SGT Joe Sleevi
LZ Bridget
I started my tour with A 2/9th in December 1968 on LZ Bridget. The BC at the
time, Capt John Williams, asked all the guys with a Commo MOS if they wanted to
go out in the field. I volunteered and I think Sgt Winnow did near the
same time. I spent a lot of time in the FDC those first few months. It was
such an education for me, and Bridget was a slow FireBase. My first FO was
Lt (Gilbert) Atha, and to be sure, he taught me a lot.
The
Chu Pa Campaign
The
four FO's for the CHU PA campaign were Lt (Gilbert) Atha, Lt (Hermie) Rucker, Lt
(Richard) Baumgartner, and one who was missed, and was very well
respected...His name is Lt Pierce(Pearce). He was there for all of 1969 up
to at least August 1969. I went to the rear and Cam Ranh Bay with him. He
insisted that I stay in the Officers Quarters with him and have a few at the
Officers Club. I asked him why he was going to Australia instead of Hong Kong,
and he said "Because I am an Officer and a gentleman". He
asked why Hong Kong for me and I said "Because I am not an officer and a
gentleman.". Lt Pierce was a very good FO. When asked by the FDC on LZ Tommie during the Chu Pa fighting, "Was
that last round still 'Danger Close' ??" Lt Pierce responded, "I don't know exactly how close it was, but my air mattress is 50 feet in the
air."
LZ
Round Bottom: My first experience with an FO Party
In hindsight, we never really knew what a firebase had in store for any of us
artillery and infantry guys. We were on the very bottom of the pecking order,
and I believe if we could just do our job, any firebase in Vietnam would be just
as good as the next one. My best guess has always been that both of these combat
fighting elements really wanted one big thing though.
We learned the hard way, and we
learned it fast, that we needed "clear
fields of fire".
For the artillery, it just seemed like common sense;
for the Infantry, no matter where
they were inserted and told to dig in, they were expected to "make
do".
LZ
Round Bottom just never made the grade. It was not at all a decent size, and
that means we were building the perimeter bunkers in drop-offs of the terrain of
the hill. It was the only place I have been on that the old axiom "spread
out, one round could get us all" rang true. All the 1st of the 14th Units
were off of the Chu Pa, and after a short time on Mary Lou, B 1st14th ended up
with the A 2/9th on LZ Round Bottom, my first week as a Recon Sgt.
Looking back, the probe of Round Bottom began on the night of the 23rd
February. Not much overhead cover was available for anyone except for the grunt
bunkers which were really no more than machine gun firing positions. I was
sleeping in a huge hole which was dug to hold the FDC of the 105's. Any other
gun pits there were a mess I am sure. Near
midnight, the NVA let loose with a quick barrage of 60MM mortars.
Those rounds landed outside the wire,
but someone was sure they were on target because the NVA hung all the rounds
without any interruption. I watched the show from very near the FDC CONEX,
and that was the only contact that night.
I
knew the 2/9th was moving out the next day, and I was not going with them. My FO
was what we would later call "hardcore".
So were all the "B"
Company officers; I thought there was nothing more to worry about. The 2/9th was
lifted out, and it just seemed to be a mess....dirt, sandbags, tree limbs, all
flying thru the air for the whole day.
Later that day, two dozen more rounds
of 60mm came
in and then it was just "B"
Company left to move. It was now the third day of this crap, and the "slicks"
were lined up to come in and pick up the first two platoons:,
Tailgunner and Bomber.
I can still see that "one-legged
chicken"
mascot, pride of one of the platoons, hopping along some overhead cover. That
left the
Navigator and Loadmaster,
the mortar platoon, left on Round
Bottom. The FO party was going to leave with the choppers after "Loadmaster"
was lifted off. We had already moved lots of their ammo. The first two platoons
went off without a hitch,
and I know we were starting to relax a bit. The last bit of overhead cover was a
small bunker for the mortar ammo and some of
the M60 firing positions. Everything else was just a hole and some sandbags.
It
always seemed like slow-motion the next few minutes.
This time around the NVA were using
deadly accuracy with those 60mm mortars.
Our little firebase lit up with the
first half dozen rounds:
two rounds to the M60 position, two
near the mortar crew, and two just in front of the FO Party.
Then the whole firebase was lit up
with those mortars.
The FO
Lieutenant
and I were separated, but I ended up with the radio. The concussion blew over us,
but stunned some grunts and me at the same time.
