Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [232]
On 15 and 16 June, per the routine that had been established when 3-11 ACR had moved to FSB Susan on 11 June, M Company opened Route 7 north to Snoul for the convoys rolling south toward the border.
On 17 June, at eight in the morning, one platoon from M Company departed FSB Susan, which was a muddy clearing astride the muddy highway, for the road run to Snoul. Less than an hour later, the five tanks of the platoon were ambushed from the east side of the road, and Captain Wallace and his other two platoons quickly rolled out of FSB Susan and went cross-country behind the ambushers, hoping to catch the NVA RPG teams as they withdrew. But they saw not a soul and found not a trail.
Frustrated, Wallace had his tank swing around and roll up onto the raised highway where his ambushed platoon had consolidated. It was discovered then that the NVA had burrowed under the highway in preparation for their ambush: After firing their RPGs and AK47s from the east side, they had shimmied through their tunnel and hiked away unseen to the west while 90mm cannons and .50-caliber machine guns withered the thickets on the wrong side of the road. The NVA plan had been simple and effective. Captain Wallace watched as Staff Sergeant Bell, who had returned the day before from a Hawaii R and R with his wife, was gingerly lifted from his hatch: An RPG had detonated the string of fragmentation grenades inside the cupola, killing the man instantly as it reduced him to a bag of smashed bones. Bell was the only man that Wallace lost during his command. Seething with anger, he told the company to secure the highway while he and Kit Carson Scout Day set out alone on the footpath that led west. Four hours had already passed since the first shots. Half a mile down the trail, which they had walked slowly for fear of booby traps, it was obvious that the NVA had made good their escape. Wallace had, however, confirmed the direction of their retreat, and he requested permission from squadron to mount an operation in the area. Permission denied.
On 18 June, a platoon from M Company on a security patrol west of FSB Susan took AK47 fire from a party of NVA who disappeared in the vegetation as the tankers returned the fire.
On 19 June, Captain Wallace accompanied two platoons from M Company as they reconned Route 7 south from FSB Susan to Phum Khcheay. After noon, they were suddenly ambushed from the east side of the road. The NVA were firing uphill onto the high-crowned highway from the edge of the jungle only ten meters away, and the tankers instantly responded with cannister and machine gun fire. The tank ahead of Wallace traversed its turret to the left and, in the process, unseated a hitchhiking English photographer with its 90mm main gun. The photographer frantically wrapped his arms around the gun tube and was dangling when an RPG slammed into the tank and slammed him to the ground. Wallace himself suddenly realized that his right arm was bleeding from the cat scratches of RPG fragments. Cobras cleared their guns into the trees. Wallace climbed quickly from his cupola to check on how much ammunition he still had in the minigun cans welded to the turret, and another RPG explosion stung his leg with more scratches. The medic treating the wounded photographer reported that he needed an immediate mede vac, so M Company proceeded through the ambush, then used their tanks to mash down the roadside vegetation enough to allow a Huey to land. The NVA, meanwhile, disappeared again, never having really been seen to begin with. In any case, the column they ambushed was in no position to pursue.
Captain Wallace expressed bitter