When Captain Alakulppi saw that the VC had penetrated his perimeter and captured four of the perimeter bunkers, he directed his men to shift their fires to contain the enemy penetration. Leaving his command post he moved toward the fighting along the perimeter, intent on leading a counterattack to recapture the enemy held bunkers. As he moved toward the enemy-held bunkers, encouraging his men and directing their fire, he fell mortally wounded from a burst of enemy fire.
Twenty-one-year-old PFC Tim Moore was acting squad leader of one of Charlie Company’s mortar squads. Moore and the other members of his squad—Robin Hickenlooper, Allen Newland, and Gary Schuetzle—were all asleep when the assault began. Reacting immediately, they ran to their mortar pit and began firing close defensive fires, alternating between HE rounds and illumination rounds. Moore recalled that they kept firing until the mortar overheated and a round became lodged in the tube. With his mortar out of action, Moore and his squad moved to assist the platoon’s other mortar crew. That second mortar was firing on the VC who still held the corner machinegun bunker. The squad leader was aiming and adjusting by sight. Moore replaced a wounded gunner and kept up the fire until the bunker was knocked out, killing all of the VC intruders. Moore and his men then moved to take over an unmanned Alpha Company mortar on the western side of the base, where they continued to fire on the attackers. The fight inside the perimeter continued as small groups of FSB Hun defenders, including some of the wounded, battled to regain control of the base.
Jim Clark of Alpha Company and his RTO were asleep in a bunker when the VC began their attack. Clark wrote, “We came out of the bunker and saw the fighting on the other side of the mortar pits. Taylor [Clark’s RTO] and I saw that the weapons bunker on our side had been taken over, and the enemy was firing the M60 toward the C Company side. Taylor and I worked our way around and up the moat-like ditch that our bunkers were built on and took back the bunker. We manned the bunker until daylight hours and fired lots of rounds from the M60.”
Fighting continued all along the bunker line as the grunts fought to kill the invaders and take back their base. It was close combat of the most savage type. Charging through the pelting rain, the Charlie Company grunts used rifle butts, pistols, and bayonets to kill the intruders. In some instances, the combat was hand-to-hand inside the dark bunkers, as wounded men grappled with invading VC. No quarter was asked or given.
The attack on Fire Base Hun was observed by other 2/3d units in the vicinity. Sergeant Bob Himrod, a scout dog handler, accompanied one of Charlie Company’s platoon ambushes that night. The ambush site was about a kilometer east of Charlie Company’s base in some nipa palm growth on the edge of a rice paddy. Himrod later wrote, “Around one in the morning, it started to rain very heavy…. The rain made a lot of noise as it came down on the vegetation around us. Without the aid of a night vision device the view was otherwise pitch black. Off in the distance came a couple of loud explosions followed by automatic weapons fire. I could see the telltale green tracers of the enemy firing into Elvira [Hun]. It looked like the Fourth of July…. We could make out distant shadows of people moving around the firebase. Bright flashes followed by loud explosions echoed across the rice paddy. Pink and green tracers seemed to be flying everywhere.”
Steve Perkins was with an Alpha Company platoon ambush patrol some three kilometers south of Firebase Hun. Perkins recalled that a large VC force passed their platoon’s night ambush position around midnight, headed in the direction of the firebase. According to Perkins, the platoon leader radioed for artillery and gunship support, but was told the support was not available. The platoon leader decided not to open fire as his platoon was badly outnumbered. Two and a half hours later, the platoon heard the explosions and firing at FSB Hun. The patrol was ordered to hold their position until daylight.
A helicopter gunship team and Spooky flareship finally arrived over the besieged firebase around 0330 hours. The adverse weather and communications problems had slowed the response. Many aircraft were grounded because of the storm, and according to the 2/3d Daily Staff Journal, the battalion command frequency “seemed to be jammed.” As the Spooky flareship illuminated the rain-soaked rice paddies surrounding Fire Base Hun, the Cobra gunships raked the VC positions around the base with rockets, 40mm, and machine-gun fire. Encouraged by the arrival of the gunships, the Old Guard grunts managed to kill or seriously wound all of the VC who had penetrated the base. According to the battalion S2/3 Journal, the perimeter was reported as “restored” by members of Charlie Company at 0445 hours. However, the base was still under sporadic fire from outside the wire. The defenders were relieved when told that help was on the way. Second Platoon, Delta Troop, 17th Cav was ordered to reinforce the defenders of Fire Base Hun. It was still pitch black as the Cav troopers cranked-up their ACAVs, and rumbled down the road headed for Hun.
