Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [27]
A platoonsized enemy force, having blown a gap through the single row of barbed wire, moved in over the south and southwest portion of the berm, firing RPGs directly into the FSB. Meeting little resistance on the berm, they headed for the 105 howitzers …now the NVA were met by M-16 fire from the B/2-19 Arty gun positions. A small reaction force, led by the battery commander, quickly eliminated 5 NVA near the #4 gun, captured 1 (WIA) and drove the remainder out of the position. The enemy established a base of fire near the trash dump, and this area, as well as a .51-cal position nearby, were taken under short-range fire by #1, 2 and 6 guns. A fire that broke out in the infantry ammunition dump was quickly controlled by B/2-19th Arty personnel. However, debris from the explosions put #3 gun temporarily out of action. All other howitzers continued to fire directly at enemy positions at maximum rate. When guns number four and five were destroyed by RPG fire, the surviving crew members and ammunition were quickly placed in the remaining four sections. Led by the B/2-19th battery commander and first sergeant, the defenders regained the berm….
The very first rounds of the NVA barrage effectively beheaded the 2a of the 7th Cavalry: Colonel Hannas had both his legs blown off before he could rise from his cot, and the antennae of the infantry TOC and artillery fire direction center (FDC) were destroyed. All communications with FSB Jay instantly ceased, and brigade and division were not made aware of the attack until the artillery liaison officer at FSB Illingworth reported the glow of flares and flashes of explosions on the horizon. Immediately, the 2-19 FDC at Tay Ninh activated the prearranged fire plan around Jay, using every artillery piece in the area as well as gunships, flareships, tactical air, and a gunplane. This counterbarrage blunted the NVA attack, as did the individual actions of men like Capt. Mac K. Hennigan, the gregarious and immensely confident CO of B/2-19 Field Artillery, who ended the night behind an M60 machine gun. The NVA attack fell apart before dawn, and at first light the dust-caked, bedraggled survivors of Jay began standing up again.
Fifteen GIs were KIA, fifty-three WIA. Seventy-four NVA dead were found.
One of the first things Colonel Brady of division artillery saw when he landed was an American flag flying from a tall sapling in the morning breeze. It was the only color there and it touched Brady deeply. Nearby, the American dead were being carefully laid into body bags and, when those ran out, on folding canvas cots. The grunts moved in an exhausted daze, and Brady conferred with the battalion executive officer, who, although wounded, had assumed command from Hannas. Said Brady, “…as we discussed the enemy's route of withdrawal and he pointed out the battalion's troop dispositions, blood dripping from his wounds obscured the symbols on the map.”
Before the day was over, 2-7 Cav evacuated FSB Jay and helicoptered to another lake-bed clearing, which was appropriately dubbed FSB Hannas.
At Illingworth, Colonel Conrad imagined that the destruction of Jay would prompt a similar evacuation of his own untenable position or a reinforcement of it. Neither happened. About all that Charlie Company and Echo Recon on the berm line could do was to harden their fighting positions with artillery ammunition crates that had been filled with dirt, and to wire more claymores around the berm. The artillery and mortar crews fired H&I missions more frequently around the base, and Mad Minutes were practiced by the troops, an unhealthy number of whom had never fired in anger or been fired at.
For reasons of privacy, this veteran, now a lieutenant colonel, prefers a pseudonym.
Chapter 6: APRIL FOOLS' DAY
At FSB Illingworth, which was situated on the broiler pan of a L desiccated lake bed surrounded by