Thirty-two years after the saga, Ranger Wesley Watson said the minute the team landed a VC LZ watcher spotted them. "A few minutes later we started taking heavy small arms fire. We returned fire and that brought a barrage of RPG fire aimed at the trees above us, creating air bursts -- which is what caused so many casualties so quickly."
The Rangers blasted back with three M-60 machine guns, an XM-203 Over and Under - combined M16 and M79 -- and a dozen M16s. The intensity of the Ranger return fire probably stopped an enemy attack as they must've realized they didn't have some small LRRP team -- they had a tiger by the tail, a heavily armed Hunter Killer Force.
The enemy backed off fast. Even though Sergeants Stone and Charles Chesser were both hit they worked on the other wounded Rangers. Ranger Warren Lizotte was seriously wounded in the head exposing part of his brain. Stone tended to him while Chesser patched up the others. Lt. Robert Hill, the mission leader, was very badly wounded along with Sgt. Jerry Wilson. All told sixteen Rangers were hit, but all except Lizotte, who was really down for the count, bravely manned their weapons and hammered the enemy with heavy and sustained fire.
The incoming fire had knocked out every Ranger radio. One PRC-25 had a light glowing in the Frequency Indicator box. Stone, hoping that even though it was damaged it could still transmit, called for support.
Meanwhile, back at the Dong Tam Ranger TOC, HUEY pilot Warrant Officer LaPotta heard the "May Day" call. He raced to his chopper and took off not even waiting the required five minute engine warm up time in his rush to fly to his besieged Rangers buddies. Stone turned his strobe light on when he heard the circling bird. LaPotta turned on his landing lights and came in hot on the small clearing, About 20 feet off the ground the bird clipped a tree with its tail rotor and went into a wild spin, crashing onto its side. The main rotor went flying and the turbine raced out of control as the crew unassed the chopper yelling, "It's going to blow" to Stone and Dennis McNally, who'd raced over to the downed bird to help. When things settled down and LaPotta figured the bird wasn't going to explode, he returned to the aircraft and shut it down. The crew then removed the ships' weapons and ammo and joined Stone's people on the perimeter.
Ranger Warren Lizotte died a few hours after he was evacuated back to Dong Tam. Lt. Hill, Sgt. Wilson, Ranger Richard Shimel and a few other badly wounded Rangers never returned to the company.
HUEY pilot LaPotta was almost court martialed for his heroic, but unauthorized and some say reckless flight. Ranger CO Captain Dale Dickey went to General Ewell and got the charges thrown out. Ewell well understood Dickey's defense: "Screw the regulations; he was trying to save my men." Stone and Chesser were awarded the Silver Star for their incredible gallantry.
On 10 April 1969, a hunter killer team was put together and inserted into a large open rice paddy. SFC Jesse Stephens was the new Operations NCO for Tan An and wanted to see first hand how the guys operated in the open areas of the Mekong Delta. Other members of the team were Ray Bazini, Chip Capps, Bill Christiansen, Hilan Jones, Lonnie Evans. The insertion was uneventful but shortly after all hell broke loose. The patrol had only moved inland a few meters when a loud explosion was heard. The Lurps returned automatic weapons fire into the nearest tree line hoping to hit whoever might be in the area.
Lonnie Evans was killed instantly as a claymore pellet entered his back between the shoulder blades and pierced his heart. Jones was hit in the right buttocks as a pellet went through his thigh and lodged in his scrotum. Two others received small shrapnel wounds.
The evacuation was accomplished in short order and the patrol returned to Tan An. Jones was evacuated to Saigon the on to Zama Japan.
Ranger missions were diverse and not always done according to the book, one such was a rescue mission. The call for help came to the Rangers and Sergeant Boudreau quickly assembled a team to assist. A vehicle had been ambushed about half way between My Tho and Dong Tam and the two occupants were wounded. They were rescured by the ranger team just minutes after the call was made.
Team 22 had a busy and successful week. On 31 May they destroyed a mortar squad and on June 2 they teamed with gunships to kill 19 Cong. Just a typical day in the life of a Ninth Division Ranger.
Another successful "Parakeet" mission.
