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Page 7
15January 68
MASSIVE TUNNEL FOUND
2ND BDE - U.S. Army tunnel rats aided by members of the Vietnamese Province Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) have uncovered what 25th Div intelligence officials believe to be the main Viet Cong underground infiltration route through the Iron Triangle centered 48 Kms north-northwest of Saigon. The tunnel complex was uncovered during the land clearing portion of Operation Atlanta. According to 1LT Thomas Seitzinger, a 4th Bn, 23rd Inf, platoon leader, his team of tunnel rats have searched some five miles of the tunneling which generally runs in a north-south direction.
The exact length of the tunnel network is not known, however the PRUs stated that it takes three days and nights to travel its length.
At several points the main passageway is interrupted by side tunnels which, according to the PRUs, runs to Ben Cat on the eastern boundary of the Triangle and to the Ho Bo Woods on the west.
“Every time we'd reach a point where the tunnel had collapsed from Air Force bombs the PRUs would look around and say `dig there' and sure enough we'd find it again,” explains Seitzinger.
Seitzinger explained that the Viet Cong dug their tunnel by sinking shafts at various distances to certain depths. They then dug connecting tunnels. This was repeated over and over again. After the tunnel was completed the shafts were filled in. The PRUs can spot the location of the shafts by the slightly different color of the ground and vegetation around the shafts.
SSG Donald Neves of Greenville, S.C., has much admiration for the PRU's as he has worked and lived with them for the east 14-months.
“They would save your life in a minute,” said Neves. Recently one PRU they call “Joc” was walking point, and spotted an anti-personnel mine about 50 meters away, he was credited with possibly saving the lives of several men, explained the two year veteran of Vietnam.
“Crawling through the tunnel has been kind of nerve wracking at times,” remarked one of the tunnel rats.
“We've encountered snakes, spiders, bats and ants, Viet Cong bodies and dud rounds and booby traps that we had to take out first,” he continued.
Jan 22 68
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HIDDEN FROM THE ENEMY - Soldiers from the 2nd Bn, 27th Inf “Wolfhounds,” move from a landing zone toward a wooded area screened by smoke from a helicopter. The assault took place near the Oriental River on Operation Saratoga. (Photo by SP4 Joe Carey
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Enemy Kept On The Move During 1967by SFC Roy Doupe
CU CHI - The 25th (Tropic Lightning) Inf Div ranged far and wide over the four provinces west and northwest of Saigon to the Cambodian border in its continuous search to find and destroy the elusive Viet Cong foe during 1967.
From its home base in Hau Nghia Province the division staged operations, ranging from company-size search and destroy missions to multi-division operations throughout the adjoining provinces of Long An, Tay Ninh and Binh Dunne. And, as the year drew to a close, combat-hardened elements of the 2nd and 3rd Bdes were deployed north in Phuoc Long Province to counteract a flare-up of communist activity in that area.
During operations such as Fairfax, Gadsden, Cedar Falls, Junction City and Manhattan the Tropic Lightning troopers penetrated the Pineapple Patch, the Filhol Plantation, the Iron Triangle, the Ho Bo and Boi Loi Woods, the Michelin Plantation and War Zone C where VC influence had reigned supreme for 25 years. They met and defeated the enemy in his own back yard, destroying fortification systems and base camps that had taken him years to construct and, through continuous and relentless pursuit, denied him the time needed to build new areas where he could rest and recoup his losses.
The Pineapple Patch, once a prosperous plantation that was reduced to a swamp by the VC and heavily fortified, is now merely a swamp filled with destroyed bunkers.
The Filhol Plantation and the Ho Bo and Boi Loi Woods, sanctuaries where the VC formerly mounted their raids on Saigon and retreats where he could lick his wounds and rest and recuperate for further terrorist activities, are now just names on a map as engineer land clearing teams have laid low the rubber trees and dense undergrowth on approximately 17,000 acres.
