heard tin rattling similar to eating utensils approx 800 meters from their location.

  (4) 180645H, vic coord ZC086002, team heard single shot approx 1000 meters NE directions. Same time heard approx 2 enemy NW direction approx 200 meters.

  (5) 180655H vic coord ZC086002 team heard 1 or 2 men walking SE at approx 50 meters.

  (6) 180655H team moved NE for approx 200 meters. At 0910H team observed 1 man wearing VN straw hat, khaki shirt moving SW to NE on trail approx 1 m wide, hard packed but lightly used. Team thinks this indiv heard team. Indiv moved to edge of bushes and then moved NE. (Item 77, Enemy Activity Overlay).

  (7) 180930H, vic coord ZC086005 team heard 1 S/A shot in direction of LZ and heard voices NE approx 200 meters. Team continued NE approx 50 meters and observed trail watchers hut with a 2 man foxhole freshly dug next to the hut. (Item 78, Enemy Activity Overlay).

  (8) 181055H, vic coord ZC085002, team came upon trail, 2 meters wide, hard packed, burned on the sides and fairly new, excellent condition. Trail runs SE to SW has overhead canopy. Could not be seen from the air. Dirt from trail was packed on each side. This trail is very clean and it is a high speed trail. Team then moved approx 25 m off the trail to observe. Team stayed in this location.

  (9) 181100H, vic coord ZC085002 team observed 2 VC walking NE direction [Illegible] were wearing khakis and armed with AK-47’s. Enemy were talking loudly no apparent concern for their security.

  (10) 181115H, vic coord ZC085002 team observed 2 VC riding bicycles SW on trail. Enemy were wearing khakis and armed with AK-47’s. Enemy were riding as if they were going to work without a care in the world, talking loudly.

  (11) 181100H, vic coord ZC085002 team heard what is believed to be a 3 wheel scooter moving from SE to NW and back from NW to SE. This continued until 1700 hours.

  (12) 18130H, vic coord ZC085002, team observed enemy moving for the next 2 ½ hours in groups of 2 - 3 and 5, and 1 group of 10 at 3 to 5 minute intervals. A total of approx 60 VC. Enemy was traveling SW with approx 40 to 45 bicycles and the rest were walking, again talking loudly. Most of enemy was wearing khakis, some without shirts, some with white shirts, some with VN straw hats. All enemy had weapons AK-47’s and SKS’s, they were not equipped with packs or web gear. Approx 1300 hours, Team observed 2 VC pulling a 2 wheel cart. Contents of cart unknown. Metal rattles could be heard. At 1330 hours a group bunched up at trail junction, then a group of 7 VC moved south on trail. Trail approx 1 m wide, hard packed and lightly used. Team believes the 7 VC went to the hut.

  (13) 181130H, vic coord ZC085002, team heard 1 S/A shot from SE approx 800 meters.

  (14) 181430H, vic coord ZC085002, team observed groups of 2, 3 and 5 moving NE. Team believes this was a change of work shifts. These groups are dressed, same as others mentioned before. Walking and riding bicycles as the group observed before. This continued for 30 minutes.

  (15) 181500H, vic coord ZC085002 team observed 1 VC on bicycle on trail moving W and stopped at trail junction. This VC fired 1 shot (sounded like an elephant gun) in the air. The 7 VC that broke off the trail previously came back up the trail to the junction to meet this 1 VC. For approx 1 minute these 7 VC talked to this person and all 8 VC moved SW on the trail.

  (16) 181515H, vic coord ZC085002, team observed a group of 12 VC moving NE, all were walking and dressed the same as enemy mentioned above. All had weapons but no packs nor web gear. Approx in the center of this group team observed a Caucasian female. The Caucasian female was dressed in white shirt, dark pants, with her shirt tucked in her pants. She was without head gear. Her clothes were clean and neat. Hair was strawberry blonde, roughly shoulder length. Smooth light skin. Weight approx 140 to 145 lbs, height approx 5’ 6”, large bust, female was not carrying anything. She was not under duress. She seemed well fed and in good health.