I could hear the other rounds being "hung"
and got ready for round two.
A grunt medic came to us and said no
one was
visibly hit, but for sure shocked us
from those rounds.
We were lucky to land in a 105mm
powder pit.
Loadmaster
(mortar
platoon) asked for a direction and
range, and then let go with the last of their HE rounds.
He then said, "What next?"
and I just said shoot whatever you have left, but have the grunts shoot into the
tops of the trees.
It was great
to see that they were so accurate
shooting at
the 60mm bad guys. I learned from the FDC days and other FO's to suspect they
had their own spotter tied up to a high
tree.
I
don't know why the 105's on LZ
Brillo Pad didn't come up.
I always assumed it was just because
they were shooting another fire mission and didn't know how bad this last
platoon and the mortars were getting hit. Captain Williams got on the horn and
asked about our situation, and I said fine except that rat-hole of a fire base
was shot to shit from those mortars.
I don't know how many rounds landed,
maybe two dozen, but we had a short lull.
The Listening Posts (LPs) came in,
and we regrouped.
The mortar guys,
I am,
sure got a kick out of me not wanting to let the gooks know we were out of ammo.
They did shoot almost all they had
except for a few illumination rounds.
From
out of nowhere, this very officious voice says to me on the Redleg tactical channel,
"Club 59er, this is Bird-dog
such and such, can
we offer you some assistance?" If there was ever a time in my tour that I
was really surprised, this was it.
I asked him what he could deliver,
and how soon.
That spotter came back and said we
are in the area now;
it will be very big and very fast.
I quickly gave him a direction, and
just asked him to drop it in the flat area of the ravine to our north.
Then, two minutes later, he says keep
your
head down.
Then, there were two big explosions
in the draw....right on target !!! What a feeling of relief.
The birddog left the area, and I
couldn't thank him enough. There wasn't
any reason now to leave the Firebase
with us on it.
The choppers came in for the wounded,
the rest got bandaged and stayed in place,
and we then left for I believe LZ Alamo and split up with the mortars, and the
rest of "B"
Company.
In
hindsight again, I knew those 60mm mortars were a real nuisance to a fully built
out firebase.
But I now had new respect for them
with what they could to a place with
no overhead cover, and an area half the size of a football field.
We were all lifted off with no other trouble.
The FO and I never spoke about it
again. After what he'd been thru on the Chu Pa, this must have been just "one
more day in the Nam."
Three
days of hard work by "B"
Company 1st/14th and "A"
Battery 2/9th Artillery are condensed into two short pages
here. I am sure I have left something
out of this excursion on LZ Round Bottom.
It was a lesson for me my first few
days out.
"On any given day, and on any
given ground, the NVA/VC can challenge you at any time they choose." It
took nearly 50 mortar rounds, placed right down our throats,
to teach us that lesson.
The
Recon Platoon, who were the "stay
behind"
force, later told us that they found
a hard line from the tree line to a place down in the valley that
were the firing positions for the
NVA.
Maybe it
was just dumb luck for us that we got
off that place with less wounded.
Maybe just dumb luck that Bravo
1st14th had some help from "wingman" for a day!!!!
First week in the FO Party, first 60mm mortars, first air support, first 'solo' adjusting our mortars, first 'dry-mouth' fear response...... This episode doesn't compare to other 'first's', but it has never left me.
OJT:
Learning FDC Procedures From Scratch
My
only understanding of Vietnam was the quiet initiation on LZ Bridget...Time
seemed to just stand still and wait for us to do something. I spent all my
energy learning about the operation of the FDC...I met many of the
'gun-bunnies', but the FDC was a slightly different group.
The
days were always a fairly strict routine...starting with the MET REPORT at 0530
in the morning, checking the generators at first light, checking the batteries
that ran those AN/ 46 radios, and going to the mess tent for first coffee. The
Mess Sgt never minded serving the FDC late breakfast and many times brought us a
late sandwich during a long fire mission.
We
worked fairly narrow shifts, and the job that really got to me the most was
checking and starting the generators at midnight. I used to dream up all kinds
of ghosts and bad guys being able to see me turn on the flashlight near the
generator bunker and then getting my ass shot off. I was scared to death that
the generator wouldn't start on the first pull... I got so good at it in the
dark, that I could wrap the starter cord and pull the generator in pitch dark
most of the time. If our 12 volt lights in the CONEX
would start to dim early, then we knew someone was bootlegging a line from our
generator to a portable tape player somewhere. The bootleg line were mostly to
an Infantry bunker somewhere.