In addition to the major operations, each brigade conducted a monsoon offensive, that started in May and ended in November. The 1st Bde's Operation Barking Sands covered the north half of Hau Nghia Province. The 2nd Bde conducted Operation Kolekole in the rest of Hau Nghia and Long An Provinces while the 3rd Bde, during Operation Diamond Head, held its combat assault and Revolutionary Development missions in Tay Ninh Province and northwestern Binh Duong Province.
Since the beginning of the year the 25th Inf Div has destroyed more than 20 VC base camps while killing more than 4,086 Viet Cong. Other figures show that 25,000 fortifications and 1,900 tunnels were found and blown up with an additional 10,700 meters of tunnels destroyed.
Among the myriad items of material that were captured and either destroyed or evacuated were: 3,113 tons of rice, 7,900 mines and booby traps, 2,147 individual weapons and 668,408 rounds of small arms ammunition.
An integral part of the combat operations were the pacification and Revolutionary Development programs aimed at winning the confidence of the people of the provinces. Medical Civic Action Programs (MEDCAPs) were conducted throughout the division's area of operations and 148,000 persons were treated for illnesses ranging from the more serious sicknesses to minor cuts and scratches.
Surveys of villages were made to determine their needs, schools were rebuilt or repaired, dispensaries were opened, wells were dug or cleaned out to insure an adequate water supply. Whenever possible the local villagers supplied the labor but when the project was beyond their capabilities Tropic Lightning troopers stepped in to get the job done. The whole program was designed to demonstrate to the Vietnamese people that the division is here to help them rebuild their country instead of destroy it as VC propaganda had led them to believe.
Two of the most notable accomplishments during the year occurred during Operation Diamond Head, at Dau Tieng In Tay Ninh Province, and Barking Sands, at Phu Hoa Dong in Binh Duong Province.
The VC used three villages near the Div's 3rd Bde base camp at Dan Tieng as stopping points for supply trains headed for War Zone C. To eliminate these rest stops the 334 residents of the villages were relocated to the resettlement area at Lai Thieu just outside Saigon. Nothing was left behind as they took along oxen, water buffalo, chickens, dogs and all their household goods.
Phu Hoa Dong, a village of 10,000 was estimated to be 80 per cent VC or VC sympathizers and was a vital link in the supply route into Saigon. Following a seal and search of the town every resident was registered and ambitious civic actions program initiated. The town was quite spread out and the inhabitants that lived in the heavily forested north and west sections were relocated to the more open southeast section. The vacated sector was then leveled in a land clearing operation that included part of the Filhol Plantation.
As 1968 begins the 25th Inf Div stands ready to strike anywhere, anytime to demonstrate that the VC's terrorist tactics cannot succeed and to show the Vietnamese people that their lives need not be made up of days waiting for the VC tax collectors to come around, or sleepless nights waiting for the next raid.
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SHE SINGS TOO - Tay Ninh was the stopping place for the traveling Connie Francis USO Show. Miss Francis performed a number of her past popular songs together with current pop hits. A comedian with the show provided many laughs for the watching troops. The show was closed by Miss Francis leading the men in “God Bless America.” The troupe then toured wards at the nearby hospital and talked with men who couldn't make the show at the Rice Bowl. (Photo by SP4 Lonnie Snipes)
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Pizza Comes From C-Rations? DAU TIENG - The men of the 3rd Bde, 25th Div, have discovered a new taste treat, from C-rations “pizza.”
CPT Samuel R. Noto, an Italian-American from Scranton, Pa., learned the recipe from a helicopter pilot during one of the search and destroy operations of the 2nd Bn, (Mech), 22nd Inf. Since then “Noto's Pizzeria's has been going full blast.
The recipe requires one can of spiced beef, one C-ration bread roll, one can of cheese . . and hot sauce, if available.
You open the beef and bread cans, leaving the tops attached, add the hot sauce to the beef, and then empty the contents. Cut the bread into four equal slices and put one slice each into the beef and bread cans. Then spread half the beef on both slices. Put the other two slices of bread on top and add the remaining beef. This should make a double layer of bread and beef in each can. Then top off each pizza with half a can of cheese.
