The Bonding of Warriors
A Unit History
The Years 1968-1971
Ch 16
1968 - Compiled by Hilan Jones
Without using the word he was calling the guys under Lt. O'Reilly's command cowards and they knew they weren't. What he was telling them to do was simply a military impossibility. At one point McConkey looked up at the chopper thinking, 'You ignorant son of a bitch if you really think this can be done why don't you come on down here and grab a rifle there's plenty of them laying around.' The next morning there were 39 bodies loaded on the choppers.
Gary Beckham remembers that day as it is forever burned deep into his soul. He remembers cradling a young soldier in his arms that day, a bullet through his temple, he was blind, he was in pain, there was no blood, and he was dying. He asked god to help him that day, and god did, and that young soldier died in Gary's arms. He remembers the teams being split up, going into a really hot LZ, watching the face of a black private who was in the same chopper as the 4 man LRRP team, and the look of his pale skin, almost white, told all that soon he was going to die. Not more than 10 minutes later, we helped pull his body onto high ground, a bullet through the head, fired at close range from a spider hole.
Also remembered was the growing row, then rows, of bodies, of the dying, dead, and the terribly wounded. They could not fire in a particular direction because that was where the other company was trapped....but really, no one had a clue which direction they could or could not fire, not knowing exactly where that trapped company was....and all the time AK's firing, not so much as sniper fire, but trying to draw American fire in order to locate forces. Grenades were hanging from trees like ripe fruit, all tied to trip lines.
Beckham remembers being the one that stood up with a strobe light to guide in the Huey's to cart off the dead and dying. He remembers the blue-green tracers fired at him while holding that strobe....That day and night he relives nearly each day of his life...it will stay with him forever.
McConkey has the bullet with his name on it as a reminder of this action. Working along the battle line hoping to link up with some of the rest of the team, (Boles had already gone back to be dusted off after getting hit in the leg) he came upon the scene previously described, with the C.O., a platoon leader and about a platoon's worth of guys all bunched up pinned down getting the shit shot out of them. No LRRPs in sight, so he was first going to try to pass on through and keep looking for Smitty, MacCallum, Marze or Taitano. Then on the opposite side of the group he spotted a kid named Johnny Carpenter that they had met the night before when the Boles team bedded down next to his squad. McConkey had confidence in him, and figured that if he couldn't find any LRRPs, at least he could hook up with him and maybe Mike Chubbuck. The platoon was so bunched up that he didn't want to crawl right through them, drawing attention to the movement and get somebody else shot. That was happening regularly enough as it was. He detoured around the front, crawling and sliding sideways to keep the narrowest profile towards the front and not expose any more target profile than necessary. He would move a couple feet whenever the .51's stopped to catch their breath a bit, (the AK fire remained steady throughout) so it was pretty slow going. As luck would have it, just when he got to the middle of the front, the intensity picked up and he was stuck there for quite a while trying to be small'.you all know what trying to be small means.
While laying there listening to Lt O'Reilly trying to talk this Colonel out of making another futile, suicidal charge, it dawned on him that the top of his head was by default the furthest point of advancement. He had categorically the front row seat, though that had not been his original intent. He was just trying to go around the group. This was not a movie, not a dream, not a drill, it was actually happening. It sounds silly, but it's the God's honest truth'the corny poetic words came into his mind 'At any second a bullet could come crashing into my brain.' Yes, 'crashing''he didn't know what it was all about, just that it happened. It was his own voice he heard in his head, like it was a message from The Man. That kind of woke him up and he felt the need to take some - any - kind of action instead of just waiting for things to happen. Nobody was moving or firing back at them for 15-20 minutes. A few small movements as a new angle of fire came through 'trying to get a little better concealment, but basically they were just laying there getting shot while O'Reilly tried to talk sense to that S.O.B. Col. up in the air. There was so much lead coming through that if you hadn't gotten hit where you were you didn't really want to roll the dice by moving to a new spot.
So the only thing he could think of after the brain crashing vision was to get his head lower. Scooping about a half a basketball's worth of muck out of the ground he made a mini foxhole for his head. It started to ooze water into the bottom of the hole, (this soft mushy ground is what undoubtedly saved his life when he had fallen out of the chopper a couple hours earlier), so he took off his beret and lined the hole with it, keeping his right eye just above ground level to be able to see forward.
No more than a minute later it felt like someone had given his small pack (they weren't carrying rucks) a hell of a kick and it kind of raised him up out of the hole a bit. Knight's platoon leader, Lt. Jones, had been lying with his hand on his thigh with his head behind the pack. He could feel him moving occasionally to peek around during short lulls in the firing. Jones said 'My God, I just got hit in the head with a bullet and I'm still alive!'