  (17) 181535H, vic coord ZC085002, team observed 3 groups each of 2, [Illegible] dressed in khaki pants and white shirts carrying large bundles [Illegible] what looked like white sheets. Enemy was walking SW to NE. Scarves were wrapped around their heads. They had no weapons. Other groups besides these groups were still moving NE until 1630 hours. At 1600 hours, a cart pulled by 2 VC moved NE with same type rattle as before. Team believes this was a chow cart.

  (18) 190545H, vic coord ZC085002, team heard rooster from SE approx 700 m. Another rooster W approx 22 m and another E/SE approx 700 meters. At this time, 1 enemy moved SW on a bicycle with flashlight, too dark to see what type dress or equipment. Approx same time 1 VC was heard moving S walking.

  (19) 190650H, vic coord ZC085002, team observed 2 enemy dressed in green uniforms, armed with AK-47’s, web gear and packs moving SW to NE. From this time on no traffic was observed or heard until contact approx 1600 hours when Team heard fire fight and air strike supporting 1st Ranger Company. Team saw 1 VC running S to N. (Item 79, Enemy Activity Overlay).

  (20) 190650H, vic coord ZC085002, team heard 2 shots E/SE of their location approx 1000 meters. (21) 191710H, vic coord ZC085002, Team linked up with 1st Ranger Company, 81st Airborne Ranger Bn (ARVN).

  It was widely speculated back in the Recon area that these two team members might have a future guessing women’s weights at the County Fair back home.

  Operation Trojan Horse (3-69) was conducted from an FOB located outside Special Forces CIDG Camp Mai Loc, A-101. This was the third A Camp designated A-101, the first two being Khe Sanh and Lang Vei, neither of which survived. It was affectionately called the “gateway to the north” as it was the northernmost outpost in Vietnam and sat very near both the DMZ and the Laotian border. Project Delta was OPCON to the U.S. 3rd Marine Division. Operation Trojan Horse ran from August 4th through August 29th and after a brief stand down resumed from September 8th through October 1st, 1969. The advance party responsible for constructing the FOB found themselves in the middle of a battlefield with many unexploded pieces of ordnance. Several Rangers broke for a meal and as they sat down one Ranger detonated an old French rifle grenade, blasting the group with shrapnel. One heavy piece of metal cleaved the skull of one Ranger in the forehead and between the eyes, SSG Dennis McVey did his best to stabilize the men and they were all still alive when they were medevaced. An Ordnance Explosives Detail was requested from the 3rd Marine Division and they came and disabled all ordnance discovered to date. Everybody tiptoed around the FOB for quite a while.

  During the two month operation Project Delta committed nineteen Recon teams, seventeen Roadrunner teams, six Ranger Companies, and four Nung BDA platoons on operations. Throughout the Vietnam conflict the northern provinces of I Corps remained a hotly contested piece of real estate. In spite of heavy casualties inflicted on them during Tet of 1968, the NVA maintained enough control in the remote border areas to comfortably stage troops and supplies for future actions. President Johnson had ordered a cessation of bombing on October 31st, 1968. Except for an air campaign in Cambodia, the cessation provided an opportunity for the North Vietnamese, who were tottering on the brink of defeat in 1968, to renew their infiltration via the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Project Delta’s AO for Trojan Horse encompassed the Khe Sanh Plain and areas including the northwest borders of South Vietnam, Laos and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The 47 missions run during the two months of Operation Trojan Horse revealed that the NVA and what remained of the local VC units were present throughout the AO. Project Delta identified no less than eight NVA Regiments and Battalions operating in the area. The NVA had altered their methods of operation significantly so that they engaged in transporting supplies, building base camps and maintaining equipment at night. During the day they maintained security and rested out of sight of
aircraft. Interrogation of prisoners taken during Trojan Horse revealed that the majority of the fighting men from these NVA units were located in Laos and in the DMZ where they were engaged in training and refit.84

