Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [235]
Four other men had been wounded. A medevac was launched into a heavy, somber black sky that threatened to explode any moment with a drenching monsoon downpour or with antiaircraft fire. Navigating through the dark at treetop level, the pilot hummed the William Tell Overture over his radio, and Speedy mused with great admiration that some of those medevac pilots must have had frontal lobotomies, they were so brave.
Strobe lights pinpointed the laager.
Meanwhile, south on Route 7 but still within sight of the fireworks at FSB Susan, L Troop was also under fire in its laager around several Rome Plows. Troop commander Hammerstone had been lost soon after the Snoul action, during an ambush on a narrow, tree-lined road: As he pushed the button on his CVC helmet to transmit on the radio, an AK47 round blew off several of his fingers. He had been replaced by Miles, former commander of the headquarters troop. Captain Miles was a veteran of seven years as an enlisted man and of a previous tour as a company commander with the 1st Cav during the Tet Offensive. He was concerned that the NVA might slip onto the road between his laager and the squadron firebase and provoke an accidental firefight between them. But the NVA appeared to be only in the tree lines off the highway. Staring at their blinking muzzle flashes in the dark, Miles radioed a spot report to Lieutenant Colonel Griffin at Susan. Miles was talking fast, “…this is some thick shit! We're taking fire from the front …” An AK round suddenly kicked off his gun shield with a terrific ricocheting shriek, and he blurted, “Jesus Christ, those sons of bitches are trying to kill me!” Then he immediately resumed his report, “…and we're taking RPGs from the left flank….”
The NVA finally faded away.
The next morning, the regular convoy came south on Route 7 from the caches up north, and L Troop, strung out along the highway, melted into the line to escort it to Tay Ninh. With half of the troop still on the northern side of an engineer bridge, a truck crashed and logjammed it, so Miles rolled on to Tay Ninh with the half of his troop that had already crossed. It wasn't until about ten that night that he had doubled back to his stranded half, gotten everyone in order, and was proceeding back to their night laager. Griffin radioed for a location report and Miles answered that he was sixty mikes, or minutes, from his laager, to which Griffin, whom Miles loved almost like a father, hurried him along with, “Get your ass in here! Who do you think you are, Captain Midnight?!”
The name stuck, an appropriate sobriquet considering that Miles was a black officer and reportedly the first black to command in combat a troop of the 11th Cavalry.
The night attack had spelled out clearly that the NVA had Susan pinpointed and that it was time to move on, Captain Speedy thought. But the heavy rains had made alternative sites scarce, as well as miring the Bandit Squadron in the mud so that they could not send out roving patrols to keep the NVA off balance. Infantry support was badly needed to keep the NVA away from the roads they were confined to, but it was unavailable. The NVA advantage was compounded by the presidential announcement of their withdrawal timetable–insanity, Speedy thought, to give the enemy free intelligence–and by the fact that once they began tinkering with those bridges (which could have been left behind with no great loss) the NVA knew not only when they were leaving but their route. We really try hard to make the dinks look good, Speedy thought bitterly as the NVA came out of the woodwork to say good-bye by turning Route 7 into a shooting gallery. The hunters were now the hunted.
The NVA thought better of harassing them at the actual bridge sites,