Snatch! (Part two)
It was just about 0100 hours as we sat down and was watching the valley below, one of the PARU came over to me and pointed towards the north end of the valley. There were lights coming down the valley floor. Lots of lights...moving north to south. Once they got about ninety degrees to our position I could hear truck engines. This was a large group of enemy personnel moving south towards South Vietnam. This caravan went on for the rest of the night and into the early morning. We were just coming out of the rainy season and usually the NVA and PL did not move much at night during it. I had one of the PARU count the trucks and another one count individual lights that appeared to be in the hands of individual soldiers. Just about daylight, the last of the lights passed our position and disappeared to the south. I then sent a coded message to Vientiane with the numbers we had collected.
I had made a radio check with Akkrat about 0300 hours and then right after I sent the message to Vientiane, I contacted Akkrat again to make sure he was okay. He said he had started the clearing operation and hoped to have it done by noon the next day. He had put out scouts and they had seen no enemy movement on their side of the mountain or in the valley below them. That was a good sign as far as I was concerned.
Most of the day was spent in our "hide", but one of the PARU went on on scouting missions about every two hours or so to make sure no one was trying to sneak up on us. All-in-all, it was a pretty quiet day. The only thing that I had heard from team Falcon was the double squelch break that let us know they were okay. Breaking squelch means that they keyed up the mike for one second, unkeyed it for two seconds, and then rekeyed it a second time. I would, in turn, acknowledge them with a double squelch break letting them know I got the status check. The SF guys only used voice communications via radio when they were in trouble and needed assistance. I am sure they were in contact with Vientiane with voice communications even if they didn't contact me.
There was some movement on the trail during the day, but nothing like we witnessed the previous night. We seemed to have a good vantage point and a good hide so we stayed put for the next night. Again, as on the previous night a lot of movement in the valley below. We again witnessed a lot of trucks and personnel moving down the trail. Again I passed on this information to Vientiane.
On the third day, we heard from Falcon who made a voice transmission. This was sort of unusual as they normally didn't make contact with us until they were on their way to us. They stated that they were "on target" meaning that they had their person in sight and were ready to make the snatch. Not much happened again that day and we were relaxed about the situation, but still very alert to what might be coming our way unannounced. But it still bothered me to some extent that Falcon effectively broke protocol and made a voice transmission.
Late that third night all hell broke lose in the valley below. There were several big explosions and we could see that something big had blown up. The place where all this was taking place was really on fire.....a really big fire. Although it was distant, we could hear small arms fire and secondary small explosions. The valley and surrounding mountains carried the sound up to us. The radio came to life and Falcon told me they were on their way to us. Falcon said they were about 12 to 18 hours from our position....if we were where we were supposed to be. It was a little after 0300 hours. I rogered the transmission and now it was just a waiting game. I notified Vientiane of the situation and they replied to keep them advised as to the progress of Falcon. With all the road traffic in the valley below, I wondered how Falcon was going to get to us, but I was sure Peterson had a plan. And I am sure he had a backup plan and backup plan to the backup plan. Peterson didn't leave much to chance. He often quoted Gen. George Patton when Patton said something to the effect that you " always need a backup plan because the first plan never works anyway."
