Mom
First off, please let me apologise for not having written in 3 months. It’s been chaos over here, but I know you must have been worried sick. We’ve been all over the place, and some of our missions I really can’t talk about, including the one we’re just back from. I wanted to put pen to paper though and let you know I’m still alive, and still thinking of all of you back home.
I’ll try and give you a quick catch up on things. You remember Sarge who became Staff? He’s rotated back Stateside, meaning Sarge then became Staff in his stead. Then he died. We don’t currently have any sergeants, but we do have two other corporals, so we split leadership as required. Disco and Gucci seem largely content to do that though, leaving me to play with the radio most of the time. Well, up until today anyway, but I’ll come to that.
As for the highlights of what you missed in my negligence at letter writing;
-we had a go at AirCav duties, where air go in and smack a hostile area then the infantry (us) go in to sweep and clear.
-then it was back to some sweeping patrols, this really is our bread and butter work these days
-someone seemed to like our AirCav work because we then got a full training mission on heli insertions, sweeping patrols to an LZ, and then helo exfils. Only problem was, no one told the North Chelt it was training.
-[REDACTED]
-after that we were off to defend Firebase Rockpile. Now Mom, I know I’ve mentioned the hills here maybe once or twice in my past letters, but Praise Darkon Rockpile is something else. I mean, if you took the Industrial National Bank Building and put it on top of itself, it’d be about that high, and the sides about that steep. Fortunately we didn’t have to climb it, just clear out all the CheltCong from around it. I don’t think they felt like climbing it either if I’m honest, and I don’t blame them.
-finally, a bunch of tankers came down ill, and we were the only unit that could cover for them, so we got to go drive some tanks to intercept a hostile armoured column that was headed towards our airbase at Khe Sahn. Tell Dad I’ve commanded a tank and see what he says about that!
You’re almost up to date now, just today to go, although I’m going to have to be vague about some details, for operational reasons.
Intel came down that an important member of North Chelt leadership was currently in a fortified village upstream from Rockpile, and it’d set back their war effort a lot if he was taken out. He was deep in hostile territory though, so we needed to get in and out quietly, which is not our speciality at all. The Colonel issued us with scuba gear, which would probably have been really fun if all we were doing was looking at fish, and we set off up the river in small boats. It was pre-dawn, so there was some light, but not much, meaning we spotted the Chelt lookout position on an island we had to pass really easily due to their search lights. Disembarking we took out the position so they couldn’t raise the alarm, then headed on to just south of Rockpile where there were these cool little mini-sub type craft waiting for us. I think they were designed for SEAL teams, and we had some trouble getting them to work properly, but I think that was mostly a lack of training issue, apart from the one that just refused to submerge at all and had to be abandoned.
The water was really mucky, not like when I was on R&R in Tanoa where it was crystal clear, but that’s Cheltnam for you. I was piloting Blue Team’s sub, so I guess you can add that to the list alongside the tanks, and our medic, Bungalow, was navigating beside me. How he got us past the hostile positions and to the target I have no idea, but we made it and immediately found hostile contacts in the village at the water’s edge.
Disco had the lead, I had Blue, and Gucci had Yellow as we moved to clear the area. It was going well and we had a plan to go assault the fortified position further inland, but then someone noted an extensive minefield around it. We paused to re-evaluate and then headed on a detour to the south via a route found by Biscuit and Burgerboy, which took a bit longer, but did mean we didn’t all get blown up in the attempt.
This brought us close to the target village with the cover of a small ridge, which helped immensely. We regrouped before we crested and found a wooden fence surrounding the buildings. With Yellow opting to blow a hole in the wall on our right flank, I took Blue to the left and we demonstrated our superior Marine fitness by vaulting over on the left. It was, as these things always are, chaos, but Blue swept up the western side of the village and Yellow the East. I ended up in a burning building and was checking for a secondary way out when I found a room fortified by sandbags and movement beyond. I couldn’t get in,and couldn’t get bullets in the right place, so I threw a grenade in instead and he ran out. Turns out he was the target, I could tell by his hat, and I took him out before he could get me.
Mission complete, we picked up our casualties, which were a few, and headed back to the breach point for ease of access. Our immediate exit from the village wasn’t too bad, but as we got closer to the subs it got nasty. At least one tank, most likely several, were between us and where we’d left them, so we had to go the long way round and keep to the reeds in the water’s edge to avoid being hosed by heavy guns.
It was a messy escape, and I ended up separated from my team. People got pinned by heavy fire, people ended up in the wrong subs, myself included, but we all made it out and safely back to where we’d left the boats. I feel really bad about not being with my squad as they took heavy fire on the way out, but sensibly Yellow wouldn’t let me out to go swim back to them.
We all made it back to pick up the boats again, but were under heavy fire immediately, and at least one boat had been badly damaged by the time we got ashore to refloat them. At least two of the subs also took damage as we disembarked, and several marines were hurt in the subsequent explosions. From then it was a chaotic holding action as we tried to re-org and assess what boats we still had while under constant and heavy attack from Chelt forces.
Fortunately for us, The Colonel also seemed to have word that things were getting hot, and a helo arrived to take us home. No one wanted to disengage and leave other marines, and the pilot wasn’t on the same radio net as us so we couldn’t hear him calling us to board ASAP, so the fight went on a bit longer. I decided not to try to out stubborn Yellow though and ordered Blue in, and that saved us as the pilot ran out of time and had to lift before Yellow got back.
In the end it was just my squad, and one medic who made it, all of yellow, and the command element were left on the river bank, but there was at least one working boat, so most, if not all, of them should have been able to get back on that. It wasn’t the best ride home, and I got my squad to eat and drink while they could so we could grab a few more mags back at base and head out again, but The Colonel acted as voice of reason and noted we’d never get back to them with enough troops to do anything productive. He’s keeping an ear out for any mention of them in Chelt dispatches we intercept though, and we’re ready to go bring them home as soon as we get any word at all.
I think you’ll understand if I say I need to go have a beer now Mom, but I promise I won’t wait so long between letters again.
Give me love to everyone
Morse