A Rifle Company In The 101st

[Bill Farnie]

There wasn't anything you could call an average as far as being in contact goes for me and my unit. Down in Chu Chi there were a lot of booby traps and only one time we were in contact but again I was only there a couple of weeks. Up in I Corp after we moved to Camp Evans we would go weeks without even any signs of the enemy but as the operations moved more westward towards the A Shau Valley things started to heat up some with contact every week in various forms. Sometimes we just came across trail watcher's , a sniper once in awhile or short but intense contacts with small units. The further west we went contacts with larger units increased.

In the A Shau during June, after Operation Apache Snow , things were quiet mainly because we put a big hurtin' on the NVA but in July another regiment and a sapper battalion had made their way down the Ho Chi Minh Trail and into the valley and the 101st initiated Operation Montgomery Rendezvous and the s**t hit the fan once more up until I left the field the third week of August to start out processing from Nam.

I don't know why we weren't ambushed more then we were. I think it was the same/same with us in so far as the overwhelming fire power an Airmobile unit can bring on the enemy but when the NVA chose not to run and stand and fight we knew we were in for a rough time of it.

[frisco-kid]

Except for the A Shau, it doesn't sound like the 101st changed much between my time and yours. Like you, alot of our ops were 1 or 2 companies or smaller. Their thing was to send a small unit out and reinforce it when they got hit. Felt like bait alot of the time. When they made us part of Task Force Oregon we kicked off operation Malheur I on 11MAY67 with the 2/502 and 1/327 doing a CA into the mountains west of Duc Pho. The 2/327 CA'd in the next day as a blocking force. It was awesome to see.

LARRY: With us moving around so much, it seemed to vary from place to place. Also seemed to depend if the area was more VC or NVA. The NVA seemed to bloody our noses more. When it was a predominantly VC area, it seemed that we were taking casualties [mostly WIA] from booby traps as much as anything.

About a month before I joined up with my unit up near Dak To in JUL66, my company had been over-run by the 24th Regiment of the NVA. When it looked like they were going to be wiped out, the CO, Cpt. Bill Carpenter, called in a napalm strike on top of their position. There were some troopers killed by the airstrike, but it made the NVA break contact enough to where they could secure an LZ to get the wounded out, and reinforcements in. The survivors were known as Carpenter's Crispy Critters.

While operating around Tuy Hoa [mostly VC] my company had 5 KIAs in about a 2mos. period. When we moved back up into the Central Highlands around Kontum [NVA] my company had 10 KIA in 10 days, 7 of them in one battle in an attempt to over-run us. When we left Kontum near the end of JAN67, we operated in the southern Central Highlands W and SW of Phan Rang, northern III Corps, and the mountains west of Nha Trang [mostly VC] for the next 3mos.. My company had no KIA. From the time we CA'd into the Duc Pho area on 11MAY67 [mostly VC] to the time I DEROS'd the end of JUN67, my company had 3 KIA. Of course, there were many more WIA. Sometimes you're the dog and sometimes you're the fire hydrant......We were usually the dog .

[MORTARDUDE]

Tom and Bill :

Thanks. Great info as always !

Larry

[frisco-kid]

About your 8mm film. There's photo labs that can tranfer it to VHS tape for you. I think the shelf life is longer, and it's more convenient to watch it on a VCR than setting up a projector and screen. Way too bad about the fire fight film. If you decide to do this, let me know. I'd sure like to see them.