Just as it got light enough to see, what I saw caused a real pucker factor to take place. There were all kinds of NVA troops below us in the valley, maybe a battalion. They were moving in daylight and moving north to south down the valley and they were in a hurry. Normally, I would have called in an airstrike of T-28's, but I wasn't able to do that because Falcon was operating somewhere close by. I could only surmise that this had something to do with Falcon. By about noon, the traffic had subsided substantially, but there were still groups of enemy troops moving down the valley. I was watching one group which stopped and then broke off from those moving south. This group of twenty or so broke off from the main body and turned toward the west up towards a draw just to our south. I knew I had to contact Falcon. This group meant to cut them off. I don't think they knew we were on the mountain, but I think they thought Falcon would come that way. I called Falcon and just made a simple statement. "Enemy in small valley between you and us. Maybe twenty or thirty troops." I got his "double squelch break" and knew he had heard me. A little more than a hour later a firefight broke out in the ravine to our south. I heard small arms fire and some grenades go off, and probably a couple of claymore mines. Finally, Falcon called us and said they were on the slope with the enemy in close pursuit. The radio operator said that we would need to provide covering fire once they got over the first ridge. I told my three indigs they needed to set up to provide covering fire after Falcon crossed the ridge. They would be under us but the NVA soldiers would be exposed as they came over the ridge. The range was about 400 yards. The AK's would be of little help at that range and hitting something was problematical. However, I had brought my FLN and it was effective out to 600 yards, maybe more under ideal conditions. A short while later I watched through the binoculars as Falcon crossed the ridge. I put the barrel of my FLN on a rock and tried to remain as steady as I could. It took about 15 minutes for the NVA to reach the ridge. As the first one reached to top of the ridge, I fired one round. From experience, I knew that I would have to aim about 15" above the target to hit it. At 600 yards I would have had to aim 72 inches above the target to hit it. Good thing the range was about 400 yards. It was like slow motion. It seemed forever but I know it wasn't a second and the bullet hit it's target. The NVA soldier toppled over. A second came over the ridge and he met the same fate. It would have been nice to have had a telescopic sight, but my FLN didn't come with one. To this day I don't think they knew another team was on the mountain. When several others crossed the ridge I was able to knock down two more but seven or eight passed quickly beyond my view. I now think the enemy troops thought it was Falcon doing the shooting because they never once looked our way.
I contacted Vientieane and told them of the situation. They asked for my ETA at the LS. I figured it would be at least another hour before Falcon got to us. Then it was a hard eight to twelve hours to the LS. And, I didn't know what kind of shape Falcon was going to be in when they got to us. I informed Vietieane that 0400 the next day would be my guess. They told me they would schedule extraction for 0700 hours. I contacted Akkrat and told him of the situation on our side of the mountain and when I expected to arrive at his location. The firefight below us had subsided some with only intermittent firing going on. Akkrat told me that the clearing operation was complete, but one of his scouts had sighted enemy troops on the south side of their location. He did not know if they knew he was there or not, but he was planning as if they did. I had not heard any additonal weapons being fired for some minutes and I wondered what Falcon was doing. I didn't have long to wait. I heard two claymores go off and then a grenade and some small arms fire just below us. Over the radio I heard Falcon say that they would be in view in five minutes and not to shoot in their direction until they got to us.
As Falcon came into view I counted eleven persons. There was Peterson and the two SF guys, seven Indigs, and one Caucasian with about ten days growth of beard. Two Indig SF guys were missing. Two of the Indigs that made it to us were wounded. One of the SF guys was also bleeding from two wounds. But before I had time to ask any questions all hell broke loose. Bullets started flying around like bees from a disturbed hive. One of my Thais took a round in the leg. I told Peterson to get his team moving up the trail and I would follow behind. He had his Indigs set some claymore mines around where we were as he pulled out. They set the fuses for two minutes. Fortunately we were on high ground with some rocks providing cover. It was easier for us to fire down on the enemy soldiers than it was for them to fire up at us without them breaking cover. We threw a couple of grenades down on the guys firing at us, and then followed Team Falcon up the trail. A minute or so after we cleared the area we heard the claymores go off. I could only hope it took out some of the enemy in pursuit of us. I told my team to stop and let me make contact with Akkrat. I was able to do so and told him that Falcon was on their way to him and that he might need to lend them some assistance. I listened to see if I could hear the enemy behind us but I didn't hear any movement. It could be that the claymores killed some of them or that it scared them enough to slow them down. We moved as quickly as we could so that we could catch up to the SF team in front of us. We were making our way around the south side of the mountain when I heard gunfire in front of us. It now appeared that the enemy troops I saw go up the draw earlier had made it up the mountain and had run into Peterson's team.
