down was there trouble. Again, a familiar refrain. Obviously, on the move proper security was essential – all the time. We didn’t always pay attention to that simple rule.


One dark night a mounted patrol of armored personnel carriers, our ACAVs (armored cavalry assault vehicles) were running back to base camp on a familiar highway. It was Route 1, well known to both friend and foe alike. Prior to this particular night the enemy had managed to dig ambush positions right next to the roadway without raising suspicions. When the patrol passed the ambush site the foe sent a hail of rocket propelled grenades at the troopers’ ACAVs. With determina- tion the enemy was beaten off. Luckily the only friendly casualty turned out to be a soldier who wrenched his back while wielding an entrenching tool.


As the enemy tried to climb on to the ve- hicles they were beaten off with shovels and rifles. Few rounds were fired except for the foes’ RPGs and the ACAVs kept rolling which helped defeat the ambush. The next day it was found that the RPG rounds had entered a couple of the ve- hicles at such an oblique angle that the projectiles simply went through the thin skin armor almost vertically, coming out at the top and missing the mounted troop- ers. While our soldiers had a measure of luck, there was a lesson to be learned. Soldiers had to travel in hostile territory where ever possible in protected vehicles.


That said, my biggest challenge as squa- dron executive officer was to see that the troopers had the wherewithal to not only hurt the enemy but keep from killing themselves. The latter, self-preservation, was another lesson to be learned from Vietnam where it was reported that one fifth of all deaths were due to avoidable accidents.


I consider that my major achievement as 3/5 Cav executive officer was that on my six month watch no squadron trooper died of any cause. A lot was due to luck, but a lot was also due to command em- phasis and yes, situational awareness. The squadron proved that caution was the better part of valor while at the same time safely accomplishing its assigned missions.


34


While I was in daily contact with the ground cavalry troops, I infrequently inter- faced with our fourth combat element, the squadron’s “D” or air cavalry troop which remained south in the Mekong River Delta when the remainder of the squadron went north to just below the DMZ. But that troop’s statistics were counted in with those of the rest of the squadron. And they didn’t suffer any casualties either although the helicop- ters were always on the go.


On one mission that I flew as an observer I got a good look at how our really profes- sional aviators operated. Thinking today about the past employment of helicop- ters in Iraq and Afghanistan has made me consider how pilots of “D” Troop took measures to protect themselves in flight. On almost every occasion, heli- copters flying reconnaissance and com- bat missions flew in pairs. Usually a “slick” (minimally armed) ship and a gunship made up a team. Mutual overwatch was standard operating procedure. Until the team reached a search or known hostile area, the helicopters flew well out of the range of enemy anti-aircraft weapons. Also over areas where, en route to their assigned AO, they were likely to be shot at they took special care to fly especial- ly high. It also meant not flying the same repetitive routes to and from those AOs as flying set patterns over time encour- aged the enemy to set up aerial ambushes along those routes.


Once in the operational area the mission commander made contact with the ground element being supported. Then the aerial team might either render kinetic fire sup- port during combat or become the “sky eyes” for some infantry unit plodding through high grass of over rice paddies. Those measures worked as results demon- strated. At the same time from August 1968 to February 1969 “D” Troop lost no helicopters and had no casualties. Yet the line between combat, combat support, and administrative flights was very thin which always generated taking adequate precautions. In Vietnam one always had to anticipate the unexpected. One of my largest concerns was doing just that – expecting the unexpected.


Squadron executive officers generally did not have exciting Vietnam war stories to relate. While the squadron commander


and his operations officer were patrolling the skies or moving about in ACAVs, I was patrolling the defensive perimeter, the motor pool, and the troop areas. There were times, however, when even the most prosaic events held their own potential terror. I remember one in particular.


While checking out the perimeter berme at Camp Evans (a 1st Cavalry Division base camp to which the squadron had moved) one day, I walked past several bored troopers sitting on top of their ACAV. A recent replacement had just joined the crew. He and a soldier who had been around awhile were examin- ing a magnesium flare held by a more experienced trooper. For some reason, maybe a sixth sense, I slowed my pace. No sooner had a I passed the vehicle when the shout, “FIRE,” rang out. The flare had popped out of the trooper’s hand and landed ablaze on top of the machine gun ammunition stored in the ACAV’s bed. The flare burned with hot intensity as the crew scattered. One soldier had the presence of mind to pull the fire extinguisher lever, which, almost as if expected, broke off. The crisis, how- ever, was soon over. Sand from a couple of ripped open sandbags quickly suffo- cated the burning and the ignited flare sputtered out. A few blankets got burned and some sand was spilled around on top of the ammunition. The crew returned, now more alert, but still not completely aware or convinced that their number could well have been up.


So trying to keep young soldiers from killing themselves, while not giving the enemy that satisfaction, proved to be my primary mission. Often it was necessary to think as if one was in the enemy’s shoes to make the troopers be aware of being in harm’s way. There was the example of the soldier who only wanted to be by himself one evening and write a letter home – no E-mail in 1968. He went down to the unlit motor pool, lowered the ramp of his ACAV, turned on the small light in the troop compartment, and began to write.


Now once in awhile the base camp got hit by large enemy rockets. Mostly the rounds landed haphazardly outside the perimeter although the sprawling camp was pretty hard to miss. During daylight an aiming point in the base for those rockets


CAVALRY & ARMOR JOURNAL Fall 2024


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56