To heat, you first close the lids on the cans, and then put them into a C-ration box. Close the box and light with a match. When the box has burned out, presto!, the pizza is ready. This novel way of heating the pizza works every time.
As Noto remarked, “Momma Leonies it isn't,” but it is a new way for foxhole chefs to change their C's into a gastronomic treat fit for the most discriminating gourmet “grunt.”
5 Feb 68
12th Evac Hosp Is “Personalized“ SAIGON (ARC-IO) - An American soldier has just been shot by a sniper while patrolling the Vietnamese jungle near the Cambodian border. He receives first aid from a medical corpsman on the scene who stops the bleeding and applies temporary bandages, while a rescue helicopter descends to pick him up. Minutes later, the wounded man is being treated by U.S. Army doctors in the 12th Evac Hosp at Cu Chi.
The mission of the 12th Evac Hosp is to give immediate medical care and stabilize the condition of wounded servicemen until they may be safely moved. Those with minor wounds - approximately half of the patients - are able to rejoin their units after a short stay. Of the remainder, half are moved to convalescent centers located elsewhere in Vietnam, while the more seriously wounded are evacuated to military hospitals in the U.S.
But emergency medical care is not all that the 12th Evac provides: a staff of trained Red Cross women assists the military by providing patients with the kind of personal attention that doctors - struggling to save lives and repair the human damage of war - are too busy to give. These women do their best to make hospitalization more comfortable for sick and wounded GIs by furnishing needed personal articles, medically-approved recreation facilities and supplies, and by helping to ease the patient's minds about the things that trouble them, such as problems of communication with home.
The Red Cross workers at the hospital are not alone in their efforts to make life easier for wounded soldiers. The American Red Cross chapter in Kansas City has “adopted” the 12th Evac Hosp at Cu Chi. Through a program called OPERATION HELPMATE, Red Cross volunteers at home are busy gathering paperback books and magazines, toilet articles, ballpoint pens and stationery, games and playing cards, recording tapes for messages to worried families at home, and a variety of other personal items to make hospitalization easier for patients at the `12th.'
These articles are shipped to the Red Cross women at the hospital and distributed to the patients when they make their regular rounds in the wards. Since last April, the Greater Kansas City Red Cross chapter has sent 3-4 cartons each month to the 12th Evac. Said Miss Cathy Carlin, of Cleveland, Ohio: “The Chapter has been extremely thoughtful and generous with its assistance. We've received two portable tape recorders for use in the wards; a polaroid camera, so that the men can send pictures of themselves home to reassure their families; inexpensive birthday gifts for the men; U.S. travel posters to decorate the lounge; Christmas cards, ribbon and gift-wrapping paper; and many other items, large and small, that we've made special requests for.”
fort kit so he may wash his face and shave (patients arrive at the hospital directly from the field with no personal belongings), and see if he has any special needs or wishes to contact his unit for any reason. The Red Cross workers operate the recreation lounge within the hospital complex where convalescing patients may gather to read, listen to music, play ping-pong or pool, have a game of cards, or simply enjoy a chat with an American girl. They make daily rounds to talk to patients in the wards, go shopping or buy money orders for them, arrange phone calls (the military provides each patient with one telephone call home free of charge), and distribute recreation materials and needed personal articles. They handle individual problems and give casework services normally provided by Red Cross Field Directors serving with able-bodied troops. And perhaps most important of all, they give the men the individual attention and comfort which is psychologically necessary for speedy recovery.
As long as the Vietnam war continues, the Red Cross workers at the 12th Evac Hosp in Cu Chi will continue to comfort its casualties, daily bringing smiles and encouraging words to every wounded man.
WO Flies Strange Dust-off 1ST BDE - WO Donald Evans of Atlanta, recently flew one of the strangest dust-off missions of his career.
The strange flight started at dawn when Evans received word of an immediate dust-off required at the Special Forces camp at Prek Klok, 35 kms north-northwest of Tay Ninh City.
Nearing the pick-up point, he received a radio message advising him to hurry because the patient was in serious condition.
