Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [150]
Part of the problem in the squadron was the relieved officer himself, who had allegedly eschewed the advice of his staff and troop commanders. But another factor was a piece of new machinery, the Sheridan–a thin-skinned light tank originally designed to be air transportable–which had been foisted on the Three-Quarter Horse months before the arrival of either Paluh or Mitchell. The Pattons, which the Sheridans replaced, had been given up grudgingly, for they were dependable, combat-proven machines whose air-cooled engines were well suited to the jungle climate, and whose hydraulic systems were easily understood and easily managed with a bit of “cherry juice” (hydraulic fluid). The Sheridan, on the other hand, had never been tested in combat. A myriad of problems were soon discovered, not the least of which was that its water-cooled engine had a ventilation system that quickly clogged with vegetation and dust and caused the engine to overheat, and its electrical firing control was too complicated for the crews to fix; it must be remembered that many of the TCs were only Pfcs and spec fours with less than a year of service. Of equal concern was that while the Patton was heavily armored and the brass casings to its 90mm main gun were generally impervious to fire, when one of the squadron's new Sheridans ran over a twenty-five-pound mine–which would have just blown a road whpel or two off a Patton–the explosion ruptured the aluminum hull of the Sheridan. It also ignited the combustible-case ammunition of the 152mm main gun, and the tank and its hapless driver were consumed in a ball of fire.
Soon thereafter the Sheridans were fitted with additional belly armor and their crews were issued flame-retardant nomex fatigues, but such were only stopgap measures, and confidence in the safety of the vehicle was never established. Then, during Paluh's second month in command, there was another catastrophe involving the vehicle: One Sheridan fell behind during an on-line sweep, and the cannister round in its gun tube accidentally fired. The gun tube had been pointed at the crewmen sitting atop the turret of another tank. When it worked, the Sheridan's 152mm main gun was devastating, and the crewmen on the other Sheridan died in a roar of 9,800 fléchettes that, as one troop commander put it, reduced whatever flesh stood in their way to “protoplasmic garbage.”
For this, Paluh was relieved and Mitchell moved in. The first thing he did was forbid main gun rounds to be carried in the breach unless enemy soldiers had been sighted. Along with his sergeant major, Willie H. Hickey, he began spending nights with his three troops to help seal the disjoints between the bush and headquarters. Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell and Sergeant Major Hickey also accompanied several night ambushes. Mitchell, a small, personable man who knew when to listen and when to lay down the law, was doing his job, nothing more. It was, however, precisely this consummately professional grasp of tactics and leadership that so impressed his sergeant major and troop commanders.
Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell had volunteered for a second tour precisely to get a combat command with American troops, and he was willing to accept the label of ticket-puncher although he thought it was more a matter of the fireman syndrome: Someone who trains for disaster does not wish the catastrophe on anyone, but when it comes he wants to be the one battling the flames. Ultimately, Mitchell was a realist who'd come to his views the hard way. His younger brother had survived a tour in Vietnam as an artillery liaison officer to an infantry battalion, but his older brother had not survived his tour as a pilot. Neither had their cousin. The cause for which they had laid down their lives was doomed, Mitchell knew, by Saigon's indifference toward its common people and Washington's retreat from a promise to bear any burden. With victory denied to the troops, the vacuum was filled by weariness, and Mitchell sensed that the men he commanded in the Three-Quarter Horse were there because they were trapped: