There are 193 users online
You can register for a user account here.
Login
Military Photos
Main Menu
Online
Library of Congress
Past Articles
Military Quotes
If we come to a minefield, our infantry attacks exactly as it were not there. -- Marshall Geogi Zhukov |
Strange Day10250 Reads
  I was on a S&D with the RFs. We were moving along a heavily vegetated canal with open rice paddies to our flanks. The VC were waiting for us and we got into a sharp firefight. It was head-on and we could not maneuver against them because of the paddies. To our front, a small finger of vegetation stuck out from Charlie's positions, so we decided to assault it in an attempt to flank them.As the assault squad moved in the open towards the tree line of the finger, an RPD opened fire on them. Our troops went down like they had been cut with a scyth. Geez, what a terrible sight. What the heck will we do now, I thought.
About a minute later, much to my surprise, the entire "dead" squad arose and ran back to the jump off point. It seems that the VC machinegunner had merely fired over their heads to warn them off. Brother vs. brother? It was a strange occurrance, but shows that compassion can exist on the battlefield.
Note: by Don Steiner
|
Related Links
Military History
Forum Posts
This Day in History
1862:
Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson suffers a rare defeat when his attack on Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley fails.
1901: A group of U.S. Army soldiers led by Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston capture Emilio Aguinaldo, the leader of the Philippine Insurrection of 1899. 1942: The Japanese occupy the Anadaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. 1944: German occupiers shoot more than 300 Italian civilians as a reprisal for an Italian partisan attack on an SS unit. 1951: In the last and largest airborne operation of the war, the U.S. 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team jumped at Munsan from 72 C-119 Flying Boxcars and 48 C-46 Commandos of the 315th Air Division. Task Force Growdon, including elements of the Philippine Battalion, linked up with the 187th Airborne in Operation TOMAHAWK. 1961: One of the first American casualties in Southeast Asia, an intelligence-gathering plane en route from Laos to Saigon is shot down over the Plain of Jars in central Laos. |
Comments
Stranger things happened in the bush but what got me was the fact that the local's we had as scouts etc never worked after 4-5pm.
When that time came they were done for the day..patrol or no patrol.
Roy Branch
deltamedic
This was circa 1968-1969. Over-all, in RVN, the RFs amounted to only about 5% of SVNs fighting force, yet accounted for about 25% of the casualties inflicted on the VC and NVA.
Needless to say, I am proud to have been associated with both the US 2/28 Infantry and RF Mobile Group 61.
I still remember the time we were taking an ice cold shower. Incoming started, and before we could get out of the shower tent. The shower tent was burning all aroundy around us, and we stopped and said WTF, and ran out.
Only logged in users are allowed to comment. register/log in