Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [111]
To the south of the small clearing were found 12 bicycles heavily weighted down with dozens of brand-new sets of fatigues, 250 pairs of Ho Chi Minh sandals, 300 ponchos, 100 pistol belts, and eight 200-pound bags of rice with 40 cooking pots and 50 aluminum mess kits.… A few meters on the opposite side of the clearing, GIs discovered a basic training camp with training aids and hootches with desks and chairs and more than 35 pounds of documents…. Under the inspiration of the Ho Chi Minh banners, trainees used wooden mockups of weapons, radios, and helicopters of American design and studied maps of American installations.… In the evening the troops apparently relaxed under the tall trees, gathered in their hootches cooking meals, washing clothes, and showering at a 50-foot-deep hand-dug well and occasionally feasting on roast pig or chicken, home-grown and kept in pens in the compound.
Captain Boudreaux walked past the shady pavilions where the NVA had conducted classes, and into the NVA aid station, where he found”… an operating room that had recently been used and hastily evacuated. Parts of human flesh remained in the garbage pail.”
The battle for LZ Phillips was the one hot spot of the 1st Brigade, 4th Division's attack into Cambodia, since the local NVA mostly decided to pull out. The 2d Brigade, 4th Division's insertions on 7 May 1970 also were met with some enemy fire in their initial landing zones. However, this time around, liberal doses of artillery, tac air, and gunships kept the insertions on schedule. The brigade did not take heavy casualties until a company of the 1st of the 12th Warriors lost two men in an ambush, and another company lost an entire mortar squad in a helicopter crash that also killed the crew. As both brigades began to exploit the area and enemy resistance vanished, the situation along the overly extended supply line remained tense, especially in regard to aviation fuel to support the operations. The fuel pipeline from Qui Nhon to An Khe had already been dismantled with the withdrawals, so POL tanker trucks were constantly moving on Highways 1 and 19 from Qui Nhon to Plei D'Jereng, and night convoys were even risked to meet the fuel demands. No trucks were lost due to this, but it was impossible to keep an LOC that long entirely secure without massive numbers of troops. In fact, on 12 May 1970, a helicopter flying the road from Pleiku to Plei D'Jereng (for a briefing with General Walker) was shot down, killing not only the crew but also Maj. Gen. John A. B. Dillard, senior engineer, USARV, three other officers, and a sergeant major. One sergeant major was the sole survivor. The NVA had apparently moved a detachment of 12.7mm antiaircraft guns to the vicinity of Highway 19, and in the space of a few days shot down several other helicopters between Pleiku and Plei D'Jereng.
Such numbers of casualties were politically unacceptable. With the initial target areas checkerboarded and searched, the decision was made to turn Operation Binh Tay entirely over to the ARVN and to pull the 4th Division back to An Khe. Accordingly, on 13 May 1970, 1-22 and 2-35 Infantry of the 2d Brigade returned to An Khe via Plei D'Jereng,3 while 1-12 Infantry was temporarily attached to the 1st Brigade. They returned to Plei D'Jereng two days later, followed on 16 May 1970 by 3-8, 1-14, and 3-506 Infantry. The 3d of the 8th Dragoons came out via FSB Scott, which had been opened on the Vietnamese side of the border and which Captain Boudreaux, the base commander, had named after his oldest son. Firebase Scott was on a rolling hill of parched grass, and as the Dragoons continued their leapfrogging to An Khe, the ARVN at Scott put a torch to the garbage dump. As Boudreaux noted, “…the white-hot flames quickly spread through the grass to the point