Bob Himrod wrote, “At around four a.m., two APCs came roaring across the bridge. As they cleared the bridge, they opened up with their .50 caliber machine guns. The lead track pulled up off the northern perimeter and the second stopped short of the south end. The Viet Cong were trapped in a deadly crossfire. I could see the fleeing enemy having their bodies torn apart by the murderous fifty fire.”
Staring through the hazy gray twilight, the defenders of Fire Base Hun surveyed the paddies around their base. Jim Clark described the scene: “As morning came, the enemy was laying in the paddies in front of us and every now and then one would pop up and try to run for it. It reminded me of a circus shooting booth…. Also, I crawled out in front of the bunker…to check the enemy dead and another jumped up and ran. I picked up an AK47 and fired at him, but the AK had a hole in the barrel and flames shot out and scared the shit out of me. I believe the hole was from a grenade that I had thrown earlier.” After the remaining VC were killed or captured, the defenders began to count their losses.
When the grunts emerged from their bunkers shivering from the cold dampness of the morning air, they were shocked by the carnage around them. Slowly, those who were able began to pull their dead and wounded comrades along with the enemy dead from the wrecked bunkers. Of the 40 or so men who defended Fire Base Hun, six were killed, including the company commander, Captain Alakulppi, and 29 others were wounded. Dust-off ships continued to land at the base until 0830 that morning, when all of the dead and wounded were evacuated. Twenty enemy bodies were strewn among the wreckage inside the perimeter, and two wounded VC were taken prisoner. Before the day was over, another 89 enemy bodies were recovered from the rice paddies and nipa palm bogs around the firebase.
On their way back to Charlie Company’s base, Bob Himrod’s ambush patrol found two VC medics who had been cut down in the crossfire of the ACAVs’ .50 calibers. According to the scout dog handler, “The paddy water was stained red with their blood.” The patrol moved on until they approached the Charlie Company perimeter. Concerned that his men might be mistaken for enemy, the patrol leader halted the patrol north of the perimeter until he established radio contact with the base. Himrod described the scene when the patrol arrived.
“There were two Viet Cong prisoners squatting sharing a cigarette. They had obvious bullet wounds but seemed oblivious to their injuries. Another soldier who had survived that hellish night was being restrained from harming the prisoners. Half the bunkers had been overrun and a number of Americans had been killed. A pit was dug and the enemy bodies were thrown in it and covered with dirt.” The fight for Firebase Hun was over, but it was not the only desperate fight that night.
Both Alpha, 5/12 and Delta, 2/3 came under attack during the early morning hours of 14 May. The companies were in night defensive positions close to the scene of the previous day’s contact. Alpha Company’s perimeter was hit at 0250, and at 0310 Captain Danforth’s Delta Company radioed the 2/3d TOC to report that their perimeter was surrounded and the situation was critical. Gunship and flareship support was requested along with artillery fire. Captain Danforth later described his situation in an article in the Redca
tcher Yearbook.
“They crawled up behind the dikes of rice paddies around us. With the heavy rain, we didn’t see them until they were 20 meters from the perimeter and had started firing. We knew they were all around us. The men let go with all we had and held them. They were so close that they were throwing grenades at us. After 90 minutes of that, we started to conserve ammo some, and called in artillery, 360 degrees around us.”
Alpha Company, 5/12 and Delta Company, 2/3 both successfully fought off the attacks against their perimeter, but not without loss. Delta Company had two men KIA and eight wounded, and Alpha Company reported one man KIA and eight WIA. The enemy also paid a high price. The paddies were strewn with enemy bodies and weapons. The Old Guard’s fights on 13–14 May were the last major contacts of 199th Light Infantry Brigade units during May Offensive.