  On August 17th Recon Team 3 discovered a large ammunition cache that included many rocket and mortar rounds. The 2nd Company, 81st Airborne Rangers was inserted to secure the cache and exploit the find. On September 13th Recon Team 10 was compromised by twenty five NVA soldiers closing in on its position. That evening Recon Team 6A (Burhl Cunningham, Roy Sprouse) reported counting over 100 trucks due east of their position. The team continued to see trucks through the night, into the next day and all through the following night. They called and adjusted artillery, Spooky gunship and air strikes. They asked for a Marine reaction force. Again the

  Marines denied the request.80,84

  Many years later several interesting facts emerged that may have affected the 3rd Marine Division’s view of Project Delta’s intelligence gathering. Shortly after Delta’s reconnaissance efforts in the Ashau Valley in April, 1969, the 101st Airborne Division launched its attack on Hamburger Hill. Forty six U.S. soldiers would die taking the hill which was immediately abandoned by U.S. forces. The NVA quietly retook the hill unopposed. There was a great public outcry when the pictures of all forty six dead were shown in Life Magazine along with some two hundred killed in the third week of June. Washington ordered General Creighton Abrams to avoid any more such encounters. Coincidental to this, the 3rd Marine Division Commander knew that his Division would be one of the first to leave Vietnam. The Division departed in November, 1969. Unbeknown to many, this would signal the end of large unit search and destroy operations in South Vietnam. Small unit engagements would be the rule for the remainder of the war. The only large unit search and destroy operations would be conducted in Laos and Cambodia.59

  As Trojan Horse wound down two significant incidents occurred. An armored vehicle with a turret mounted cannon was assigned as part of the perimeter security for Project Delta at Mai Loc. On September 19th the FOB was attacked by a small ground unit and received small arms and mortar rounds. The young soldier assigned with the armored vehicle ran from his tent and was killed by a mortar round exploded near his feet. Two U.S. and three VN Delta men were wounded. On September 27th SFC D.J. Taylor took several newly arrived Recon men on a shakedown mission near the FOB. They surprised a group of VC with arms pilfered from the A Camp. They were engaged in a firefight and SGT Tom Crosby, on his first mission, was critically wounded in the neck and chest. He was saved by the quick actions of SSG Dennis McVey who grasped Crosby’s severed carotid artery and kept him from bleeding to death on the medevac ride to Quang Tri. Dennis’ account follows.

  “Delta moved into an FOB across a dirt road/air strip from the Mai Loc Special Forces Camp West of Quang Tri in Quang Tri Province in I Corps, on the road that ran to the Khe Sahn area and to Laos, highway 9. We had the support of an artillery unit with an attached track mounted duster (twin 40 mm guns) and crew. They were set up on the perimeter facing the mountains of Laos and would fire harassment and interdiction (H&I) at night. It was quite a sight to watch the stream of tracers’ shells going out and hitting the mountains. The FOB got mortared a few times and during one of the attacks the SSG in charge of the duster ran out of their tent rather than crawling and was riddled by shrapnel and KIA. The old Khe Sahn base was abandoned but the air strip was still usable and Delta used it to land and pick up our guys that had to be brought out on McGuire rigs. This was the operation when SGT Thomas J. Crosby was hit in the right carotid artery and chest outside of the FOB at Mai Loc. We got him in a chopper to take him to the hospital in Quang Tri and both he and I were covered in his blood. I had his carotid artery pinched off with my left hand and could not let go, I was trying to bandage his chest wound but could not with only one free hand. I tried to get the door gunners to help but they just sat and stared. The copilot was turned in his seat staring at Tom and me with his eyes bugged out. Tom stopped breathing and I had to give him mouth to nose as his jaw muscles had clamped down due to the wound and I could not open it one handed. Mouth to nose worked and Tom lived. I did not see him again until May of 2007 when he and his wife came to Washington to visit. It was great to see him after 38 years and to see how well he had recovered, and how his life had turned out. He recovered, went to college, met his wife and they both became school teachers and both were adamant in their support for our country, military and veterans, and taught that belief to their students. I had not had a chance to get to know Tom in the Project as he was only with us for 26 days (09/01/1969–09/27/1969) before being wounded and evacuated.”66

  One of the big problems at FOB Mai Loc was finding good water. The nearest water hole was a river that ran near the tiny hamlet of Mai Loc. The river had a tendency to run cloudy especially during this time of year when the monsoons approached. The condition of the water was not improved by the many villagers who bathed and washed their clothes in it or by the livestock that used it to water and get cool.

