My name is William Kingsford, Sgt 1864071 USMC. I’m currently Platoon Sgt 2nd Platoon Bravo Company tanks. I arrived here 9 Dec 1966, when I first reported into the Company I was assigned Commander of the Retriever M51. She was a problem child; we had a lot of problems with it as far as running. Later on I was assigned to the 1st Platoon and from there things started popping. I was assigned Tank Commander Bravo 14. I had the tank approx. 6 days before I lost it to a mine. We were proceeding to Hill 22 from Hill 41, escorting flame tanks to burn. We were moving along a road approx. 8 miles and hours and there it was a 75 pounder that destroyed the tank completely. I had 3 people hurt. My loader was thrown out of the loader’s hatch, he got his arm messed up. Med-evac was right there. He was flying over the area and it took about 2 mins to land and 3 mins to get all the wounded out. Then came the job of putting the bear back together again and tow it out. We got it back to the Battalion and the hull was warped. We had to survey it. This brought a period of about a month and a half until we could get another tank to replace 14. The size of the mine was approx. 75 lbs. It left a crater approx. 5 feet deep and 7 feet across. It was buried approx. 6 inches from the top of the ground: a box type mine. It was buried on the left hand side of the road. It was a delayed type mine. It hit the rear of the vehicle and it completely blew the rear wheels, 3, 4, 5, and 6 off, support rollers 4 and 5, the air cleaner off, and it sent shrapnel all over the area and it blew dual set of rear wheels approx 150 meters to our left flank.

After waiting approx. a month during that waiting time I was at the Company which had a problem of rabies shots. I was one of the only guys that didn’t have to take rabies shots. So I was sent out with the flame tanks on Operation YUBA down in the Lau Cho 5 area off of Hill 41. There wasn’t much going on except during the night we got mortared. One VC was trying to infiltrate our lines and tried to throw a hand grenade onto the flame tank. They cut him down and on his person they found information: a diary and a tablet and in the diary it was stated that he was from up around Saigon area and he was 17 years old. He came down to join a group of VC’s in the Da Nang area. He didn’t have any weapons; they told him he could grab a weapon after he destroyed a tank, then he would be able to have his own weapon. That was the only way. His plans were to throw a grenade and dive in a river, cross approx. 3 meters away and meet his buddies. Then proceed to where they were going. He didn’t make it. He ran into a patrol and he decided to go for the patrol instead. His grenade was a dud and they killed him.

During the rest of Operation YUBA we took some sniper fire. We were hit coming out of a cane field from the rear. We still don’t know who was shooting at us. The infantry got their fire under control. They weren’t shooting at tanks directly but the rounds were pretty close and were hitting around us and a few rounds found their way to the tanks. As I said, the infantry kind of put the squelch on it. Chuckles didn’t have much doing on that little bit of throw. The rest of the operation was smooth and we found a lot of bunkers, trenches, punji pits, booby traps, and just scattered sniper fire throughout the operation.

Before Operation YUBA we had one operation I was told I would go on. I was told I would be on Bravo 13 so we proceeded to Hill 65 and from there we departed to the area south of this just over the hill on Operation PELANSKI. Here we encountered booby traps, over head barbed wire strung tight through the trees for the purpose of taking the TC’s head off if he wasn’t awake. We ended up cutting most of the wires. Before we cut them we had to check for booby traps. The terrain was real good at that time; it was right after the monsoon season. We had no troubles whatsoever of negotiating the rice paddies. They were a little mushy but we could go all the way through them.

After the 1st Platoon’s commitment with Hill 41 was finished, we came back to Bravo Company CP which at that time was in Die Loc (sp) and 1st Platoon was given a commitment on Hills 60 and 190. We stayed there approx. a month. In that time, 1st Platoon lost one tank, I believe it was one tank - Bravo 15 - mined which was set off by an AmTrac and the tank came up behind the AmTrac and hit it. I believe it was a trick play for getting the 2nd or 3rd vehicle in the column, which is usually the AmTrac. But they had a tank in front, then AmTrac, and then another tank and the tank ran over, then the AmTrac ran over it then the tank ran over it and she hit the mine. It was about a 45 pounder buried about 3 inches from the top of the deck on the left side, left a crater about 3 ft by 4 1/2 ft something around there.