21 June was a sad day for Echo Company 75th Ranger. During the conduct of a "parakeet" mission, Staff Sergeant Herbert "Frosty" Frost was killed doing what he loved to do, killing the enemy any way he could. A suspected VC was spotted and like they had done so many times before the chopper swooped in and the Rangers were off and running, chasing the VC along a rice paddy dike. The fleeing enemy fired a shot over his shoulder as he was fleeing and got lucky. "Frosty" died doing what he did best.
Company "E" executed the coup of the war when Ranger Mike Kentes zapped the highest-ranking VC killed, Lt. General Hat Tram, in an ambush, on 24 August 1969. "A six man team -- SGTs Jessie Stephens, Christie Valenti, Tom Dineen, Ray Bazini, Nguyen Van Kiet a PRU (Provincial Recon Unit, part of the CIA Project Phoenix Program that was -- according to Ranger Cheek - carried out in part by "E" Company) and CPL Mike Kentes -- was operating near the Cambodian border," Ranger Cheek said. "Kentes shot a guy and when their team swept the contact area, they took a POW who turned out to be the personal physician of VC LT General Hai Tram." After the raid, Military Intelligence thought the dead VC might be General Tram and the team was immediately reinserted in the area to find out. Documents found on the body confirmed he was General Tram -- and Kentes recovered his pistol. General Abrams and the American Ambassador flew in to congratulate the Rangers.
This was a big deal. Getting Tram was like Grant getting Lee or the VC zapping Abrams. Cheek recalls, waking up to the sound of someone running through the Ranger barracks back at Tan An saying 'Kentes killed a General, Kentes killed a General.' I remember mumbling groggily to myself "was it one of ours or one of theirs?"
Team 22, Ralph Funk's old team now led by Stu Koontz, was on IRF - Initial Reaction Force status at Tan An. Mid afternoon sometime in the fall of 69' a call came in to TOC about an enemy sighting in a free fire zone in the Plain of Reeds by someone in a chopper. The team was scrambled and was at the chopper pad within seconds and lifted off in pursuit of the elusive foe.
They were vectored into the area by the 'higher-higher' who initially made the sighting and off loaded near some heavy nipa palm. The ''Oscar 5 or 6" (either a Ltc. or full bird) came up on the team freq and directed them to a path that led into some very heavy, thick brush and within two meters made a hard right turn.
Koontz thought "uh oh, this doesn't look too good; I sure could use Pham Van Nhan (Team 22's PRU - a former Vietnamese Marine and SAS and CIA trained). He saw hand painted 'Tu Dia' on a piece of metal somewhat hidden by the foliage, remembering from in-country indoctrination that was Vietnamese for Booby Trap. Koontz was convinced he didn't want to go into that nipa palm without a really, really good reason and the dude in the chopper hovering at 2000 feet just didn't provide a good enough of one.
Next thing he heard was some squawking on the horn about what's going on down there and what's the hold up? He told the Oscar that they weren't going in there without some good prep fire by Spooky or a Cobra and some arty and maybe even a couple 500 pound napalm drops. That sure as hell didn't go over too well with the colonel and he let Koontz know it. Said he had to go into the Nipa and check it out. He backed off when Koontz suggested he un ass that chopper and go into the Nipa himself and they would provide covering fire.
Team 22 was on a daytime patrol in a huey flying along a waterway (with gun ships for cover). Don Andrews was in the process of taking over as team leader and Koontz was along to help with the transition. They were going along a blue, when several NVA in a sampan were spotted. The huey pilot did a quick pull-up and turned to set them down, but when the rotors started chopping tree branches and leaves, the team went ahead and jumped out.
Andrews had on a PRC 77 radio that was previously used by Paul Fitzsimons. The straps were adjusted for him and were caked with dried mud. When Andrews put it on he couldn't adjust it, so the radio hung down low on his waist. When they jumped out, he landed in the mud and sunk knee deep. The radio slammed into the back of his head opening a good size gash in his neck, making a nice cut. We rounded up the NVA and had them choppered off to MI, so they could interrogate them and let 'em go, or whatever they do (that was always the scuttlebutt!).
Returning to Tan An, the team was walking from the chopper pad through the artillery area, to the main street of the Brigade base camp. As they got to the street, right across from the PX, they saw two things simultaneously. One was the 3rd Brigade/9th Div. Commander, the other was two FNG's (------- New Guys), with their still green (bright green) fatigues. The FNG's started saluting for all they were worth (Isn't that all they teach you in basic??). The Colonel hollered a greeting to the LRRPs, and they hollered back.