The second he sat down on the helicopter pad, two medics ran out carrying a poncho-covered stretcher and quickly lifted the evacuee into the small cockpit of the OH-23.
It was a tight fit, because the patient was a large Labrador Retriever tracker dog, who had been wounded during a combat mission.
Evans flew the dog and his handler to the 25th Div's 1st Bde base camp at Katum, where he was transferred to another helicopter for evacuation to the Cu Chi veterinary clinic.
“I had no idea that I was going to evacuate a dog,” said `Evans with a smile. “I was surprised, and glad we got him to the doctor in time.”
25th Div Base Camp Mortared The 25th Inf Div's base camp at Cu Chi received 48 rounds of 82mm mortar and recoilless rifle fire Jan. 19.
The 20-minute attack, which began at 7:48 p.m. resulted in three U.S. soldiers killed and 45 others wounded. Thirty-two of the wounded soldiers were treated and released. There was light damage to U.S. facilities and equipment.
Counter-mortar fire and helicopter gunships pounded suspected enemy positions. The results are unknown.
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CAPTURED RESULTS - Soldiers of the 1st Bn, 27th Inf, look over some of the weapons captured when the unit clashed with a VC platoon. (Photo by I LT Hugh Bell)
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Speed, Skill and Care a Must At Tropic Lightning's MUST
By 1LT ROBERT E. GOLDEN
TAY NINH - “MAS-CAL!” With this word, people at the 25th Division's 45th Surgical Hospital begin to move.
On a recent Sunday night when the call was sounded doctors and nurses converged on the pre-op (pre-operative) ward and prepared all the equipment they would need. Everyone else headed towards the breezeway in front to man the litters when the dust-off choppers, bearing 15 casualties, came in.
The 45th Surg is a “MUST” facility. MUST means Medical Unit , Self-contained, Transportable - in other words, a portable hospital.
The “heart” of the hospital consists of five large inflatable “bubbles”, six expandable steel buildings (each one is about three times the size of a conex) and five utility packs that provide all the air conditioning, heat, water and power for the entire hospital.
The MUST hospital is a new concept and has replaced the MASH concept (Military Army Surgical Hospital). The 45th Surg, now commanded by Lieutenant Colonel George M. Pomerants, opened in November 1966, and was the first MUST-type hospital in Vietnam.
As in any other hospital, the men and women of the 45th are on call 24 hours a day. It has to be that way, since most of the “crises” occur after normal duty hours.
“We usually have our MASCALS between 1800 and 1900 hours or between five and seven in the morning,” said Major John J. Candelaria, hospital Executive Officer.
When dustoff ships arrive at the hospital's chopper pad, patients are hurried into the preop ward for immediate emergency treatment. In the process known as `triage' (French for `to separate'), all wounded soldiers are categorized as a team of doctors carefully examines each man and decides whether he is to remain at the hospital for treatment, whether he can be released or whether he is to be further evacuated.
Patients designated to stay are prepared for surgery in one of the three surgical suites. Patients needing further evacuation are quickly loaded onto waiting choppers that take them to either of Long Binh's evacuation hospitals, the 25th or 93rd.
According to Captain George J. Wright, Adjutant, the MUST hospital is still in the experimental stages.
“We feel the 45th Surg serves a very important and useful purpose for the men out in the field,” Wright explained. “We're the middle man between the medic out in the boonies and the evacuation hospitals in Cu Chi and Long Binh. There's no doubt that we've saved many lives here during our existence. I think that justifies our being here.”
You might say that the best of care is a must at the 25th Division's MUST.
SPECIALIST 5 Stanley W. Behner (center) helps lift a litter patient on to a chopper for further evacuation.
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A PATIENT, after receiving emergency life-saving treatment at the 45th Surgical hospital, is carried to a waiting Medevac chopper that will take him to an evacuation hospital in Cu Chi or Saigon.
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DOCTOR (Captain) John C. Kecirns carefully prepares a wounded trooper for surgery.