We were on Hills 60 and 190 for about 1 1/2 -2 months, we ran patrols quite often periodically to Hill 100 and areas around Hill 60. 190 wasn’t too much action except when the rice harvesters came across, we didn’t have much to do with it. It was all the infantry and they handled that job pretty good. From Hill 60, we were to report to Die Loc and they split our 5 tanks again: 3 tanks were on route to go on Operation CANYON and 2 of my vehicles Bravo 14 and 15 and one flame tank were to proceed to Mud Flats just right over the hill from Hill 55. We were to wait at the crossroads on Liberty Road and the 2nd Platoon Bravo Company was to come out. During this period they’d lost already 3 tanks going for 4 that night, they hit another mine and after 4 they hit their 5th mine. 5 tanks in about a month!

The area is really infested a lot with NVA’s so that’s what they tell me. I believe them.

The hardest part of this switch was supposed to be at Dodge City, that’s what the infantry tagged on this place. It was something of the Wild West, a regular shoot’em up every time. There’s a river that runs down through the mud flats we had to cross to the other side of the river. South of the river is famous Dodge City which we call, they have a lot of trouble there. Now all there is a burned out hull we’ve got a lot of Victor Charlie’s running through there.

The next day we moved off and waited for the engineers to blow the river ford to clear it for mines. During the night, the infantry went back out and set in around it and we were to go out and meet them. They blew the ford anyway just to make sure, during the wait of 30 minutes to set the explosives we took approx 4 sniper rounds, they came from 2 directions in the treeline and most of the rounds came from Dodge City. It was pretty good action on the infantry’s part. They squelched it every time. I don’t think Charlie was trying to hit anything in particular. He was just letting us know that he was there. Once we crossed the ford we took approx 4 rounds. One man was shot off the flame tank; he was shot in the left side at pretty close range. I’d say about 150 meters but you can’t tell due to the terrain out there, its awful thick. We proceeded the rest of the way. Each ford or crossing we came to was such as railroad berms and the last river ford flowed into 1st Battalion 1st Marines area. We had to blow or sweep through. A railroad berm was a big problem. We had to cross the top of it and that’s what we did, didn’t have any problems until our 1st PPB.

We set out at night approx. 1800 meters from the 1st Marine CP. At the time we were operating with Bravo Company 1st Battalion 1st Marines and our first PPB was quite harrowing. We took a few sniper rounds all through the night. During the day moving in to the PPB site we were hit 4 times: we squelched it each time. It was quite a show of force for the VC; I can’t understand why they kept coming back for more. At this 1st Battalion 1st Marine Bravo Company that we worked with, we kept going back onto PPB’s, running patrols: daylight patrols. For those that don’t know what a PPB is, it’s Platoon Patrol Base. You go up into an area and you set in all night and they run ambushes and patrols all night long with tanks standing by for security. It’s very effective in keeping Charlie off your back.

We were to proceed one morning: I can’t remember the date. This was just a normal sweep of one platoon. During the course of the day we were notified that we had fixed wing above. The tanks pushed in heavy underbrush, heavy jungle. The terrain was flat but there was a lot of ditches, canals, and rice paddy dykes dug for irrigation. We had to cross these: most we made with no difficulty. The ones we couldn’t make, we just went around them. We found a lot of bunkers and areas you’d never believe where they put bunkers, reinforced so good that I’d pull a tank on top of it and couldn’t crush it. That’s 52 tons by the way. We pushed our way through the jungles and Bird Dog up topside came across on the radio and told us that he had spotted approx 15 Victor Charlie’s about 150 meters from our position. We were on one side of the treeline and they were on the other. Then he called back 2 minutes later said that was a negative on his last call, he spotted 20 of them. By the time he got finished we had 46 VC spotted in the open running for an open field. I called the fixed wing and we pushed through. Altogether, 256 VC killed, that’s the bodies we could find. They dropped bombs and rockets, napalm, used big guns it was quite a mess but they done a good job out there that day. We came back in and got a lot of pats on the back and they told us if it wasn’t for the tanks we would have never flushed them out. They seem to have a lot of respect in that area for tanks and they like to get you in places where they could really put you to try to this RPG round into you or use that big old mine.

Then came the day we had to make a switch, went on down to the river ford, we came out and picked up a tank, coming back a flame tank hit a mine approx. 50 pounder set in so we made new tracks going out to the mud flats; going in we went back on the same tracks the flame tank was 3 or 4 inches off his old track and he hit a mine. It was about a 50 pounder, like I said before, it blew a crater about 3 feet by 4 feet and in pretty hard ground. It was placed between 2 graves, it was a channelized area that we had to use and I don’t understand how we missed it coming out. But we sure didn’t miss it going in! We didn’t have any wounded, the tank was messed up, but it’s back in operation now.

