13th Valley (24 page)

To Chelini the strip looked like an eighth-mile mini-dragway; to Jackson like an oasis above the ground mist cloaking the surrounding rice swamps; to Minh like an immense multi-legged dragon with eighty-four sucklings squeezing and squirming in the gullies of its legs. The monsoons of last winter had eroded the sides of the strip and gullies had cut deep into it and had grown to sharp V-shaped ravines. The dry season sun had baked the ocher clay and red stone gravel into one solid narrow mesa. The strip had been grated and rolled flat but the lesions had been allowed to remain for they served as trenches.

In the darkness of the pre-dawn a second wave of CH-47 Chinook helicopters approached the staging area. Nothing at first, only a feeling of their nearness. Then powerful headlight beams visible high over the South China Sea, then a slight vibration in the air, then the harsh slapping of rotor blades spanking the sky. Men unable to shut their eyes, to keep them shut, to keep from watching the approaching helicopters, to keep from feeling time's slow forward pacing.

On the strip a strobe light flashed, an RTO spoke directions into the handset of his radio, moving in the flashes like a character in an ancient film flickering. The dark silhouettes of the birds grew in the sky, the noise became larger enveloping the strip in quick pulsations, shattering the air. Chelini watched fascinated, as pathfinders guided the birds in with long red-dipped flashlights. The strobe went out, the helicopters descended, hovered, descended. In the blackness of the trenches men hid behind their rucksacks and pulled their shirts up tight around their necks. Some men covered their heads with olive drab towels. Cherry watched naively. The rotor wash from the big birds sent dust then sand and stones hurling from the landing strip into the trenches. The birds set down, tails opened releasing more infantry troops, more boonierats scurried to the protection of the trenches. The helicopters lifted and blasting sand lashed the ravines again.

“Okay, People,” someone yelled. “Down here. Charlie ‘Company down here. Don't go mixin up with Alpha.”

Again it was quiet. The men in the first ravine rolled back, shook the sand from their hair, dug the sand from their scalps and from under their shirts, rolled back onto the hard gravel, exhaled the smell of jet exhaust, lay and attempted to rest. Cherry spat dirt from his mouth and tried to clear his eyes and ears of the sand. Now one hundred fifty-two infantrymen waited, rested, waited restless.

The sky grayed. At the helicopter pad on the ridge above the battalion base at Camp Eagle a Huey helicopter arrived and touched down. Supply personnel, hunching beneath the rotors, carried armloads of OD green equipment to the bird and stacked it on the steel floor. An operations officer and a supply NCO boarded and the Huey lifted. Two companies of the 7th Battalion, 402d Infantry had already rucked up, boarded the large CH-47s and had flown to LZ Sally. At 0605 hours, first light, the third wave of Chinooks departed Camp Eagle for the twenty-eight kilometer flight to the combat assault staging area.

The staging area for the combat assault was on the western edge of LZ Sally, a tiny outpost situated between the sprawling headquarters and base camp of the 101st at Eagle and the division's 3d Brigade base at Camp Evans. From the staging area the third flight of CH-47s looked like a line of awkward sea gulls. They approached from a point over the Tonkin Gulf where land, water and sky merged to a long thin green-blue-gray line. Again the Chinooks became larger, distinct in the graying sky. Again the air broke with the deep slapping noise from the blades.

“Oh God,” Cherry muttered to himself. “Here they come again.” He rolled on his side, his rucksack between him and the landing helicopters and he watched the monstrous OD bellies drop slowly, watched the sixty foot rotors blur until the wind and dust became so violent he had to close his eyes tight and wrap his arms about his head and bring his knees to his chest to keep the wind from penetrating.

Three companies ordered themselves in the ravines. Two more companies, three scout dog teams and three sniper teams were scheduled to arrive by 0800. At 0817 the combat assault to the Khe Ta Laou River valley would begin.

On 15 May 1970 the 7th Battalion, 402d Infantry was reorganized under Department of the Army TO&E 7-35F. Headquarters and Headquarters Company was organized under TO&E 7-36F and the rifle companies under TO&E 7-37F. A few months later Companies D and E were added. Company E was a weapons support element with 81mm mortars and 90mm recoilless rifles. A reconnaissance platoon that was designed to work as a highly mobile rifle platoon or in six-man recon teams under direct control of the battalion commander was attached to Company E.

