Death Valley_ The Summer Offensive, I Corps, August 1969 - Keith Nolan [80]
“Get ready, we’re going back in!”
The four were up now, three of them tight-lipped, one arguing back until he decided it was best to shut the hell up. Howard looked to be on the verge of unholstering his .45 and shooting the coward.
Meanwhile, Howard’s RTO edged over to Captain Carrier. He’d just recently been sent to battalion from Charlie Company, and he hoped to find some consolation with his former commander. He was a stocky, sharp kid named Richard Doria, and he was horror stricken. “My God, we can’t go back in there! This colonel thinks he’s King Kong, but the dinks got a ring of .51-cals. Ask the helicopter crew …”
“I ain’t asking the pilots nothing!”
Carrier was Airborne Ranger and he did not like that kind of talk, but Doria was not going to let it die. “If they weren’t black,” he pressed, “we wouldn’t be going back in. He just doesn’t want the guys to think he lets the blacks welch.”
“If you don’t go, there’s no doubt you’re going to jail,” threatened Carrier.
Doria had been Carrier’s RTO during the nightmare in May; he had served ably and, after much time in the bush, everyone was glad when he was selected as battalion radioman. It got him out of the grunts. Carrier finally relented and went to the colonel. But Howard was adamant: he was going to put those shirkers where they belonged! Carrier put his arm over Doria’s shoulder, “You’ve done this before. We’ve been on CAs under fire. You can do it again. I’ve been scared, I’ve been so afraid I’ve cried on the radio. But you gotta do the job.” Doria said nothing. He just resigned himself and climbed back aboard the command helo, but his face was a mask Carrier had seen before. The man was seeing his own death. The Huey rose from the helo pad and dipped into the valley. From the bunker line on LZ Center, Captain Carrier saw what happened next.
As the 3–21 C&C bore in towards Alpha Company, Colonel Tacka-berry was in the 196th InfBde C&C, orbiting one aerial tier above battalion’s airspace. Tackaberry monitored the radio and heard Shurtz request Howard to take out their civilian photographer because he did not want to spend the night in the valley. Tackaberry broke in on the transmission and said he could pick up the man since he was returning to LZ Baldy for the nightly briefing. Howard said no problem, he was going in anyway.
Howard radioed Shurtz and his RTO, SP4 Chuck Hurley, “Zulu Alpha Niner, I’m inbound into your position with replacements.”
Shurtz and Hurley guided in the battalion commander. The NVA were coming out of the woodwork all over the valley, but seemed mostly concentrated to the west near Hill 102 and south along the Song Chang. The C&C should come in from the east, from along Nui Lon ridge; land in the paddy adjacent to the tree grove; then pivot one-eighty and go back the way they’d come. That’s exactly what the pilot did, pausing long enough to kick out the four malingerers and take Noonan aboard.
Then the C&C hopped over to Bravo Company; they were set up in a thick plot of elephant grass and trees south of Alpha Company and closer to the river. Captain Cooper and his RTO, SP4 Robert Munson, were with their FO, Sgt Bass, and his RTO, PFC Roland Lasso. Howard came on the radio to request landing directions. Things were chaotic now and—as Private Lasso recounted it—the first landing attempt was waved off as enemy fire suddenly cracked at the descending helicopter. Howard said he was going to give it another try. Cooper argued with him on the radio, “This area is too hot! I’m not going to have one of my men shot off a paddy dike trying to guide you in! If you’re still coming in, you’re on your own!”
A second attempt was aborted under fire.
The C&C finally banked away, but then darted towards Hill 102. It buzzed low, and Howard and his sergeant major were knocked out the open cabin doors