Radio silence

[39mto39g]

One time a long time ago, in a land far-far away.
We were suposed to be on a walk-a-bout for a week. The LT gets called back to BN. When he gets back he has a new grid that we must be at the next day, Why-he didn't know, We were to maintain radio silence, no out going radio traffic unless we were in an attack that we couldn't break off. We were to go to this grid and observe? for three days. What are we looking for LT.? I don't know, they wouldn't tell me.
So we had a mission to go somewhere on the map and sit for three days, I- of course complained that I had to carry this
*&(^% radio and couldn't use it.
Ok, we get to this grid it was a small hill overlooking a 2 mile long valley. Now we had to just sit there for three days and do nothing, Now , this seems like a pretty good deal, but trying to get 50 teenagers to sit anywhere and do nothing for three days is a task.
The morning or the 4th day, I get a call from BN, extraction in one hour. It was daybreak, the fog was all over the valley, some birds were actually singing, (a sound that is not often heard). An hour latter 2 chinooks show up and we load on and go back to bace, (I think we were around PHU-BI).
The Lt. goes for his After Action Report? and when he comes back he still has no idea why we went or what we were looking for.
That had to be the dumbest 4 or 5 days of my tour,
I guess someone somewhere knew that if we seen what ever they thought we would see then we would react how they thought we would react?????
Oh yea, As far as I know, we seen One water buffalo (I think) about a half mile away for about 1 hour. Must have been NVA buffalo.

Ron

[MORTARDUDE]

good story. could be one of several things. instead of some guys getting to go to an in-country r and r ( vung tau for ex. ), they sent you to a "safe" area and gave you a company / in-country r and r..it was a reward, you see..they just couldn't tell you that ...

or you were bait ( probably the right answer )..there was a bunch of spies somewhere so they kept this close to the vest to see if anyone would find out and drop a dime on you...then they would go and visit them with extreme prejudice...

or they may have thought a UFO was going to land and solve all of our problems...NAH

it would be interesting to get the lessons learned, morning reports, and / or after action reports and see if any of it is still classified...

good post as usual. thanks.

Larry

[DMZ-LT]

Probably the hammer and anvil idea. Looked good on paper but didn't work real good for real. There were probably guys at the other end of the valley that were suppossed to drive the enemy into you and then you get to kill them. Spent several days doing the same thing and never even saw a enemy soldier. Nice rest though

[39mto39g]

Ya know I just looked at the subject MD LT and reolised that I made LT a Doctor? What the hell was I thinking.

Anyway.
MD
I would vote for the Bait thing most likely, We were only 50 guys but we was some ass hole kinda guys that would always shoot several times first, and then ask NO questions at all.

LT.
They would have been in for a suprise if they were thinking Hammer/anvil thing. First thing we always did when making contact was RUN. To hell with the area, they can have it. Don't mean nothing to me. Most all the LTs I had were on the same page as me. What BN didn't know wouldn't hurt us.
I can remember more than once giving our possition at least 2 clicks from where we were. And also saying we were moving whatever direction when we were really laid up in a tree line somewhere in the shade. I know thats not good military tactics, But I was 19 and really wanted to see 20.

Ron

[MORTARDUDE]

I would suspect they were trying to flush out a a double agent..as you know the rear areas were infested with spies..in all countries.. they had spotters in guam and thailand who watched the B-52s fly off and they cleared out the jungle in Cambodia and Laos, and the Ho Chi Minh trail for the arc lite attacks..that was the reason they weren't more effective...

you were very lucky something bad didn't happen with only 50 guys. what kind of armamant did you have.? How far away was mortar and arty support ? did mortar and arty know where you where ? did your CO have some kind of secret sealed plan in case of disaster ? I would like to know what the plan was to help you out..probably pretty damn shaky because of trying to catch the spies. they probably got the gal or guy and couldn't say anything...fascinating story.

we were all just tools and pawns in a big chess game... and still are... unfortunately.

larry

[39mto39g]

