Death Valley_ The Summer Offensive, I Corps, August 1969 - Keith Nolan [33]
Weh’s senior radioman, Cpl John Constien, was sprawled facedown just behind him. He was moaning and Weh turned him over. His eyes rolled back, blood spilled from his mouth; he was gut shot. Weh bellowed, “Corpsman, corpsman up!” then used his K-Bar to cut Constien’s pack suspenders. He pulled the pack and radio off, trying to make the kid comfortable. A corpsman jogged over, and Weh jumped back up. He told the squad leader to report to Lieutenant Schirmerhorn, then grabbed one of the grunts rushing past. “You’re my radio operator!”
Corporal Constien died in the minute that took.
Weh helped his new radioman get the PRC25 on his back. Schirmerhorn was shoring up his ruptured line and, in the dawn haze, they could see the re-act platoon from Delta Company coming across the paddy. With that, Weh wanted to get over to Lieutenant Campbell’s side of the line, where the gun battle was continuing. They clambered back up the hillock, the new radioman, bewildered and excited, following. As soon as they cleared the crest, the antennas drew another burst of AK fire, but they made it down unscathed. Campbell told Weh that most of the NVA had skyed out; there were only two left, stuck behind a dike and still firing.
They finally silenced those two.
It was 0700 by then, and the last shots were heard within the next thirty minutes. The Delta platoon tied in with Schirmerhorn’s platoon and they moved onto the wooded finger. Anxious to find out what happened to the LP, Weh joined the sweep. There were wounded Marines, dead Marines, dead North Vietnamese. Navy corpsmen followed the skirmish line, attending to the casualties. They’d advanced only some fifty feet when Weh came across a doc bandaging a young, wounded NVA. Weh exploded, “Get the hell away from him, we’ve got Marines who need help!”
The sweep found the lost listening post. Except for a couple of wounded, the entire squad was KIA. Killed In Action. The squad leader had survived; he later told Weh that he had had no idea what was happening. When the NVA finally swarmed over their position, he had taken cover and sweated out the night convinced he was going to be discovered and killed any minute.
Bravo and Delta Companies shored up the battered perimeter while the jump CP and Charlie Company marched in from the west. Lieutenant Colonel Dowd was so explosive that he outdistanced his infantry escort and arrived at the Hot Dog first. The area was being policed up then. Among other things, one LP from Bravo, which had stayed low during the battle, trotted back to their lines, scared shitless and overjoyed to still be living.
Bravo had eight dead, twenty-four wounded.
Delta had one dead, seven wounded.
Charlie and H&S had a handful of wounded.
There were more than fifty dead North Vietnamese littered around Bravo Company’s perimeter; there were also mounds of equipment and weapons left behind, most of it of recent Chinese Communist make. There were pith helmets, web gear, automatic rifles, carbines, machine guns, grenades. Marines held up empty RPD machine gun ammo drums and half-fired ammo belts. It was only then that they realized how many NVA had been involved; they estimated that two infantry battalions had hammered into Bravo Company. Black communications wire was also found around Bravo’s perimeter. It had been unreeled during the night as guides so the NVA infantrymen leaving their tree line could navigate forward in the dark. Some strands ran straight from the NVA position to the Marine position. Other strands were laid across those lines to indicate staging points for the various NVA units; a final strand marked the line of departure.
These Marines were part of the best-educated and informed army in history. They knew about the withdrawal plan and the discussion it had caused. They were also hearing on the radio that their hill was only one of many places the NVA had hit. As his men policed