Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [72]
Major Weeks finally directed them north off the road and into a scrubby field where they laagered for the night, and Lieutenant Colonel Claybrook landed happily inside the circle. He had just flown back to brigade to refuel and inform Colonel Kingston that he doubted they'd be able to reach their objective because of the mini-ambushes. He had requested permission to circle his wagons in the rubber trees, but now he could radio brigade that they had actually made it to the highway.
The task force had bypassed pockets of NVA, and late that night, several NVA, presumably officers, tried to escape on Route 7, driving from the direction of Memot in a light green Volkswagen. They didn't make it. An ambush had been set up on the road with two APCs parked on the hardtop, one facing west, the other east. When the VW headlights appeared coming up the slope and onto the highway, the APC facing downrange opened fire with its .50-caliber at a distance of a hundred meters. The streams of yellow tracers connected with the VW in a burst of sparks, then followed the car as it flipped onto its side and skidded to a halt on one side of the road. Before dawn, other NVA lobbed mortars around the laager, but none found their mark. They only drew more streams of tracers as the .50-calibers opened up in the direction of where the mortar tube was thumping.
* * *
Day Two of Cambodia was for the Blackhorse Regiment a drive in the country compared to D-Day, and their linkup with the 3d Brigade, ARVN Airborne Division, was made all the more simple by the fact that neither element was in contact. However, after passing through the ARVN Air-borne, Lieutenant Colonel Brookshire's 2d Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry, rolled into a minor scrape and called in their abundant firepower with disastrous results: A U.S. Cobra gunship and a USAF Bronco observation plane collided over the jungle. The gunship pilot and his copilot, if not killed instantly, rode their machine to their deaths on impact with the jungle, but the two forward air controllers had parachutes. The adviser aboard the C&C Huey of the ARVN Airborne watched the two parachutes descend into the trees, then put out a Mayday call– mistakenly stating that the FAC had been shot down–to which Colonel Brady of the 1st Cavalry Division Artillery responded. At the time, Brady was already up in his own C&C Huey. Brady, a rated aviator who had commanded the gunships of the Blue Max on his first tour, quickly organized the helicopters congregating on the scene and requested everyone to stay off the radio net except for the gunship fire teams. He could see the two parachutes hanging in the trees within a hundred yards of each other, the pilots still suspended in their harnesses, and decided to go in for them himself. The ARVN adviser had reported taking heavy fire on an original aborted rescue attempt, so Brady piloted his Huey into a small clearing in the bamboo about fifty feet from one of the parachutes while two Cobra fire teams placed continuous suppressive fire in a complete circle around his landing site. On touching down, Brady sent his sergeant major, door gunner, and stenographer–a young soldier from his headquarters who had just come along to sightsee– forward through the dense bamboo to get one of the aviators. They returned in minutes, the bamboo so thick that they had become disoriented and couldn't find anybody. The three back aboard, Brady pulled his Huey straight up until the parachute was back in sight, then, keeping the nose pointed directly at the chute, he set back down in the same spot and the sergeant major, door gunner, and stenographer were back out in an instant. The rescuers cut the parachute lines but the pilot was still in his harness when they carried him back and hefted him into the cabin of the Huey, shouting to Brady that they had found him hanging directly over an NVA bunker, which may or may not have been occupied. They had not paused to check, and Brady immediately took off for the nearest aid station.
Colonel Brady looked back into the