Although the May offensive had failed to achieve its objectives, and the VC and NVA suffered enormous losses in men and equipment, the Communist units remained highly lethal and capable of inflicting heavy losses on US and South Vietnamese forces. The month of May 1968 was the bloodiest month of the war for the 199th LIB. Forty-two members of the brigade were killed in action, and hundreds more were wounded, yet there was no end in sight for the war. It appeared that the enemy was prepared to fight on forever. As unrest erupted on the home front, and politicians negotiated for a way out of the war, the troops, with warrior stoicism, continued to fight and die for a cause that no one could adequately explain or justify.
EPILOGUE
On October 11, 1970, some twenty-nine months after the end of the Communist May Offensive of 1968, an honor guard composed of officers, warrant officers, and enlisted soldiers representing the units of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade stood at attention on a muddy field at Camp Frenzell-Jones. It was raining, just as it had rained on the day of the arrival of the brigade in Vietnam some forty-seven months earlier. That short departure ceremony marked the end of the Redcatcher Brigade’s service in the Vietnam War. The US Army was in the process of withdrawing its combat units from Vietnam at an accelerated pace.
The fierce battles described in the preceding chapters were the bloodiest of the war for the Redcatcher Brigade, but the battles of 1968 should not overshadow the difficult days that followed. In the aftermath of the May Offensive, sharp encounters with VC and NVA units continued through August and September of 1968. In June 1968, the highly respected commander of the Cottonbalers (3/7th Infantry), LTC Ken Hall, was killed along with several members of his staff. Two months later, the 199th Light Brigade commander, Brigadier General Franklin Davis, departed the command after he was wounded in action during an operation in the Rung Sat Special Zone. The 2/3d commander, LTC Herbert Ray, was wounded in the same action. Casualties in all ranks remained high, as infantrymen of the brigade continued to pursue VC and NVA forces into their sanctuaries.
On April 1, 1970, just five months before the Brigade’s withdrawal from Vietnam, Brigadier General Bond, the 199th LIB Commander, was killed in action. Undaunted, Warriors of the brigade’s 5/12th Infantry crossed the Cambodian border a month later and distinguished themselves at LZ Brown. There were countless acts of heroism and valor during the Brigade’s final months in Vietnam that are not recounted in this book, but perhaps someday those stories will be told as well.
On October 15, 1970, the 199th Light Infantry Brigade was inactivated in a ceremony at Fort Benning, Georgia, from whence it had come almost four years earlier. The 199th LIB’s colors were furled, cased, and placed in storage, and its tattered combat journals and after-action reports were boxed and shipped off to the National Archives repository in Maryland, where they are safeguarded in perpetuity with the records of the nation’s other wars.
The men who served in the Light Brigade, with the exception of the 753 brave men who fell in battle, returned for the most part to civilian life. A few remained in the Army to pursue a career. Those who returned got on with their lives. Some resumed their education, while others went to work. Most married and raised families. Few spoke or wrote of what they had experienced in Vietnam. Unlike veterans of earlier wars, their service was never honored. Rather, their service was viewed with indifference and in some cases disrespect. For the most part they turned the other cheek and led productive lives. Their stories of heroism, courage, and sacrifice remain mostly untold. This book recounts a few of their stories.
NOTES
PROLOGUE
Cliff Kaylor was the author’s radio operator from January through April 1968, and is currently a VA counselor in Eugene, Oregon. His perspective on the December 1967 battles near Fire Base Nashua was extremely helpful.
Colonel (Retired) Wayne Morris, was the senior platoon leader with Alpha Company, 4/12 Infantry during the December 6 battle. While working in Prague, Czech Republic, he provided the author with detailed emails describing the fighting on December 6, 1967, and answered a number of the author’s questions. While Colonel Morris stays in contact with several members of his platoon, this is the first time he has written his recollections and thoughts about the battle.
Roberto Eaton currently living in his native country of Paraguay provided details on Bravo Company’s actions on December 6, in email responses to the author’s interview questions.
CHAPTER 1: WHAT CAME BEFORE
Lineage and historical information concerning the 12th Infantry, 7th Infantry, and 3d Infantry were derived from Lineage and Honors Information, Organizational History Program, Force Structure and Organizational History Branch, US Army Center of Military History, and the Redcatcher Yearbook published in May, 1969.
