Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [53]
Battling supply convoys, civilian traffic, and trucks packed with ARVN paratroopers and ARVN artillerymen, 2-47 Mech and 2-34 Armor finally cleared the town of Tay Ninh. Turning off Highway 22 onto Highway 4 near Nui Ba Den Mountain, they proceeded north into War Zone C. Past FSB Buell. Past the last village. Past FSB Saint Barbara, and finally into real Indian country, or cav country as the blooded troopers of the 1st Cavalry Division and 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment would have it. In fact, a Sheridan from the Blackhorse sat tilted along the right side of the road, its aluminum hull dented, two road wheels blown off. The turret lay beside it, its gun tube and all other gear removed. The combat loss had been blown in place after being stripped, and as they rolled by, no one had to shout anymore to get the troops buttoned up in their rarely worn helmets and flak jackets.
Highway 4 cut straight through War Zone C to their final destination–Katum, a small and remote outpost five miles south of the border. Major Weeks overshot the column in a chopper to set up liaison with the Special Forces team garrisoning Katum, and as he came into the little PSP airstrip the NVA began mortaring the place. Although the NVA had taken to lobbing 300 rounds a day into Katum, the man on the radio nonchalantly told him to come on in anyway. There were a dozen Green Berets there with hundreds of Nung Chinese in tiger stripes. All their positions were underground and heavily sand-bagged.
From Katum, Weeks rejoined Claybrook and they flew east to be given the next piece of the puzzle by Colonel Kingston of the 3d Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division: 2-47 Mech was to drive north from Katum into the Fishhook to the extreme left (or west) flank of the push, and by D-Day plus one they were expected to have pushed ten miles inland to Cambodian Route 7. They were to cut the highway five miles east of Memot. The 2-34 Armor would advance on their right flank, 2-11 ACR would advance farther to the right, and 3-11 ACR would anchor the advancing right flank.
The 1st ARVN Armored Cavalry Regiment would sweep in from even farther to the east, driving west instead of north into the extreme tip of the Fishhook salient. They would be converging on a spot where the remnants of COSVN were presumed to be located, while simultaneously the ARVN Airborne Division would combat assault to the north. Even farther north, the 1st of the 9th Air Cav was to throw up an aerial screen of gunships and scout ships to interdict enemy units that might slip through the encirclement.
Colonel Kingston told Claybrook and Weeks in no uncertain terms that 2-47 was to be across the border at a specified time the next morning, so as to coincide with the president's televised address. By the end of D-Day, they were to have advanced across a river several miles over the border. At this, Claybrook commented that there might be some difficulty: His armored vehicle-launched bridges (AVLBs) hadn't closed into their staging area yet. Maintenance problems with AVLBs were such that they could be seen in supply depots with vines twirling through their treads, or in the field as mobile chopper pads, but rarely were they put to