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By Root 811 0

thereafter, Marsh's ad hoc column was directed to continue into Snoul, and they went into a fast perimeter near the airstrip while Phantoms splashed nape in the houses to their left and Cobras hosed down the rubber to their right. It was a hairy entrance, but it was short lived. All enemy contacts around Snoul broke off after dusk as 2-11 and 3-11 ACR pulled into several separate laagers. The NVA who had made their stand in the town thought better of it and began moving north in small groups. G Troop, for one, spent the night in the southeast corner of the plantation grounds, near the intersection of Highway 13 and a dirt road skirting the eastern edge of the plantation. The only further activity came as the sun set and a Buddhist priest, or bonze, walked down the dirt road through the perimeter–the thought crossed Menzel's mind that he was actually an enemy scout–then later that night when one of their tripflares suddenly snapped into the sky with a hiss and a pop. The sound of an animal could be heard as it scampered away from the tripwire, but as the flare burned out, Menzel thought he saw something move down the trail to the north. He flipped the switch on his AK to full automatic, and laced the road from side to side with a magazine of green tracers. No response.

The next morning, G Troop moved north on the dirt trail to a small hamlet on the edge of the plantation grounds. One of the village women had been hit by a rocket or a bomb fragment from the previous day's battle, and while the medic patched her up, the troop interpreters talked with the villagers. They said that NVA had streamed through during the battle, carrying their wounded and dead. The village itself had been fortified by the NVA, with spiderholes and trenches along the trails, and bunkers around the hootches. Either way, the NVA would have “won” if they had stayed to fight, Menzel mused. Either G Troop would not have pressed the attack because of the civilians or, if they had played according to the enemy's rules, they would have been raked over the coals for bringing battle to a small, innocent village. Considering the flavor of the newspaper clippings about Snoul that the troopers began receiving in the mail, Menzel's concern about it being communist propa-gandists who might smear the regiment seemed ironic in hindsight. “I did not relish the idea of being accused of 'war crimes' by the thugs and murderers we were fighting.”

Lieutenant Colonel William P. Trobaugh, regimental chaplain to the 11th ACR, had joined Sfc. Elihah Brown to command the 3d Platoon of G Troop after First Lieutenant Cambria was medevacked. Trobaugh had heard enough shots fired in anger during his ministrations in the bush to understand his job, and he agreed to serve as if he were just another lieutenant. Captain Menzel commented, 'Tm not sure what 3d Platoon thought about all this, but the chaplain's reputation as a fighter had long preceded him.”

Command Sergeant Major Donald E. Horn, who had served with a tank co in the Korean War, was something of a fixture with the Blackhorse in the Vietnam War. He joined the 11th ACR in July 1967 for two months as the regimental operations sergeant, then for two months as sergeant major of the 3d Squadron, before being selected as the regiment's first command sergeant major, a position he held again from July 1969 to June 1970. It was in this capacity that he won the Silver Star during the 1968 Tet Offensive: “Command Sergeant Major Horn… advanced into the enemy stronghold with another man to search for the missing casualties…. Horn reached his destination, killing several North Vietnamese Army soldiers in the process. Unable to find any of the casualties, he then fought his way back to friendly lines, capturing and bringing back a prisoner.… ”

Colonel Starry would return to the field on 22 May 1970 and would turn over the regiment, in Cambodia, to Col. John L. Gerrity on 22 June 1970. Starry received the Bronze Star with “v” and Purple Heart for Snoul, and three other decorations for the previous Tay Ninh campaign, including a