Hey Mom
I’d love to tell you that we were all well rested after that night mission I told you about last time, but sadly there’s no rest for a tired Marine out here and we were back out into the field in no time at all. It was our turn to garrison a firebase, and this time we drew A Luoi at the southern end of the A Shou valley. I think we’ve been there before, but if so they’ve done some remodelling as it never used to have AA guns, and I’m sure there were watch towers before. We also have a new officer, an LT who came to us with the accurate (if unimaginative) moniker of Nieugoy (say it outloud, you’ll get it).
We arrived at the base in daylight and relieved the squad already there, but the mist was thick and we really couldn’t see much outside the wire. We could hear a lot though, as there was a firebase in the hills above us, and the thump of outbound artillery was near constant for a while. In fact, at one point we even thought they were being attacked, but a quick radio confirmed they were fine. We then settled into a patrol routine, with Blue walking the perimeter, and Yellow manning the AA guns in the centre.
It wasn’t too long before we heard over the radio that the forces at the northern end of the valley were being attacked out of the mists, and then soon enough we were too. For us it was an infantry push from an area of highground to our South West. That was across the road that ran alongside the firebase, but because of the tall grasses and reeds that didn’t give us the kind of open ground we like to have outside the wall. We did get confirmation that we’d have a Forward Air Controller tasked to us if we needed it.
I spotted a small Chelt squad to the north and called it in for the rest of the squad. Usually first I see if tracer, so actually spotting them was a solid move for me. We’d just seen them off when our air support called in. Of our two usual FACs we got Mr Scatter Sir, with his shiny new callsign of Carbon Outlaw. They’ve given him a new plane to fly, but even with the mist it wasn’t hard to work out it was him approaching given the sound its engine was making. I think it’s because they need to fly slow without stalling, but the FAC planes engines always sound like they’re whining.
We spent a little bit of time checking what Mr Scatter Sir had with him, what he could call for, and Sarge got JCB, or new engineer, to start looking at what he could do to improve the defenses. As it was quiet he went to go see if he could see anything at the reported contacts at the northern end of the valley, so obviously we then got hit hard from the south west again. We got them marked with smoke but he had nothing but marker smoke in his little spotter plan, so as we held them off with bullets he called up Monkey Mountain and got us a Thud with an iron bomb and some cluster bombs.
An iron bomb is just a basic bomb the planes can drop, but the cluster we had to be more careful with, in case we might need to go patrol through the area it had been dropped on later. Not all of it explodes you see, so it can leave nasty surprises for those unaware it was there. The LT approved the attack though, and soon we were taking no more fire from that area. Thankfully, the fog was also much clearer, so air was having an easier time.
Chelty were apparently annoyed by that though, as they brought up a heavy machine gun and started firing at him. He had to bug out and went to refuel while we made a push out to try and take out the gun. Turns out, when the base was set up they included a minefield around it, which I found with my face. For the record, that’s not the way you’re supposed to do it, but it was very effective. Thankfully there was a bit of a lull after that, and we could regroup and grab more ammo to stuff in our pockets.
JCB, said engineer, then found some of the mines to the south with his face too, but we eventually worked out where it was safe to tread, and stuck to that route from then onwards. I then spotted another puch from the north, which is definitely above my normal quota for such things. Maybe I’m finally getting the hang of this whole Marine thing? The following firefight was intense, but we now had our FAC back on station after his trip back to base to refuel, so while we fired at anything that moved in the reeds, he called in artillery for us. It ended up needing to be what we call Danger Close, as we got hit really hard and most of the squad were down, but somehow we muddled through and held the position.
They then decided to start firing artillery at us from the north west. It doesn’t have the same range as ours, but that makes little difference when you’re on the end of it. Thankfully someone spotted the marker smoke, so we got into what cover we could and Mr Scatter Sir, went looking for their spotter and launchers. While he was hunting we heard a tracked vehicle approaching the base from the west. It turned out to be a BTR, which aren’t fun to face, but with our AA guns trained down we took out both it and the infantry push it had been escorting.
Someone managed to narrow the direction of the rocket launchers to the north west so we set air to take another look overhead, but it would be a while before we got a solid grasp on where it was to any degree of accuracy that would enable an attack on it. Now part of that time was because they stopped firing for a bit, and when they lit up again we -all- saw it and a call went out for strike aircraft before we’d even finished getting our heads down. It was sky raisers this time, and their first attack with bombs sent the rocket launcher soaring at least 100m into the air. They then followed up with napalm, just in case any Chelt had somehow survived the first pass.
We then got tickled by an infantry attack from the east. We couldn’t get a good visual on them due to the landscape, but we threw a couple of smoke grenades to mark where we thought they were, air confirmed, and then we threw frag grenades, which seem to do the job. I then got a call from Mr Scatter Sir that he had somehow landed in the valley to the north of us and couldn’t take off again, so Yellow snuck out of the minefield to guide him safely to us.
I carried on as a series of them pushing us, and us pushing them back for a while, although the Air Force did send an evacuation helicopter for Mr Scatter Sir so he could get back in the skies again. There was a slightly awkward moment when he thought the helo was for all of us, but we’re Marines, and we’re made of sterner stuff. Gucci took down an auto-grenade launcher that was causing us issues, and it started to rain, but we didn’t let that damp our spirits.
What nearly did dampen them was a tank that tried to push the main entrance of the base. Fortunately, amongst the mines that had been laid, were some anti-tank ones, so it didn’t make it all the way over the open ground. It had a machine gun on its top, which one of its crew tried to man after it was disabled, but we had it covered, and the infantry that had been using it as cover for their approach. We’d called for more air, and when they arrived they spotted a second tank and were able to take it out with rockets before it got to us. It was clearly a large and well coordinated attack though, as we faced multiple waves of infantry trying to rush the gate from the south west for a prolonged time.
That air used all its rockets on the tank, so helped us with some suppressive gun runs as and when hostiles tried to test the defenses, but then another mass attack was pushed from the north and we had to call in the really very big cluster bombs it still had. There was a lot of back and forth given how close we needed them dropped, but by this point Mr Scatter Sir was back with us on the ground and he still called it in, so we all trusted in his judgement and got our heads down really very low. I think the pilot called us crazy, or called Mr Scatter Sir crazy, but he dropped anyway, and scored a direct hit on the platoon that was assaulting. Or I assume it was a direct hit, I was hiding at the time, but there was only a handful left to mop up, so I guess we owe the pilot a crate of beer if we ever run into them.
Thankfully, that was the last assault. Things quietened down again and before we knew it our relief squad arrived and it was time to head back to base. Not a bad outing for the new LT, and I think we got him back for his card game at 1900, and at least we didn’t have to climb any hills.
Give my best to Dad
Morse