Colonel William Schroeder, US Army Retired, provided detailed information concerning the 4/12 Infantry’s role in Operation FAIRFAX in personal and telephonic interviews. He also provided the author with copies of his Commander’s Notes, After Action Reports, as well as his personal maps and overlays from his tour as battalion commander.
Biographical information on Brigadier General Robert Forbes was summarized from the Abbreviated History of the 199th Infantry Brigade prepared by the 199th Infantry Brigade Historian. The author also had the privilege of having several one on one personal conversation with Major General Robert Forbes, US Army Retired, before his death in 2002.
The action on November 29, 1967 involving Charlie Company 4/12 Infantry was described in detail to the author by Colonel Schroeder, Jim Pittman, and George Hauer. Pittman and Hauer were both recommended for the Silver Star, however, the paperwork was lost and the men never received their awards. When Colonel Schroeder was notified in 2005 that the men had never received the awards, he reconstructed from his own war records the events of the firefight and resubmitted the recommendations for the Silver Stars. The awards were subsequently approved by the Department of the Army and Colonel Schroeder arranged an awards ceremony in Melbourne, Florida on March 11, 2005, some 37 years after the battle.
CHAPTER 2: ACROSS THE SONG DONG NAI
Details on the LRP operations described in this chapter were obtained from the F Company (LRP) After Action Report, Operation Kickoff, 3–5 December 1967. The report is on file at the National Archives. Additional information was found in Don and Annette Hall’s compelling book, I Served.
CHAPTER 3: THE BLOODIEST DAY
CHAPTER 4: VICTORY AT NIGHT
General and specific information describing of enemy units, base camps, and tactics was derived from multiple sources including Michael Lanning and Dan Cragg’s book, Inside the VC and NVA for general information, and Appendix 1 (VC Order of Battle) to Annex A (Intelligence) to II Field Force After Action Report for the Tet Offensive for Order of Battle information. Specific information was derived from 199th Infantry Brigade INSUM 337–342. 031800 to 081600 December 1967, and Headquarters 4/12 Letter dated 6 January 1968 to Commanding General, 199th Infantry Brigade, Subject: VC Base Camps.
Details and descriptions of the December 6, 1967 battle were derived from multiple sources including official documents, periodicals, on-line web pages, a
nd personal interviews and email correspondence. Official documents included the 4/12 Infantry After Action Report, for 6-7 December 1967, Daily Staff Journals of the 4/12 Infantry for 6 and 7 December 1967, and II Field Force and 199th Infantry Brigade General Orders for personal awards for Valor. Larry McDougal’s October 2003 article, Day of Valor, published in the periodical Vietnam was also used as a source. On line sources used were Norman Reeves website, 199th Light Infantry Brigade Republic of Vietnam, and Phil Tolvin’s website 199th Light Infantry Brigade Redcatcher-A Vietnam Vet.
Background information on Chaplain Liteky and his actions on December 6, were obtained from his citation for the Medal of Honor, and from Colonel Schroeder and others, as well as articles published in the Redcatcher, 199th Light Infantry Brigade newspaper, December 15, 1968, and an article published in the Witchita Beacon on February 7, 1969.
Individual accounts of the battle and its aftermath were obtained from the following individuals: Colonels Retired, William Schroeder, and Wayne Morris, Roberto Eaton, James Pius, Wayne McKirdy, Marv Stiles, Jim Choquette, Dennis Castaldo, George Hauer, Frank Paoicelli, and Cliff Kaylor.
The source of information for 12th Infantry Regiment casualties on D-Day was obtained from Stephen Ambrose’s book, D-Day, June 6, 1944, The Battle for the Normandy Beaches (page 292).
CHAPTER 5: THE ENEMY LIES LOW
Official documents used in writing this chapter included 4/12 Infantry After Action Reports for 19 and 27 December, dated 20 and 30 December 1967, respectively, and Daily Staff Journals of the 4/12 Infantry for the period 8 through 28 December 1967.
II Field Force General Orders for the award of the Silver Star and 199th Infantry Brigade General Orders for the award of the Bronze Star for valor, and Purple Heart were also sources of information.
Individual recollections and descriptions of the combat actions were provided by Colonels Retired William Schroeder and Paul Viola, First Sergeant Retired George Holmes, William McClean, Bob Archibald, Gary Coufal, Cliff Kaylor, Larry Norris, and David Taylor.
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