We proceeded back to the Mud Flats again where we continued our patrol activity and ran our PPB’s every day and every night. Bravo 14 totaled approx 12 KIA’s during that period of time and approx. 18-20 probables.

We moved out of that area and reported back to Hill 55. During the time we were in the Mud Flats the company moved to Hill 55 out on Finger 5. When we came back, in coming off the road up Liberty Road to the Bridge at the bottom of Hill 55, we took 3 rounds of sniper fire and we proceeded to do the job for it. During the time our last 2 week there on 1/1, we were reinforced by 3 more tanks from Charlie Company, 1st Tanks and they were there to help us. They lost 2 tanks down there. We came out and they were pulling their cripples behind them. We took the sniper fire and we opened up with 50, 90mm, and 30 caliber. Well, did we get anybody? I don’t know, it’s hard to tell out there. We put a few houses to burn out there in the same area we got hit from. They said later on after the tanks left that they spotted 3 Victor Charlie’s with rifles running back out into the Mud Flats. So I can’t tell you if we made out or not.

While at the Mud Flats we were on Operation YELL with Charlie Company 1st Battalion, 1st Marines and that was Capt. Carter who had that Company and I’d like to mention he won the Navy Cross for Operation Stone, not for STONE but for the raid he pulled during that time of the Operation just before. He was a very fine officer and he’d like to use the tanks to their fullest capability and that he did. We were out every day and, according to him, we did a lot of good. And, according to his officers, that they thought we did an outstanding job out there. This Operation YELL came about, it was quite unexpectedly, it was about a 4 day operation and it went kind of smoother for a while. The first day there wasn’t too much, the next night was a son-of-a-gun. We spotted a lot of VC’s off in the distance. They ran about 12-1300 meters and they were all around you. You’d shoot at them but you aren’t sure if you get them and this is about the same area where we had the 46 out in the open and the fixed wing gave us a huss. we got 26 all together that day.

During the operation, I can’t be sure how many Victor Charlie’s we spotted, but they popped up out of places you could never guess. During the night they had Charlie Company on one side and Hotel Company on the other side of this river and somehow or other Charlie got between them and he started shooting one side and then the other side, next thing you know the lines would open up on each other. So finally they got wise to this after the second time around and they let Charlie have his fun that night and nobody got hit.

We had a lot of close support from our artillery. Bravo Company tanks done a lot of 90mm shooting in that area. A lot of it was long range 2000 meters or better. We ran a lot of patrols at this time, we did a lot of sweeps through this operation. They had quite a few VC’s captured but I never heard an exact total.

As I was saying, we proceeded back to Hill 55 again and from there we went out to Hill 65 and took up a commitment there. While we were there, we were running convoys down to Hill 52 and the Red Top, which they call Hill 25 but it’s actually not the name of it. You might be confused if you look on a map, we just call it Red Top. We supported Red Top and supported Hill 52 during this time as well. 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company and 1st Platoon, Bravo Company had lost 6 or 7 tanks to mines in this area. The mines were planted in rice paddies and they were placed in the dyke’s opposite side, never on top of the dykes but always on the sloping sides of the dykes and they usually range 50 lbs.

1st Platoon didn’t hit any mines until about June, that was my second mine. I had a Sgt driving for me, it was his 8th mine it was a 50 pounder. It was buried on the sloping side facing the dyke. It left a crater about 3 1/2 feet by 5 feet. It warped the hill on the tank itself, it was a box mine made of plastic explosives. It was also a delayed fuse. During this time, we very rarely took sniper fire. You look through your binoculars and look towards the mountain side on Hill 52 every once in a while you can see a Charlie run across there. A lot of traveling was done on the mountain side at night, a lot of lights up there. They use a lot of artillery. We had a lot of fixed wing come in and tear the area up, we also had a B52 run on there, it was very impressive, kind of scared the hell out of you.