We made our way towards the gunfire but it took about five minutes to get to where the action was taking place. We saw the enemy soldiers before they saw us and and being that we were above them, we had an advantage. We unloaded on them from about 50 to 100 yards from them. Between the four of us some 100 rounds went down on them and all but one was killed or wounded and that one made a fast retreat from us. We caught up to Peterson and in the ambush he had been wounded although at the time, I didn't think it was serious. One more of his Indigs had gone down with a round to the head. He was obviously deceased. We all once again got moving toward the LS. It took us six hours to move to the LS and we didn't encounter any more enemy troops in our trek. By now it was about 0430 in the morning. Boy was I glad to see Akkrat. It was dark and hard to see, but the LS looked pretty good to me. Peterson called everyone together and told them we needed to set up a defensive perimeter for he was sure we were soon to have some more company. He laid out his plan and then sent two of his Indigs back down the trail to set some claymores. He determined that we would have a hard time defending the ground to the north, so he sent another couple of his people and they set claymores along that perimeter as well. He scattered his men around the LS and Akkrat put his men to the south end of the LS. I was to stay with Peterson so he had immediate radio contact with Vientiane. Everything was very quiet. That was never a good sign. Not a bird or animal was making any kind of sound. And so the wait for extraction began. Peterson sat down next to me but said nothing. If things were bad previously, it was about to get a whole lot worse.
(To Be Continued)
There was some movement on the trail during the day, but nothing like we witnessed the previous night. We seemed to have a good vantage point and a good hide so we stayed put for the next night. Again, as on the previous night a lot of movement in the valley below. We again witnessed a lot of trucks and personnel moving down the trail. Again I passed on this information to Vientiane.
On the third day, we heard from Falcon who made a voice transmission. This was sort of unusual as they normally didn't make contact with us until they were on their way to us. They stated that they were "on target" meaning that they had their person in sight and were ready to make the snatch. Not much happened again that day and we were relaxed about the situation, but still very alert to what might be coming our way unannounced. But it still bothered me to some extent that Falcon effectively broke protocol and made a voice transmission.
Late that third night all hell broke lose in the valley below. There were several big explosions and we could see that something big had blown up. The place where all this was taking place was really on fire.....a really big fire. Although it was distant, we could hear small arms fire and secondary small explosions. The valley and surrounding mountains carried the sound up to us. The radio came to life and Falcon told me they were on their way to us. Falcon said they were about 12 to 18 hours from our position....if we were where we were supposed to be. It was a little after 0300 hours. I rogered the transmission and now it was just a waiting game. I notified Vientiane of the situation and they replied to keep them advised as to the progress of Falcon. With all the road traffic in the valley below, I wondered how Falcon was going to get to us, but I was sure Peterson had a plan. And I am sure he had a backup plan and backup plan to the backup plan. Peterson didn't leave much to chance. He often quoted Gen. George Patton when Patton said something to the effect that you " always need a backup plan because the first plan never works anyway."
Just as it got light enough to see, what I saw caused a real pucker factor to take place. There were all kinds of NVA troops below us in the valley, maybe a battalion. They were moving in daylight and moving north to south down the valley and they were in a hurry. Normally, I would have called in an airstrike of T-28's, but I wasn't able to do that because Falcon was operating somewhere close by. I could only surmise that this had something to do with Falcon. By about noon, the traffic had subsided substantially, but there were still groups of enemy troops moving down the valley. I was watching one group which stopped and then broke off from those moving south. This group of twenty or so broke off from the main body and turned toward the west up towards a draw just to our south. I knew I had to contact Falcon. This group meant to cut them off. I don't think they knew we were on the mountain, but I think they thought Falcon would come that way. I called Falcon and just made a simple statement. "Enemy in small valley between you and us. Maybe twenty or thirty troops." I got his "double squelch break" and knew he had heard me. A little more than a hour later a firefight broke out in the ravine to our south. I heard small arms fire and some grenades go off, and probably a couple of claymore mines. Finally, Falcon called us and said they were on the slope with the enemy in close pursuit. The radio operator said that we would need to provide covering fire once they got over the first ridge. I told my three indigs they needed to set up to provide covering fire after Falcon crossed the ridge. They would be under us but the NVA soldiers would be exposed as they came over the ridge. The range was about 400 yards. The AK's would be of little help at that range and hitting something was problematical. However, I had brought my FLN and it was effective out to 600 yards, maybe more under ideal conditions. A short while later I watched through the binoculars as Falcon crossed the ridge. I put the barrel of my FLN on a rock and tried to remain as steady as I could. It took about 15 minutes for the NVA to reach the ridge. As the first one reached to top of the ridge, I fired one round. From experience, I knew that I would have to aim about 15" above the target to hit it. At 600 yards I would have had to aim 72 inches above the target to hit it. Good thing the range was about 400 yards. It was like slow motion. It seemed forever but I know it wasn't a second and the bullet hit it's target. The NVA soldier toppled over. A second came over the ridge and he met the same fate. It would have been nice to have had a telescopic sight, but my FLN didn't come with one. To this day I don't think they knew another team was on the mountain. When several others crossed the ridge I was able to knock down two more but seven or eight passed quickly beyond my view. I now think the enemy troops thought it was Falcon doing the shooting because they never once looked our way.