McConkey replied, 'Ya, that must be the one that just went through my pack.' It had hit the buckle on the top of his pack, gone through, come out the bottom mostly spent and went 'klink' on the forehead of the platoon leaders helmet and fell straight down and stuck to the back of his hand, burning him. He shook it off onto the ground and then picked it up. He said 'I've got it right here in my hand, it's still hot!' Without taking his head out of the hole he reached back with his left hand and hit him on the shoulder, holding out his hand like a bellboy for a tip. He put it in his hand and it wasn't hot anymore, but still had warmth. McConkey placed it in his shirt pocket. Many further events unfolded and the next day when we were flown out of there to a camp with buildings & stuff, Jones was coming into the toilet/washroom just as McConkey was leaving. He said, 'Say, you still have that bullet? That's my bullet, you know.' McConkey replied, 'Your bullet, sir?' 'Yeah, that hit me right in the head, you know.' He told him 'Well, sir, I look at it this way'If I hadn't dug that hole in the ground, I'd have the bullet, 'I wouldn't know it, 'and you wouldn't care. And since I did get my head out of the way, if it hadn't hit the buckle on the top of my pack & lost its punch,'you'd have the bullet, you wouldn't know it, and I wouldn't care. As it we both know how it all came down, I got the bullet and I'm keepin' it'O.K., sir?' He opened his mouth and raised his finger like he was going to make some point of logic, but then just shook his head & walked away.
McConkey wasn't really trying to ---- with the guy because he truly respected him. He just wanted to keep the bullet. They had been on the scene together 3 or 4 times on June 1, and he really was a good and brave officer. The next day when O'Reilly got killed he took over the company. O'Reilly was a real pro, too. McConkey went to their area a couple weeks later to visit with Knight and Chubbuck to express his remorse for getting their buddy Carpenter killed. That's when he learned from Knight that Chubbuck had gotten killed the same day as O'Reilly'more of that fucking Colonel's doing. McConkey has the last picture taken of Michael Chubbuck. Bumping into Lt. Jones, they talked a minute. Jones said that he had been walking right beside O'Reilly as he got stitched across the chest. He looked at Jones, and as he was falling said. 'Well, you got it, Lieutenant.' The guy held a change of Command ceremony on the way to the ground'now there was a soldier. MacCallum remembers him, too. We'd have been proud to have either of them in the LRRPs.
Intelligence in June 1968 reported that a barge traveling the Mekong River was transporting weapons, ammunition, communication equipment, and other military supplies disguised as rice. Division G2 had a LRRP team standing by on the helo pad, ready to be dropped onto the barge at the first opportunity. The LRRPs wore cut off fatigues or swim suits, each man armed with an M16 and a couple of 20 round magazines taped together. As the first magazine was expended all they had to do was reverse magazines and they were ready to fire again. The team stood ready for five days while the air force provided a spotter plane to patrol the river.
The plan was to drop the LRRP team onto the barge, capturing the cargo and personnel. On the fifth day, the recon plane sighted the suspected barge and the plan was set into action. The LRRPs loaded the chopper and were off. Flying at tree top level, the chopper swooped in over the barge, hovering just a few feet above as the LRRPs jumped from both sides of the chopper onto the barge. 'Lanternhead' was the last to go and as he was set to jump the chopper jerked to one side. He missed the barge and fell into the river. Quick reaction by the door gunner prevented serious consequences as he informed the pilot of the LRRP in the river. The pilot maneuvered into position and a rope was tossed to 'Lanternhead' who was being carried away by the swift current. He grabbed the rope and was lifted from the fast moving water and dropped into a rice paddy at the edge of the river.
"Lanternhead" was defenseless, as his weapon was lost in the river. A lot went through his head as he waited in the rice paddy for the chopper to circle and come in to pick him up. Vietnamese were scurrying around as they watched the LRRPs searching the barge and must have been laughing at the G1 that was fished out of the river and deposited in their back yard. As "Lanternhead" was being picked up from the rice paddy, the LRRPs on the barge were securing it to a navy patrol boat that arrived to pull it into Dong Tam. The barge sank and the crew was detained for later interrogation by the local authorities.