We were on Hill 52 and we were in direct support of Mike Company, 7th Marines. They had a Bald Eagle operation one night about 0100 and they wanted the tanks to transport their troops up to the area about 500 meters from Hill 65. We tried to inform them the Company Commander there that we’d like to go but he decided it would be too much noise. They wanted to sneak up on them. We didn’t understand what he meant by noise because they were pummeling the hell out of the hill with jets, Puff was up, artillery was up, and there were all kinds of illumination. We couldn’t understand about the noise angle. So he took his people and they were gone about 24 hours without chow. They chased Charlie, then spotted about 100 or 200 of them. We went back up the next evening to pick them up. We were waiting for them to back off the hill to load up. Then we started back ; it was quite late, it was dark, and we had to go through the rice paddies. We didn’t want to go through the mined areas so we took a short cut, so we thought. We wound up in a very muddy rice paddy where we sunk 2 tanks. We called the Company out for security that night, nothing happened. We expected to get hit but nothing happened. They finally got there and pulled us out. They left out the next morning and left a squad back and it was raining, raining quite heavy. We had the squad around us, not a 360 but maybe a 180 we were just in the mist of breaking out sea rations and we ran out of water, so we went over to this little pool, it was rice paddy water. We got a 5 gallon can of water and we saw some fish in it. So we decided to get a hanger and get some fish. So curiosity for the best of everyone so we left a man on top of the tank with a gun and told him to stay there and we went to see what we could do about getting some good fresh fish. No sooner did we get around, the man on top of the tank needed a cigarette and he jumped off the tank and when his feet hit the ground the VC opened up on us with BAR and an M1. Myself, Cpl Butry and LCpl Johnson, who was a mortar FO for Mike Company, ran back to the tanks, the rounds were real close at times. I thought I stopped one because I tripped, but I kept on going. I got back on the tank and L/Cpl Johnson spotted the muzzle flashes approx. 400 meters from the front. We started shooting back. We regained fire superiority in a matter of seconds. We opened up with .50 caliber and we were using 50 caliber aircraft ammo and we started 2 houses on fire. We saw 3 people running out of the treeline so we opened up with 3 rounds 90mm shot down – 3 KIAs.

We called Mike Co, he heard the shooting and he tried to call the same time we called him. He sent down a platoon, 1st Platoon, they came through and swept the area. They captured quite a few, I say about 4, in this area right across from where we were. We were quite vulnerable, we couldn’t maneuver. They figured we were easy pickings. I think we changed their minds about it. None of us were hit but they had 3 of my men pinned down behind a dyke. They were so close that the rounds were going through the dyke, the dyke was approx. a foot think and their PA rounds were going right through it.

The 1st Platoon came up and the informed me on the radio that they were going through a Ville that they had received one round of sniper fire from. We were to shoot over the hedge line with 50 caliber and keep them pinned down as soon. As he passed the word back, they had charged the hill in a rush and we threw it and they got in line and we were waiting. They started their move, nothing happened. They rolled through the Ville and found out there was a woman, wounded - shot in the chest. She was laying in a pile of brass and I believe that’s where the BAR was set in. She was laying right there, still in position like a gun position, the BAR was gone, along with the rifle men with the other weapon. Whether it was an M1 or not that’s what I said it was - I’m positive because it had a distinct “crack” to it. It could have been an M14 also. She was wounded and the interpreters had confirmed her as VC.

Finally, we got ready to get the tanks out, they sent a retriever out. They replaced the one we were on and kept her on Hill 25-Red Top. The retriever stayed at Ret Top our Maintenance Chief Gunny Corbett came on down to the area we were at. They brought 2 tanks: we never travel with one tank if we can help it. It’s always 2 or more. We never travel less than a fire team or a squad, we like the squad all the time with us. They came down and looked the situation over and hooked us up with tow cables and got us out. We didn’t need the retriever.

Coming back out, we came through the same area we came into that night. We thought it was safe and we came within 18 inches of hitting another mine. It was a water can stuffed with explosives, what type I don’t know. It had an odd type pressure plate on top and was drilled through the water can. The pressure plate on top was more or less for the tank to hit with its belly. It was buried in the dyke at the top of the dyke which is unusual and looked like it was set to kill someone, not just to blow up the tank or destroy the tank but to actually do in the tank crew and riding infantry.

We spotted it and it became an argument. Was it a mine or not? So, we got off the tank and took a shovel and there it was. We uncovered it but we didn’t want to mess with it too much, it was an unfamiliar mine. Usually, we might try to dig it up and save it and turn it in to Engineers or Division for classes and for any information they can get off the mines itself but this type we didn’t want to mess with it because we didn’t have any Engineers with us. So I jumped back onto the tank and got a 1/2 lb of C4, cap and fuse and sat it on top of the mine and ran for cover. She blew and she left a crater around 8 ft by maybe 5-6 feet deep. It was a pretty big mine; we estimated 100 lbs or better. It left quite a dent in the ground plus when the mine went off it threw a lot of shrapnel, not from the water can but from pieces of shrapnel they must have put in the mine with the explosive cans. There were also parts from big shells say .55s or .05s. There were pieces of aluminum and pieces of the can that blew all over the area. Of course everyone was down behind the dyke and I was in the tank. We just discovered then that this place wasn’t safe anymore. We knew there were more mines that we didn’t have time to dig them up so we departed the area as fast as we could get out of there, picked up the retriever and went back.