Most
of us in the FDC were always awake for a "contact
fire
mission"
there was just too much to learn, and too much at stake. The CONEX
was small...room for a main chart, and a check chart, a place for FADAC, one guy
on the "sticks",
and standing room only for the Battery Commander, and the doorway kneeling for
observers. If we were observing, we seldom spoke, and only ran errands. When we
were on the charts, the talk was usually very crisp and no vague comments.
I
spent most of my time learning and re-learning radio procedure, maps, charts and
check charts, range and deflection. I learned mills and azimuth, degrees and
direction. Did we have "Scorpions",
"Ladies",
"Tigers"
all over Vietnam...I never knew, I thought it was just us 2/9th units. Not many
people reference them in their definitions of code words for Vietnam era
artillery.
The LRRP's really taught me the meaning of accuracy....they didn't exactly give
us always a perfect location for their team, and they adjusted the rounds in
smaller increments. Many times they used a "right 25 and drop 25",
which really stressed the Mylar charts. They didn't shoot many illumination
rounds, and were often unable to see exactly where 1st round smoke would land.
They only heard the smoke explode
and then report on where they thought they were. These experiences would be
invaluable to me later in my own fire
missions. LRRP's moved the 105 round
slowly and spoke so softly, and were at such a distance, that you could barely
hear them most of the time. The FDC seemed to always have the job of helping
them adjust a little more carefully than with most infantry company FO's. That
means it was always, always tense when you heard "Repeat
HE"
and "Shot
over"
and then "Splash
over"
and the tension was gripping when they responded "Splash
out"....You
could have heard a pin drop in the FDC while those few seconds were ticking off
...everyone just wanted a good outcome on the other end of the line....Once that
first HE was on the ground, we all could start breathing again....It seemed like
in those early months, it was always like this for contact fire missions.
Just like it would be later for me when all the Viet-Cong and NVA
ambushes always seemed to start with the 'crack-crack-crack' of the first
AK-47's, and then a second AK, and then the return fire of our "point
man" with a full burst of his
M-16, and you only could start breathing when an M-79 started shooting, followed
by an M-60 for a couple hundred rounds or so...
We
were in the CONEX
for so long we lost track of the rest of the Firebase sometimes. We did not see
the chow lines, the trips to the dump, and all the business at the infantry
portion of the firebase. Sometimes
we only knew who was Palace
Guard by the FO party that just came
into the firebase for their week or so. The CONEX
was only quiet from midnight until 0500
or so when the rest of the world got up...We played cards during the quiet
times, Euchre, Hearts, and Spades...More often Euchre because it could be played
with three people...
Working
With The FO PARTY
Each
FO Party had its
own style of adjusting artillery. I learned to let all the FO Teams
make jokes on their end of the horn. I was too new to talk or joke much, it
was mostly to just collect information, relay information and clarify
information. I spent a lot of time noticing how each infantry company set out
the SRP's for the night. We all knew if a SRP was in trouble, there was no
telling what level of experience was going to be asked to adjust rounds in a
fire mission. I learned that you didn't always need to have an FO tell you how
close the last adjusted round was. You could tell by his pause and voice.
During these first months in country, I learned that an FO team in the field had
to know exactly where each SRP was for the night, they also had to know exactly
how the SRP locations affected
their Defensive Targets for the night laager. I learned about the "gun
target
line",
"high
angle
fire", "danger
close",
and "friendlies
in the area".
There
was always the "little
people",
the "blue
line",
and the "pick
and shovel"
people. And following us all the time was the "big
eye".
I
learned that in a really tough contact fire mission that a "change
of direction"
could cost valuable minutes to getting the next round on the ground. I learned
that shouting over the radio gets
terrible results. And sadly, I learned that sometimes a gun can "shoot
out"
(outside of pattern) and be way off
target. This was my first two months in country. One of the ways I survived in
the field as a Recon Sgt, without an Officer for months at a time, was that
Clint Curry, Bob Burnett, and a "whole
cast of characters"
were back at FDC; and surely they
wouldn't let me screw up would they...???