Stand downs (the time between missions) and promotions were excuses to throw a party. "Lanternhead" was promoted to SP4 in early July and to celebrate his promotion there was the usual "wash Tub" full of punch which consisted of a couple quarts of vodka mixed with grape fruit juice, fruit cocktail, and plenty of ice. This concoction was prepared by Lt Hester in recognition of the promotion "Lanternhead" would receive the following day. Everyone had over indulged and was not in the best of shape at the formation the next morning. Lt Hester called "Lanternhead" to the front and told him to hit the ground and start pushing it up. He said it was for swearing at him the night before. "Lanternhead" had done one push up when Hester dropped the SP4 patch on his back and told him to get back in formation. Marze was now a proud SP4.
Lt Henry R. Hester was a fine officer who cared deeply for his men. A lot of effort was made these past few years to locate him. The brotherhood of LRRPs has lasted all of these years. Several reunions have come and gone. More men have been located and communication has continued among those that have been located. It was sad to learn Henry passed away the 15th of September 1997, before he could be located. He will be remembered by those that knew him.
On 15 July, 1968, Sergeant Fred Wheeler led a team on patrol near Khiem Ich. Sergeant James Glaze served as assistant team leader on this day. Another member of E Company along with five or six PRUs made up the remainder of the patrol. The purpose of the mission was to discover why the area was so important to the enemy. The line companies were receiving heavy fire each time they entered the area.
As they approached a canal, the team spotted six VC in front of a hooch on the opposite bank. The VC were armed as weapons were visible to the LRRP team. Sgt. Wheeler directed small arms fire across the canal as it wasn't possible to move closer without being spotted by the VC. During the brief fire fight, three or four bodies fell to the ground in front of the hooch. The other VC disappeared.
SGT Wheeler decided to move the team across the canal and search the area and bodies. He entered the canal first and had only taken a few steps when he became stuck in waist deep mud. The enemy opened fire on the team. One of the VC had crawled up close to the canal bank and was firing towards Wheeler who was trying to get out of the canal. The rest of the team returned fire from the bank of the canal as Glaze moved to the edge of the water to pull Wheeler from the mud. Holding on to a small tree with one hand, he was able to reach Wheeler, giving him enough assistance to pull himself from the mud. The firing became heavier as the two men crawled back up the bank of the canal. Contact was broken and the patrol left the area as quickly as possible, suffering no casualties on this mission.18
It wasn't too long after "Lanternhead" made SP4 that he was given his own team. He ran with one LRRP as the assistant team leader and five PRUs that were well trained and had plenty combat experience. His first mission as team leader would be back to Toi Son Island. The PBR crew picked the LRRP team up at the Dong Tam dock area well after dark, as this was to be a late night insertion. The team was experienced but still had the usual last minute butterflies as the PBR made the short 30-minute run to the island.
The insertion was made without incident and the team moved quickly to nearby concealment as the PBR backed slowly away from the bank. They would monitor the area for several minutes before moving inland to their objective. As they waited and observed, "Lanternhead" had thoughts of the day Vaughn was killed. Maybe they could even the score this night.
Seeing that all was clear, the team moved the few hundred meters to their objective in the center of the island. There they found a small hooch in the wood line that would provide good concealment. Moving quickly to set up inside the hooch, they encountered an old farmer and his wife who both had the proper identification papers. As the team set up to observe they secured them in their sleeping area. Everything would be quiet this night.
The team was instructed to move to the pick up point at first light. The sun was just visible to the east, silhouetting the PBR as the team made their way to the rivers edge. Encountering no problems, the PBR crew maneuvered to make the pick up. Just as the last LRRP was attempting to get on the boat, they came under automatic rifle fire from a distant tree line.
As team leader, "Lanternhead" was the last to board but as he stepped up, his foot slipped and he fell into the water. Thoughts of the last time he was in the water came to his mind as small arms rounds were striking the water around him. The PBR crew returned fire with the twin .50 caliber machineguns, and the Honeywell (belt fed 40mm grenade launcher) quickly suppressing the enemy fire as the crew pulled "Lanternhead" on board.
The PBR crew continued to suppress the fire from the tree line as the LRRP leader was receiving his instructions from the TOC at Dong Tam. They were to stay with the PBR while it rearmed then return to the island and bring out a prisoner. By 1400 hours, the LRRPs were back on the island, sweeping the area for someone to take back. The enemy had dispersed but the LRRPs were able to gather several detainees, which they delivered to the MPs at Dong Tam. Toi Son again proved to be a hostile area to work.
At times the LRRP patrols were misused. An example is a team being used as the point element for an infantry platoon conducting a search and destroy mission. "Lanternhead" and five other LRRPs were doing just that when they spotted an old Vietnamese man counting the soldiers. He sent the other five on ahead as he waited for the infantry platoon, informing the Lt of the old man's activity. Assuming the old man was simply a rice farmer the unit moved on.