Mortar-ed

[39mto39g]

While in Dak To we would get mortar rounds on a 3-Thrice weekly schedule.
One night in particular, BN advised that a sapper group or a VC probe would be hitting us. While being Mortar-ed. I ran down to a Fire position about half way down the hill. and jumped in with a guy that was already there. I had 3 bandoliers of M-16, as I scared the
sh!t out of this guy, I said What’s -up. We stayed in that position for about 30 min, and I said , seeeee Ya, and left. No attack, Just mortars. Darn.

Ron

[phuloi]

I think I learned to stay put when mortars or rockets were flying..either that or I was too freakin scared to move. It seemed to me that guys would get hit while trying to get somewhere safer than where they were.

[39mto39g]

Ahhh to be 19 and bullet proof again. Hind sight, that was a real dumb move, Running down that hill to a 2 foot wide 3 foot long firing position with no shirt and 3 bandoliers of M-16. I wanted to stop all the Sappers, by myself. What an idiot. I can still see that guys eyes, about 1/2 dollar size. My mother would have been very upset if she seen me do that.
I have been lucky in a lot of gun fights, It's always better to be lucky that smart.

Ron

[splummer]

There was a spot in our base camp that the guys liked to point out. A Marine Captain was running to a safer place and got vaporized by a direct hit from a mortar or rocket.

[Doc.2/47]

When I was first in-country I was with the 199th LIB, 7th Spt. Bn. We had some seriously thick bunkers to put patients in at need. They had litters on the walls in brackets and chains that would fold down to sleep on.

We had a short-timer come out of the field who had DEROS orders in hand and had waited all day but his number hadn't come up to board a plane. He decided to take no chances and sleep in the bunker. In the middle of the night a rocket attack came and one deadcentered the bunker he was in but didn't fully penitrate. Of course it woke him up and knocked him off the litter but he was really pretty much OK until he paniced and tried to run out of the bunker right when everyone else in the area came running to get in. Don't really know how many folks ran over him there in the doorway but he was pretty messed up and ended up in route to a hospital instead of to the airfield.

[39mto39g]

The thing I didn't put in the first post was that we also got Mortar-ed the next night and I slept right through it.
Ron

[DMZ-LT]

First time I got mortared was with 120mm's on a hill top near Laos. LT training kicked it and as more rounds fell I was low crawling towards a smoking mortar crater with a stick so I could shoot an azmith to where they were coming from and then crawl back and call for counter battery fire. 50 % casualities. Next time we got mortared , in the bush , was with a 60mm and I don't think anyone even flinched. 0 % casualities Every time we got back to Dong Ha we would get 122mm rockets but we had those big bunkers Hal was talking about and most times no one got hurt. All of us still here are very lucky.

[splummer]

I remember some, big bunkers at Dong Ha and running into them with the Marines. [You could stand up in them???] It seemed like almost every time I was in DH there would be rocket or mortar attacks. Not much changed since 1968 and your time.

[DMZ-LT]

Yep you could stand up in them. Felt like I was in a WWII movie sitting on a bench listening to all the rockets coming in with my rifle and helmet on. Heard around A2 , below Con Tien , 30 something guys got killed by one rocket to their bunker . Could have been a rumor though , but I always took my rifle and helmet into the bunker

[39mto39g]

The only time I used a "Big" bunker was at Dak To, But , there was a tank sitting right next to it, So I may have been on the winning side as far as fire power goes.
I climbed up in one of those Guard towers once, just to see, and climbed right back down, talk about a sitting duck. I will take a 1 or 2 man firing position any day. Preferably a 1 man unless I'm on the left side. I wouldn't get in those big bunkers at all in 68. They attract attention. At a Fire base or base camp when we got mortar/Rocket people would run for cover. I grabbed my ammo and went to the nearest part of the perimeter. I always figured that if I was going to attack a Fire Base or Base camp the best time to do it is while the FB or BC was being Mortared.
Ron