Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [69]
As K Troop slowly rolled down the trail in the dark toward the laager where the downed vehicles of the 2d and 3d Squadrons had been collected, Captain Speedy made radio contact with the ARVN Airborne advisers at Katum, who arranged to have illumination rounds fired over his column so they could at least see where they were going. The NVA responded with an occasional RPG, which would rush past from the roadside brush and be answered by bursts of .50-cal and M60. In the general chaos, Major Driskill heard a whisper on the radio, “Where are you? Hurry up and come on. I can hear moving all around me.” The owner of the voice turned out to be a solitary soldier who'd been left with his disabled tank. K Troop attached tow bars to the tank around ten o'clock, and by midnight they reached the main laager. At this point, they were close enough to the squadron that after putting up 292 antennae they could regain radio contact.
At first light, K Troop was on the move again, using every tow bar they had to bring along the downed vehicles. They rolled through the area of 2d Squadron's contact, passing by well-maintained enemy trails and hootches that were still smoldering. In the faces of his young troopers, said Captain Speedy, he saw that “they were finally glad I'd been such a prick with them.”
The 3-11 ACR's routine had been broken on 24 April 1970 when they road marched north from Lai Khe to Song Be to reinforce the 2d Brigade, 1st Cav Division, but they had no sooner arrived than the developing incursion plans threw everything in reverse. The squadron completed a 300-kilometer round-trip in four days, then proceeded immediately to FSB South II as 3-4 Cav (Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell) of the 25th Division relieved them at Lai Khe. Mitchell settled into one position with HHT and B Troop, while C Troop was colocated with an ARVN unit at FSB Bunard. Like most of the unit commanders taking up the slack for the attacking units, Mitchell was spread thin: Whereas he once had three armored troops and one air cavalry troop, with potential fire support from eight artillery batteries, he now covered the same amount of ground with two armored cavalry troops, with support from two ARVN howitzers and a pair of Cobras on strip alert at Song Be. Conferring with the CO, 2d Brigade, 1st Cav Division, at Song Be, Mitchell commented that the logistical line to Song Be would be kept open, but that he did not plan to look for any fights. The brigade commander concurred, and the NVA never did muster the muscle to press any of the rear guard units.
PART FOUR: TAKING THE BARB OFF THE FISHHOOK
The US/ARVN drive into the Fishhook had achieved tactical surprise. As the NVA/VC retreated, they left behind their supplies, and the conversation recorded by a reporter named Sterba, accompanying the Blackhorse on Day Three, was being repeated in some shape dozens of times a day:
“ Hey, E Troop has just found a whole bunch of shit.”
“ All right, let's get a sitrep.”
“ What daya got?”
“ Roger. We got beaucoup documents. Pictures of Ho Chi Minh's funeral and stuff like that, it looks like. Coupla comics. About thirty bicycles.”
“ Also got approximately eight pigs–blew away a couple, though. Chickens. And we got thirty-five pounds of peanuts.”
“ How many peanuts?”
“ About thirty-five pounds. Repeat three-five pounds.”
“ Roger the peanuts, and thank you much.” The North Vietnamese were running, the Blackhorse was pursuing, and the jformer would finally let the latter catch up to them at a rubber plantation town named Snoul that they had captured from the Royal Cambodian Army.
Chapter 13: INLAND
On the morning of Day Two of Cambodia, Mike Thompson, who drove a Sheridan with