50 guys is what we always had. Weapons was a normal Platoon/squad complement. M-60, 79, laws, claymors,radios, etc.
we didn't carry any mortar rounds except when we accuired that 60 from some Marines. We were in Arty range Im sure, but couldn't talk to anyone to check. We never did find out what the mission was or anything else about it, The LT had two meetings, one before and one after, He said they didn't tell him anything, I belive him.
We had no plan in case of anything, all we were told was Go hear, stay hear and keep quiet, If we couldn't break off attack then we could break radio silence.
I would imagin the guys in the mortar pits were asking some questions, They don't like to lose contact with the people they are covering. Now the arty, these guys didn't usually know where we were anyway, Im glade there wern't anymore little trips like that one, I don't mind the hunt, but I don't want to be bait.


Ron

[DMZ-LT]

Jimmy was 3rd plt. leader , I was 2nd. Jimmy got 5 PHs and kinda just gave out. He was suppossed to be on my flank most days but I knew he was in a tree line callin in fake movement. If I needed help he would get there but later than if he had been where he was suppossed to be. We were to call back to the CO every 100 meters and if you plotted out Jimmys movement and connected the dots they would spell out f#@# you, FTA , Short , etc. The CO finally figured it out and relieved him. We still send XMAS cards but Jimmy don't want to remember those days. He was overrun one night during Lam Son 719 and lost most of the platoon , he never got over it.

[MORTARDUDE]

Ron :

I thought an infantry company's TO&E strength was about 150+ men or so at full strength ( I know most units ran 75% or so ). We had 4 platoons...each had maybe 4 or 5 tracks and 8 or so guys per track..and we had a CO and medic tracks...

larry

[39mto39g]

LT.
Every 100 meters, you must have been in some heavy indian country,
The most I ever had to call in was 1/2 click. Every time we were someones Flank we were where we were supposed to be, otherwise mortars might get us, The times we gave wrong grid we were not supporting anyone, just out for a walk-about.
Your bud should have gotton help, sounds like he needed a sholder and a ear.

MD.

You are correct in number except I was in E-company, sometimes refured to as Recon. We had 65 assigned spots, usually about 50 would show up. 1/35 had A,B,C,D,and E (Recon) companies. We wern't Mech infantry. we walked. Our compaies were a little different at the time I was there, Each company had 4 platoons. each platoon had 4 squads, each squad had 10 guys, also a company commander and his RTO and each platoon had a LT and his RTO and each platoon had a Platoon sgt. That figures out to be around 175 guys, then there was mortars, all total was around 200 per company, If you got 150 to show up that was great, (sick, wounded, R&R, DEROS, ETC)
Romeo-one-mike OUT.

[exlrrp]

We were on radio silence most of the times we were on patrol, except in emergencies. This was in the actual place they called Indian Country: the western border of II Corps
We kept moving almost all the time when we weren't sleeping, even when we were just observers.We worked so far out of radio contact they often put teams in the middle to relay messages, usually for several teams. Sometimes they had to put TWO teams out midway, we were that far out. Somtimes they'd send a chopper or plane to relay the messages.
We were supposed to phone in sitreps at assigned times where possible but often, because of proximity to the enemy, this would be only breaking squelch. Break squelch twice if youre OK--don't bother talking if youre surrounded by enemy. Ladeda--another day at the office. I got used to this kind of stuff but I never got to like it, like some did.
Its a lonelyass feeling being out in the middle of Indian Country with only 4 or 5 other guys with you, especially on pitch black nights. You hear the copter or plane coming by and you want to be on that sucker SO much. The only thing that gives you any kind of comfort is the hard feel of the rifle in your hand and you reach and pat the grenades where you straightened the pins and laid them out.
You here the code words, you press the squelch twice and its like contact with another being--youre NOT alone, there's a whole fucking army somewhere behind you. I mean way, WAY fucking behind you. Not that that will do you much good if its time for some nation building.
Then that moment is gone and youre alone in Indian Country again, fighting the war all by yourself AGAIN.
And the radio is silent once more.

James

Happy just to be alive