Hey Mom
I told you I wouldn’t wait so long to write again!
We’re still waiting on information before we can go rescue the other half of the squad, but that doesn’t mean we get any downtime. I suspect the Colonel wants to keep us busy, so we don’t have time to dwell on it. We’d had some new additions to the squad to plug the gaps, including a new Lt. He’s very cocksure, and our first conversation was him insulting the size of my gun, but he didn’t get us all killed on his first run out so I guess we’re stuck with each other for a while.
He got to start his leadership career with a sweeping patrol of an area across the river and to the south east of Rockpile. We got heloed to an ARVN base and then set off on foot into the potentially hostile terrain. We crossed a small river in good order, with our machine gunners giving cover, but the small village on the far side wasn’t hostile. The same could not be said for the surrounding paddy fields though, as several CheltCong had hidden themselves in spider holes that were concealed by the vegetation.
They introduced themselves via the medium of molotov cocktails into the middle of our formation. Others also started shooting us, to draw our attention away from the reeds, so their buddies could get amongst us. Initially this was very effective for them, but once we figured out what they were doing we regrouped and dealt with them before preparing to head out along the road to our next patrol point. The LT decided that he’d prefer to cut across country, so we went hiking up a hill. While not quite in the spirit of the orders to patrol to keep the roads open, this would give us the chance to get a good overview of the immediate area, so up we went. At the top we found a Chelt with a machinegun, but they didn’t put up much resistance, and we cleared the rest of the hilltop with only minimal punji related incidents.
The patrol stop was a small village with a jetty, presumably for the local fishermen. It was quiet and we took the time to deal with a developing medical issue while things were relatively quiet. Now, I should clarify, we don’t usually use the ‘q’ word when out in the field, it’s bad luck, but I figure it’s okay to write it down here. The medics did their thing, and while a couple of hostile Chelt did approach from the road, they were dealt with swiftly and we cut back across country to rejoin the main road again. We found a manned watchtower, but the machine gunners were guicker on their triggers, and then it was back to crossing open paddy fields. The water level must have been low, as they were fairly dry, but that clearly wasn’t always the case as the locals had built a load of raised walkways and levees. We moved along one of these until we were back on the compacted mud road.
The peace didn’t last long though as a series of spider holes was spotted on a small hill to the right of the road. The initial contacts were put down quickly, but when Yellow went to clear the hillside there was an explosion and they both went down. With the machine gunners covering me I ran to grab one of them, and nearly triggered some kind of tripwire trap. Thank Darkon I spotted it in time and could skirt around it to pick up one of our new marines and carry them back. By the time I was half way back to the squad it was clear that someone was still alive up there, as I passed one of our machine gunners who had been shot in the meantime. Under fire I got the casualty back to the medics, and there then followed a long exchange of fire with what we think was the last remaining Chelt who kept poking out from behind a rock at the top of the hill. We got him eventually, I think it was the new LT in the end, but he had us pinned for a long time.
Somehow the medics managed to get everyone back on their feet and we were off again without needing to call in for a medevac. We considered resupplying, but we’d been stationary for a long time, and most people’s ammo wasn’t too low, so we pushed on, and called one in after the next fight instead. This may not have been the greatest of ideas, as the next contact turned out to be a peninsula that was home to a large ChetCong supply cache, and thus a load of the sneaky bastards in spider holes, tripwire triggered mines, and other concealments. By the end I think we were low but not out of ammo, but the medics completely ran out of some of their supplies. Clearing the area took a while, as more would keep popping up, but once it was to a level we could handle I called in a resupply by air and moved back to watch for the parachute with the supply crates attached. At the same time, we also got a Forward Air Controller tasked to us, and it turned out to be Mr Scatter Sir, so we pulled back and let him blast the end of the peninsula while we grabbed ammo and such from the crates.
With Mr Scatter Sir rocketing the cache we found from the air, we moved off once more, this time a little east to hit the other main road, then north to continue the patrol. We had the chance to take a look at our next stop while still in cover on a hill, and only saw civilians. While we had it relatively good for a while, our air support had found two flak trucks and was busy trying to kill them for a while. We’d hear explosions, and see him fly over the area to the north of us with tracers going up after him, but in a break from tradition he managed not to get hit and eventually left station to go rearm.
We made it through the civilian village in peace, but half way to the next patrol point was a Y junction in the road, and there we took contact. Heavy contact. It started with just scattered infantry in the paddy fields, but quickly turned out to be at least one machine gun nest, a recoilless rifle, and Darkon knows what else. Air took some of it out for us, but we had to withdraw back to the road to regroup and deal with casualties as the fire was just too heavy to push on through. We tried to call in our artillery support while Mr Scatter Sir was rearming, but they didn’t answer the radio. Possibly a good thing if rumours are to be trusted! Since heading east round the village wasn’t viable, we tried going west instead. This did break visual contact with the big guns firing at us, for a while at least.
A very brief while.
The only thing that stopped it in the end was Mr Scatter Sir spotting what turned out to be a recoilless rifle and taking it out from above. Otherwise I suspect we’d all have ended up spread very thinly over a rather large area. We couldn’t call in a medevac due to the flak sites still causing problems, so we tried to medic in place and then pull back to find a suitably sheltered LZ, but we kept being attacked from the reeds and paddy fields surrounding us. I was having a bit of a bad time thanks to a Chelt with a molotov, so Burgerboy got everyone together and the squad moved out, away from any big guns that might remain. I called in a resupply drop and we all took a moment to breathe as we hid behind a hill and double checked we had everyone.
As we waited for the supply drop Mr Scatter Sir spotted a tank in the village we’d just tried to assault, so he dealt with that for us, and I ended up jogging across a paddy field to go get the supplies as they dropped to our south. So far, so good, but then the Boxcar got shot down just after pushing our supplies out, and I took heavy fire bringing the crate back to the unit. Someone tried to put smoke down to provide cover, but sadly Chelt just hit that smoke with an ATGM, which is another big damn gun, and I got a little bit exploded. Several times.
Of course, at this point, air reported that what we were being fired on by was a patrol boat part way up a mountain. Now, I know I’ve written about some bizarre things in the past, but I think this one might be towards the top of that list. The Colonel did tell us what it was, but I probably shouldn’t say for now, as there are things planned for its future. The supplies had been blown up in the chaos, so we returned to looking for a site for evac. This involved more bullets flying over more paddy fields, and some other big launcher type thing giving us even more of a bad time for a while, but eventually we reached the river bank and headed south using the reeds for cover. We started hunting for an extraction site as the machine gunners covered our retreat, then we got a radio call from a patrol boat that was hurtling towards our position at a rate of literal knots. Needless to say we all piled onboard as quickly as our tired limbs could scramble and we were off.
The Lt survived his first jungle walk, the FNGs did well, and we all made it back to camp for chow call and a beer before lights out.
Love to all
Morse