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Blinded Pilot Lands LOH SafelyBy SP4 WILLIAM L. MC GOWN
FSB SHARRON - “My plane's shot up, my observer's shot up and I can't see.”
Enemy ground fire had shattered the windshield of the 25th Infantry Division Artillery light observation helicopter (LOH), temporarily blinding the pilot, Warrant Officer John M. Lanning, of New Orleans, with glass fragments and blood.
“We were flying over Highway 7 in Cambodia,” recalled Specialist 4 Robert W. Tobey, of Portland, Ore. “As we neared a small village, we pulled up to pass over a tree line - I guess our altitude was about 40 feet - when I heard several shots.”
“Mister Lanning immediately banked to the right gaining altitude,” said Tobey. “He leveled off, handed me the map and asked me to locate our position. I noticed that his left eye was swollen shut and blood was streaming down over his other eye.
“Then he called MAYDAY. He told me he could just barely make out the road, and although we were following it, I couldn't locate our exact position.”
About this time, Warrant Officer Terrian Bachi, of Battavia, La., arriving at FSB Sharron, was notified that a Divarty helicopter had just been shot down. The MAYDAY had come in on an FM radio.
“They had no knowledge of an exact coordinate,” said Bachi, “so I told them that I knew the approximate location and took off. Before he went out, Lanning told me where he was going and said, `If you don't hear from me in 30 (minutes), come look for me. `That probably saved his and the other two passengers' lives.
“I was flying at top speed when I noticed a LOH approaching,” continued Bachi. “It was Lanning.
“He told me `My plane's shot up, my AO's shot up, and I'm blind,' then asked me if the road was safe for landing.”
“ `Negative', I replied, and asked if he could make it to Sharron - about two miles. I then told him his altitude and air speed. He asked me to go ahead of him and talk him on down.
“As we approached Sharron,” Bachi said, “I continued to inform him of his ever decreasing altitude and air speed, so he could make the most basic and gradual approach possible.
“As I passed over the landing zone I said, `This is it,' then made a quick turn to I could watch his approach. I frictioned down my controls as I talked him on down: `You're ten feet off the ground, five feet, four feet, three, two, one. You're left skid is touching, right skid is touching. You're down!”
Recalling the incident later, Bachi commented, “It was one of the best landings I've ever seen him make. I'm his Instructor Pilot and I was all the time kidding about his landings. After that beaut', I won't kid him anymore.”
Witty Warriors Win Club GirlsBy SP4 BERT HERRMAN
CU CHI - Four GI's got a big boost to their dating life in Vietnam, when Ilikai East Service Club ran their version of “the Dating Game.”
Two Special Services girls and two donut dollies offered an evening to the guys with the right answers to their questions.
“I like sweet, romantic things,” cooed sexy Gail Sanders of the Service Club. “How are you going to impress me?”
“Southern Charm,” answered one Wolfhound. Another contestant suggested, “poetry and flowers.” The Wolfhound even tried to impress Gail with an imitation of Jerry Lewis, which put the audience in stitches. But it was to no avail; Gail chose Specialist 4 William McGown of DIVARTY HHB, from Dallas, Tex., who sang a line of a Dean Martin song.
Donut Dolly Vivian Hayes gave herself to the Golden Dragon who offered a reading of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Specialist 4 Curtis Cooper, C Company, 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry, was very happy about the whole thing.
Specialist 4 Tom Burgess from Spokane, Wash., of the 65th Engineers, who won leggy Terry Tucker of the service club, said that more than the complementary supper at the Chinese restaurant, he was looking forward to being with a real round-eyed girl.
Donut Dolly Peggy Lynd said she was scared to death from the guys eyeing her as she walked down the aisle to the stage all dolled up. “I would have felt safer in my uniform.” Her date was Specialist 4 Richard Cofe, D Company, 588th Engineers, from Montreal Canada.
More than 200 men turned out to watch or take part in the game; there were plenty of laughs as the guys and girls on stage tank turns getting embarrassed. First Lieutenant Hugh Wilson was the master of ceremonies.