Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [237]
If the truth be known, the Blackhorse did not really bring out all the scrap. K Troop, for example, could not tow the burned-out, big iron slug of a Patton tank, with its track and most of its road wheels gone, through the mud to the high-crowned highway. Anyway, their dragon wagon was slipping all over in the mud, so they privately decided to roll the hulk into a ravine, cover it with brush, and move on.
Most other disabled vehicles were towed to FSB Susan, from where they were transported back across the border by dragon wagons. One junked ACAV was brought to the LZ beside the FSB on the squadron's last night at Susan and, therefore, missed the last scheduled evacuation convoy. Captain Wallace and First Sergeant Neville of M Company stood on the berm line to watch a Chinook, which had been one of those delivering their nightly log pack, come to a hover over the track. Some GIs stood on the deck to hook the straps that had been secured around the ACAV to the sling hanging below the Chinook; then the pilot pulled up a bit to bring the straps taut. When the Chinook attempted to lift the ACAV, which had been stripped down to make it light, its left engine abruptly blew and it fell straight down atop the vehicle. A flash of fire indicated either a mechanical failure or a sniper's score. Smoke and fire belched from the ruptured engine, and Wallace watched his first sergeant and one of his platoon sergeants sprint to the wreck. The first sergeant pulled open the cockpit door and helped the pilots out, while the platoon sergeant helped pull the crew through the space left by the ramp that had not been closed all the way.
As they ran back toward the berm, the Chinook exploded. By the next morning only pools of molten metal and chunks of charred machinery remained, none of it higher than two feet.
On 25 June, 1-11 ACR began its withdrawal, which it completed the next day. It took only light fire from a distance, down Route 7 to the Rome Plow road that cut to Katum, the junction safeguarded by 3-4 Cav at FSB Schulcz.
On 26 June, 3-11 ACR began its withdrawal but quickly ran into trouble. Captain James Pétrie of I Troop nosed down an old bust along Route 7. He was accompanied by an attached platoon from L Troop that Miles had given up the day before with the comment, “Take care of my pennies,” the nickname for the troops. Experienced troops avoided old busts, but Pétrie, who had crossed the border as the assistant operations officer and who had gotten his wish of a troop command only a few days earlier, was never able to learn from his mistake: His ACAV, loaded with plastic explosives and bangalore torpedoes, ran into a booby-trapped 500-pound bomb on the old bust. Everyone aboard was killed except a Tiger Scout who was blown clear and the driver, who was pulled from the burning vehicle by the TC of another ACAV.
The burned-out hulk ended up to one side of the Rome Plow road. The tanks of M Company passed it as they escorted the howitzer battery from FSB Susan to FSB Schulcz, then on to FSB Koropey, which sat near the Rome Plow road and had become a way station for 3-11 ACR's withdrawal. Meanwhile, K Troop departed FSB Susan for one last run to the north to retrieve the last A VLB on Route 7. Perhaps emboldened by the thinning of the ranks at Susan, the NVA commenced to shell the laager in broad daylight: Four men were killed and seven wounded.
M Company also came under fire.
When the mortaring of FSB Susan began, Captain Speedy of K Troop was atop his command ACAV, whose radio antennae had been tied down to present a less inviting target. He had already gone through two cans of Ml6 ammunition firing into the roadside brush as they barreled through yet another mini-ambush. The noise of one hundred thirty machine guns was shattering. Speedy, his hearing damaged from his first tour, had to hop down into the ACAV hull to hear the radio message