  Many of the Project Delta men contracted dysentery and dealt constantly with diarrhea, parasites and dehydration. Dennis McVey contracted both bacillary and amoebic dysentery and was medevaced to the USS Repose off the coast. He spent a week there and then was sent back to the FOB and placed on light duty. Viet Nam was an object lesson in inconsistency, and Mai Loc was no exception. It was a rainy muddy place with typical red clay soil and the FOB was a mess. Delta had obtained the use of a dump truck, so Dennis spent a week hauling gravel from the SEABEE quarry near Quang Tri. He made two trips a day and spread the gravel around the FOB to fight the mud. It was an easy way to recover and still do something useful. He would eat breakfast and then start to Quang Tri on his first trip of the day. He traveled alone and carried his CAR 15 as his only armament. On the way in each morning, he would pass the Marines sweeping for mines on the road. Dennis would honk the horn and wave as he passed. The Marines would usually have some kind of contact during the patrol but Dennis never saw anybody or anything. He saw and heard helicopters flying back and forth as they using the road as a guide. He would load up with gravel and head back to the FOB, sometimes passing the Marines again as they patrolled the road. He would unload the gravel, eat lunch, then go back for his second load and return. As Dennis looks back on it 40 years later, he is amazed that there was no contact or incident; maybe the NVA/VC appreciated Delta preparing the road and FOB area for their eventual use when they came across the border and took over the South in 1975.66

  Dennis McVey recounts an experience he had while accompanying the Rangers on Operation Trojan Horse. “The 2nd CO., 81st Ranger BN was deployed into the AO to check out some trails and bunker areas and I went out with them. We were walking along a ridgeline on a heavily used trail that was about six feet wide when the Ranger point man ran into some NVA on the trail and he was hit by an AK round in the right hip. The company went into a defensive position on the ridge and the enemy was down a very steep slope. We were in a strong position on top of the ridge with large trees on either side of the trail and on the slopes to provide cover, but we were vulnerable from either end of our position if the NVA had been strong enough to get up on the ridge and flank us. I set up in the middle of the trail and started treating the wounded ranger, he was in great pain but his wound was not life threatening so I did not give him any morphine as he was still able to walk and we had no idea what was going to happen and did not want to be burdened by having to carry him. He was not happy about not getting morphine but had guts and stayed alert and bore the pain. The NVA were shooting at us with small arms, and RPD light machine gun and numerous RPG’s, however, due to the steepness of the slopes they were firing over our heads while we were able to fire down the slope into their position and to throw grenades down slope. The bad part was the RPG’s as they were hitting the trees and tree limbs and exploding which created secondary projectiles. While I was treating the wounded Ranger, an RPG hit the tree we were under and
a piece of wood the size of one of those big grammar school pencils hit me in the back of the neck and was sticking out about 4 or 5 inches. Fortunately it was in the neck muscle and did not hit anything vital or really bleed that much, it hurt like hell though, especially when I had SSG John G. (“Johnny G”) Santora pull it out. John was killed many years later as a MSG in a helicopter crash in Central America, he was a great guy with a great sense of humor, and tried to convince me to put in for a purple heart but I refused. How bad would that look, a medic submitting his own Purple Heart request? The ranger advisor called in some air support and they suppressed the enemy fire and we were able to get a medevac in for the wounded ranger. As we loaded him on the slick I did give him some morphine for his pain. The air support broke the contact and we moved out further along the ridgeline trail until we moved into an RON site. While in the RON site I was sitting on a log on the perimeter smoking a cigarette and enjoying the beauty of the scene of the jungle across a large open space. I happened to see someone else about a hundred meters away across the clearing also smoking a cigarette and apparently doing what I was doing so I waved and he waved back. Suddenly I realized that we had no one in that area and I jumped into a hole and told the ranger advisor what I had seen but nothing happened and it was an uneventful night and we were extracted with no more contact.”66