Officially an airmobile infantry battalion organized under these TO&Es at full strength had the capability to: close with the enemy by means of fire and maneuver in order to destroy or capture him; repel enemy assaults by fire, close combat and counterattack; seize and hold terrain; conduct independent operations on a limited scale; maneuver in all types of terrain and climatic conditions; and to make frequent airborne assaults.

At full strength the rifle companies fielded 121 men plus six attached personnel. A company consisted of three platoons and a command post. Each platoon had three 12-man squads and a platoon CP. A squad consisted of seven riflemen, a thumper man (M-79 grenade launcher), an M-60 ma-chine gunner and an assistant gunner (the AG carried an M-16), an RTO (carried an M-16) and the squad leader.

Platoon CPs consisted of the platoon leader (usually a 1st lieutenant), a platoon sergeant, a medic (attached) and an RTO. The company CP was headed by the company commander and had three RTOs. Attached to the main CP were the company medic, an artillery forward observer (usually a lieutenant) and a Kit Carson Scout, a Vietnamese interpreter-scout-liaison.

On 13 August Company A was at 68% strength. This was typical of the entire battalion. Bravo Company was at 70% strength, Charlie at 59%, Delta 66%, and the Recon Platoon of Echo at 74%. HHC stationed at Eagle was at 81% strength.

A military unit tends to have a character of its own, an identity comprised of its history and traditions and of the personality of its commander. A squad becomes an extension of the squad leader, a platoon a compromise of the platoon leader and platoon sergeant; and the company, the body of the captain or lieutenant who leads it. Battalion tends to be the last level where the brunt of a commander's whims, likes and dislikes are felt by the individual soldier; yet even at brigade level the colonel marks the collective personality of the units below and again at division and corps and army. At the beginning of August 1970 there were 403,900 US military personnel in Vietnam: 293,600 Army, 22,600 Navy, 48,200 Air Force, 39,300 Marines and 200 Coast Guard; all deriving a multifaceted American personality from the leadership of MACV in Saigon and from the Pentagon and Joint Chiefs and on up to the President, Commander in Chief of all US military forces.

The division personality of the 101st was hard-ass spartan, perhaps the most spartan of all army units in Vietnam. The division ethos was purposefully directed and developed from the style, zeal and
esprit de corps
of the airborne of World War II. Tradition, heritage, rugged, tough and
Airborne All The Way
; that was the 101st Airborne. The 101st had stormed through Europe at Eagle's Nest and Berchesgadten and Zon, had endured the Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne with General Anthony C. McAuliffe's famous ‘Nuts' reply to German demands for surrender, had jumped into Normandy on D-Day. In Vietnam the firebases were named after World War II locales and slogans: Veghel, Bastogne, Eagle's Nest, Ripcord, Airborne, Checkmate, Rendezvous and Destiny.

In 1969 the division became Airmobile and by 1970 most of the troops no longer were hardcore jump-qualified paratroopers. However, most of the senior officers, the leaders, were.

Lieutenant Colonel Oliver Henderson, the GreenMan, ran the 7th of the 402d. He was a strong commander. The stronger a commander the more he affects the men he commands. Henderson ran the 7/402 with stern exacting leadership. He allowed himself few luxuries and he allowed his troops none. Henderson seemed to be unaware of American troop withdrawals and the winding down of the war. He was busy fighting. His ‘SKYHAWKS' battalion was a proud fighting unit.

Each infantry unit had a particular spirit of independence. This too was planned. Each company, each platoon, each squad and each man was independent and responsible for himself or itself, first and then responsible up the chain of command, link by link. The infantryman, infantry unit, ultimately, like no other military entity, operates alone. Some commanders expected their soldiers to execute orders like automatons but this, especially after the expose of My Lai, was neither the official nor the most prevalent style and it was not the GreenMan's style. Soldiers were expected to follow orders but they were also expected to know the rules of the host country and of international warfare. If a superior did not follow the rules a soldier was expected to protest. More often soldiers were expected to interpret their own situation to determine the optimum course to accomplish the military objective. As an outgrowth of My Lai, no longer was an American soldier able to excuse barbaric actions by saying, “Sir, I was only following orders.” The GreenMan strongly emphasized that each individual was part of his own leadership and he was responsible for his actions.

The following chart outlines the organization and personnel of Alpha Companny, 7th Battalion of the 402d Infantry (Airmobile) on the morning of 13 August 1970. Symbols: