JP4 and Charcoal
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It was time to move again.
We were a Gypsy Brigade; always on the move
– Westy’s Fire Brigade moving from battle to battle – searching and
destroying then moving to the next fire.
We were only three infantry battalions
strong – no two battalions ever in the same place.
We were perpetually under strength. |
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This time
the move was from the area of Tuy Hoa where we hunted the jungle and
littoral of the South China Sea, to the Central Highlands in II Corps
and the Dak To area. |
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Early in the morning of the fifteenth of November,
1967, we packed only essentials into jeeps and trailers and three
quarter ton trucks and headed for the air strip at Tuy Hoa Air Base.
We left personal items and equipment stored
in conex containers guarded by a small contingent of MP’s.
The plan was to engage elements of the First
NVA Division in the Central Highlands, kill as many enemy as we could,
demoralize and scatter the rest of the First NVA Division, then return
to the Tuy Hoa area of operation and rejoin our 1st Battalion, 503rd
Infantry. |
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The plan was a huge airlift operation using C130
Hercules aircraft to carry the Brigade, man and equipment, to An Khe
where our base camp was located in II Corps.
After landing in An Khe we were to regroup,
form a convoy and traverse the Mang Yang Pass and stop on the sixteenth
of November at Camp Enary, headquarters of the 4th Infantry Division,
and spend the night.
The Fourth Infantry Division already had
been engaged in combat with the 66th Regiment of the First NVA Division. |
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We waited hour after hour for sortie after sortie
of C130’s on a huge field of perforated steel plate.
It was called PSP and used as portable
airstrips and runways.
Waiting and waiting for your turn to board
your jeep and trailer on a C130 – listening hour after hour to the high
pitched noise of aircraft engines and smelling the pungent eye burning
JP4 engine exhaust.
There was nothing to do but stand and smoke
and drink beer and listen to the noise, hour after hour.
I will never forget the odor of burned JP4
and I still have problems at airports with the odor of jet fuel exhaust. |
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The move turned out to be a huge failure.
There were not enough C130’s available to
move the entire brigade in an acceptable time frame.
We had elements of our brigade scattered
from Camp Enari to Tuy Hoa for two days.
My plane was the very last to leave Tuy Hoa.
My jeep driver had made arrangements to fly
to an in-country R&R so I volunteered to drive his jeep.
I was not a driver by MOS and in those days
only trained drivers were supposed to drive.
By the time it was my turn to board my jeep
and trailer I was too drunk to drive.
After several attempts at backing the jeep
and trailer up the rear tail ramp; my trailer falling the two or three
feet to the PSP, the pilot, an Air Force Major, backed my jeep on. |
| I slept it off on the short ride to the air strip at An Khe. The passenger in my jeep was a short little chubby captain who was our Liaison Officer. When we landed we were the only vehicle from our brigade on the airstrip. We headed out, both of us still mostly drunk from our day of beer on the airstrip in Tuy Hoa. We had no idea where we were supposed to be to catch the convoy. We took the first dirt road leading away from the airstrip and just drove. |
| I remember passing through villages with the odor of burning charcoal filling my nose. It was dark. There was no moon and little Vietnamese villages did not have street lights. Every once in a while we could glimpse in the light of our headlights an indigenous standing outside his hooch relieving himself. After passing through villages we were on a road uninhabited as far as we could tell. |
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We decided to turn our headlights off to diminish
the possibility of us being a target.
We drove in the dark until I couldn’t stay
awake and then the captain drove.
I woke from a huge jolt that bounced me up
and hit my head on the windshield.
The vehicle stopped, the front end of the
jeep stuck in a hole.
We decided to sleep where we were rather
than trying to extract ourselves from whatever we had gotten into. |
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We slept until dawn, sitting in the jeep.
My eyes opened to see strange stone
memorials scattered around.
It appeared that we had stopped in a grave
yard.
The front end of the jeep had fallen into a shallow
fox hole dug previously by some element engaged in a fire fight.
As we looked around we noticed silhouettes
of jeeps and trucks from our brigade.
Others on late sorties had met the same fate
– we all spent the night in the grave yard – we just had less sleep than
them.
I still get headaches from the odor of burning jet
fuel and charcoal. |
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©Terry
Sutherland 9/29/09 |
Webmaster: Thurman P. Woodfork
