Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [191]
After the medevacs of the seven dead and twenty wounded, Ianni had his command ship landed in the LZ that had been cleared. Before departing with Johnson aboard his C&C, Ianni turned Delta Company over to Holden, one of the platoon leaders. Holden, who was brand new, got the job, Johnson thought, because he walked and talked like a combat leader. But he was as unequipped as the other platoon leaders who were so inexperienced in the maxims of leadership–they were all trying to be one of the boys–that Johnson had wanted to give the company to Huessed, his forward observer.
Before leaving, Ianni had pointed to all the GIs sitting around and had told Holden to get their trash buried and a more solid perimeter organized. Anything was possible, including an NVA counterattack. When he returned, though, the place was buzzing with senior offi-cers and correspondents, and Holden was escorting them around. Ianni chewed him out, but when he returned later in the day the perimeter was still relatively complacent, and he took Holden aside, “Okay, look, I've given you two direct orders face to face, and you haven't complied….”
Lieutenant Holden was an unknown quantity to Lieutenant Colonel Ianni, so after relieving him of command without prejudice, meaning there would be no black mark on his record, he placed Capt. Jack S. Sirota, S-2, 2-12 Cav, in temporary command, until he could move 1st Lt. Robert L. Huff, platoon leader and XO, A/2-12 Cav, up to command D Company. Huff was a big blond guy, twenty-three years old and Ranger trained, who was athletic and humped an especially bulging rucksack. Ianni considered him a strong commander, and really raised hell with him only when he saw that he carried a case of soda atop his rucksack. If he could hack more weight, he should carry more ammo. Afterward, whenever Ianni came to visit, Huff would pass a can out to each man and retrieve his soda after the colonel flew off again.
Charlie Company and Delta Company each assumed half the perimeter around the captured cache, which, it turned out, was a thousand meters long and five hundred meters wide. Trails ran through the forest, and twenty-eight separate stockpiles were stored above ground along them. Each stockpile was stacked six feet high on wooden pallets that measured fifteen by twenty feet. This material, transported so painstakingly down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, was there for the whole world to see: The NVA had buried none of it, hadn't left a single booby trap.
Charlie and Delta spent nine days back-hauling the cache, which was nicknamed Rock Island East after an arsenal in Illinois. It yielded 326 tons of ammunition and supplies, including 932 individual weapons, 85 crew-served weapons, 469 122mm rockets, 4,002 B40rocket-propelled grenades, 20,886 mortar and recoilless rifle rounds, 7,079,694 small arms and machine gun rounds, 1,734 hand grenades, 3 trucks, and 3 jeeps.
Among the first visitors were Generals Rosson and Casey, who landed almost as soon as the guns had quieted to present the usual impact awards. Lieutenant Hudnell slapped on his bush hat and low-slung .45 and Casey pinned a Silver Star to his pocket flap. Five grunts from Delta Company, all wearing mustaches and steel pots, were also lined up, looking too exhausted to be impressed as they received Bronze Stars. Captain Johnson also won a Silver Star.
The NVA made no attempt to reclaim their lost supplies, and Captain McBride wrote home to tell how his spot of jungle had practically dropped out of the war:
I wouldn't doubt if you have seen my picture somewhere or on TV. The last couple of days we have been plagued with Life/Time, CBS News, French TV, UPI, British International News Service, and dozens of other news representatives. And