LZ
Tommie
They
needed some troops from "A" Btry to
go set up LZ Tommie right after they found out that the Chu Pa was so well
defended with NVA Regulars. No one was ever going to tell any of my rank what
was going on, so I just thought it was another Fire Support Base somewhere.
When we got there in early to mid-February
1969, the place was just a hilltop being cleared off by some of the Recon
platoon and I think a few mortar crew.
The first night we arty guys were
broken up into the perimeter bunkers to work shifts with the Infantry units.
My nights were spent with a M-60
machine gun crew and about 15 or so Claymore mines wired to a makeshift daisy
chain to PRC-25 battery.
I
am sure the grunts were worried, because they had enough ammo belted to that
M-60 to shoot for a long time.
All they told me was I was on 6 pm to 8 pm and
from 12 to 2 am.
I didn't sleep a wink and all I did was watch the
treelines.
All
that stress for me and it was just another day in the 'Nam for the Recon guys.
The
next couple days on LZ
Tommie they tried everything to dig out some holes for the
FDC, and make some room for the Battery gun
positions. I personally heard someone say that those Engineers needed to bring
in some 200 lb shape charges. They eventually pulverized the ground, but it was
impossible to keep the bunker walls from crumbling in.
It
took more than a few days, and then I was told we needed a "water
detail"
to go to the bottom of the new LZ we were building and bring back some canteens
and two 5 gallon water cans.
To say it was brutal was an understatement.
How we made it down the mountain and back was a
miracle.
We
would have been sitting ducks for any NVA that were in the area.
Nothing
compared to the fighting getting ready to start, but plenty scary for a "new
guy".
Now
that the Daily Logs are released, I will make an effort to find the exact
location of LZ Tommie, and retrace our water run that day.
Where was LZ Tommie exactly???
The FDC sleeping bunker on LZ Tommie was very
close to the FDC and right near
two gun pits. Whenever any rounds were fired, dirt and crap just rained in on
the sleeping area...Most of the cots were shared and we all had to use mosquito
netting for the dirt and dust, much less for the bugs...I got to see our Battery
Commander a little more often, and we talked about life back home, and
family. One day, after a letter from home, I placed a 'Scapular' on my netting.
Being Catholic, there are many promises for a holder of a Scapular in our
religion. Captain Williams asked me one night what was that thing on my netting,
and I
told him it was an icon
in the Catholic Tradition that "whoever
shall wear this, will not die without the aid of a Priest".
He looked at me again and asked how "good"
this promise was. I told him I believed it, and that was enough for me.
He
glanced back at me and said "hang
one on my netting too."
I asked him why, because I expected him to be of a different faith. He answered,"You've convinced me that the only time I have to be worried on
this crap Firebase about dying is if a priest shows up, and we don't have one
scheduled for long, long time". I
have carried that scapular with me for every day since that time 45 years ago,
and I still carry it with me today. Captain
(John
S.) Williams was in the FDC for every
fire mission of the Chu Pa. When the first FO came back from that mountain, he
brought a 9mm NVA Officer's pistol, almost cut in half from a 2/9th artillery
round. They gave the pistol to Capt Williams, and a few weeks later, the pistol
disappeared. His XO took it back to base camp and had it mounted on a plaque and
engraved. I have never seen a person so surprised, as when they presented it to
him when he left Vietnam.
Meeting Troy Donahue
One
morning, after a long shift, and I knew that "Dragon
6"
was in the area, I just went to sleep.
The main fighting on the Chu Pa was
done, and we were moving some of the wounded thru our firebase. Capt Williams
opened the flap and came half way down the dirt stairway and said,
"Sleevi, get up, someone is here
to see you..." I answered, "nothing
is going to get me out of this cot".
He
then said, "Troy Donahue is here".
I then said,
"If Troy Donahue is here, I will
kiss his...."
and before I could finish, here comes blond headed,
six feet tall, Troy Donahue bouncing
down the stairs to shake my hand and say ..'Hi soldier..'. That was it.
I have
carried that story for a long time.
I
know it seems so strange to think of a Hollywood actor on a forward firebase
like anything in the Chu Pa area. I have been unable to find any accounts of
Donahue's travels in Vietnam in 1969 until this year when I read about him in a
book by
Meredith
Lair, "Armed with Abundance".
It is genuinely a heart-breaking book about a piece of life in Vietnam that I
never knew existed, and no matter, nothing can ever take away one ounce of
respect I have for the soldiers
who fought and died there.