I contacted Vientieane and told them of the situation. They asked for my ETA at the LS. I figured it would be at least another hour before Falcon got to us. Then it was a hard eight to twelve hours to the LS. And, I didn't know what kind of shape Falcon was going to be in when they got to us. I informed Vietieane that 0400 the next day would be my guess. They told me they would schedule extraction for 0700 hours. I contacted Akkrat and told him of the situation on our side of the mountain and when I expected to arrive at his location. The firefight below us had subsided some with only intermittent firing going on. Akkrat told me that the clearing operation was complete, but one of his scouts had sighted enemy troops on the south side of their location. He did not know if they knew he was there or not, but he was planning as if they did. I had not heard any additonal weapons being fired for some minutes and I wondered what Falcon was doing. I didn't have long to wait. I heard two claymores go off and then a grenade and some small arms fire just below us. Over the radio I heard Falcon say that they would be in view in five minutes and not to shoot in their direction until they got to us.
As Falcon came into view I counted eleven persons. There was Peterson and the two SF guys, seven Indigs, and one Caucasian with about ten days growth of beard. Two Indig SF guys were missing. Two of the Indigs that made it to us were wounded. One of the SF guys was also bleeding from two wounds. But before I had time to ask any questions all hell broke loose. Bullets started flying around like bees from a disturbed hive. One of my Thais took a round in the leg. I told Peterson to get his team moving up the trail and I would follow behind. He had his Indigs set some claymore mines around where we were as he pulled out. They set the fuses for two minutes. Fortunately we were on high ground with some rocks providing cover. It was easier for us to fire down on the enemy soldiers than it was for them to fire up at us without them breaking cover. We threw a couple of grenades down on the guys firing at us, and then followed Team Falcon up the trail. A minute or so after we cleared the area we heard the claymores go off. I could only hope it took out some of the enemy in pursuit of us. I told my team to stop and let me make contact with Akkrat. I was able to do so and told him that Falcon was on their way to him and that he might need to lend them some assistance. I listened to see if I could hear the enemy behind us but I didn't hear any movement. It could be that the claymores killed some of them or that it scared them enough to slow them down. We moved as quickly as we could so that we could catch up to the SF team in front of us. We were making our way around the south side of the mountain when I heard gunfire in front of us. It now appeared that the enemy troops I saw go up the draw earlier had made it up the mountain and had run into Peterson's team.
We made our way towards the gunfire but it took about five minutes to get to where the action was taking place. We saw the enemy soldiers before they saw us and and being that we were above them, we had an advantage. We unloaded on them from about 50 to 100 yards from them. Between the four of us some 100 rounds went down on them and all but one was killed or wounded and that one made a fast retreat from us. We caught up to Peterson and in the ambush he had been wounded although at the time, I didn't think it was serious. One more of his Indigs had gone down with a round to the head. He was obviously deceased. We all once again got moving toward the LS. It took us six hours to move to the LS and we didn't encounter any more enemy troops in our trek. By now it was about 0430 in the morning. Boy was I glad to see Akkrat. It was dark and hard to see, but the LS looked pretty good to me. Peterson called everyone together and told them we needed to set up a defensive perimeter for he was sure we were soon to have some more company. He laid out his plan and then sent two of his Indigs back down the trail to set some claymores. He determined that we would have a hard time defending the ground to the north, so he sent another couple of his people and they set claymores along that perimeter as well. He scattered his men around the LS and Akkrat put his men to the south end of the LS. I was to stay with Peterson so he had immediate radio contact with Vientiane. Everything was very quiet. That was never a good sign. Not a bird or animal was making any kind of sound. And so the wait for extraction began. Peterson sat down next to me but said nothing. If things were bad previously, it was about to get a whole lot worse.
(To Be Continued)