Later on we went back to Hill 52 using the same route; we stayed close to the treeline. I found if you stayed close to the treeline you won’t have as much trouble with Charlie. For what reasons, I don’t know: maybe because things like they’re less vulnerable in the treeline than out in the open. We usually stayed about 5-10 meters out from the treeline all the way along it. We had no RPG or 57 recoilless’ in the area at that time, I still believe they don’t have any activity of that sort here, any actual anti-tank weapons.

We stayed on Hill 52 approx. 1 month. During that time, they built up that hill to quite a fortification. We left the Hill and came back Bravo Charlie CP on Hill 55. We stayed here about a week and went back out to Hill 65 again. We ran patrols, mine sweeps, not too much on mine sweeps at the time, and a few patrols. Most of our job up on this Hill was security and that was about all. Especially at night time, we used the xenon light which is very effective for long range distances. It’s a spectacular light and it also has infrared capabilities. Our lights, we coordinate with the Army’s jeep mod xenon and we used it on the mountain side to see if we could spot movement in the valley along rivers. The main job was to keep traffic off the rivers after 1800 at night.

We came back off Hill 65 for classes on indirect fire. We were going to take up position on Hill 52 for indirect fire plus running convoys back and forth. They decided they were going to open the old road that runs from 65 to 52. I can’t think of the road’s highway number of name.

As I was saying, we were sent back to the Company to be refreshed on indirect fire, we had artillery people come down to give classes and to brief us. Indirect fire isn’t a role that we usually like, we like to be close with the enemy, we don’t like to sit back and shoot. It really makes you feel like a thing when you could be doing something big. You can’t be really sure of what you’re hitting; it’s just psychological on the part of the crew of the tanks because they know what their capabilities are. They would much rather go into an area and see the enemy and hit them than sit back a couple of miles and fire. Proof read to here.

This operation we went on was Operation PECOS. We moved 8 inch 5.5’s to Hill 52 and they set in their positions, we set up a perimeter on the other side of the Hill. That night we were called upon, called at all odd hours of the night to fire indirect fire, they say we did very well but as I say we can’t be sure because we don’t know where the rounds went. We stayed on this operation 8 days, we ran patrols continuously down this road, it was quite hairy because this road had an umbrella of growth over it and we were just about ready to give up because we knew that Charlie was going to start planting 81 and 60 mortars, of course this didn’t happen but it’s a miracle to me why it didn’t happen.

During the course of this operation they found only 2 mines in the road, one 10 lb for a truck wheeled vehicle and they found one big beauty 50 pounder on the shoulder of the road on the right side. It was buried under steel culverts, put in real nice, quite an outstanding job. They cut into the culvert; it must have taken them a couple of days. It was quite a thing. The mine sweep knew the culverts were there, of course you’re going to get a readying so they probe but sometimes the probes don’t come up either and if the mine is buried deep with the culvert it’s hard to find it. You know you’re going to tap something it’s an ingenious way of planting it. But this mine sweep was on the ball and they the mine.

The mine is buried in the culvert at the end of the drop off into a river about 12 feet, if we would have hit the mine it would have blown us off the road. I know we would have landed in that water upside down or however you want to put it. We know there’d been some people hurt because we never went on that road without security a fire team or a squad.

After PECOS we over we went back to 65, we took up our old positions there and we were called back again, we had 2 tanks proceed to Hill 55. During this time we were to support one platoon of Kilo, I believe it was 1st Platoon. The 1st day out was some experience, it was the first time I had anyone hit. We were on a routine patrol headed out toward Dodge City. We cut back from Dodge City pretty close to 800 meters from Dodge City back in the treeline, we came up over some dykes, I decided not to go over the dyke directly but hit them on an angle, veer off to the right. Why I did this I don’t know. I had already had bad feelings about this, they say when you have a bad feeling you can just about tell when something is about to happen. We went up the rise on the one dyke after we turned right, instead of hitting the dyke straight on we went to the right and we went around them. When we came on a small plateau we spotted 3 people working in a rice paddy around graves. So the squad leader wanted to check them out, that is a normal thing to do, check their ID cards. We proceeded to them. When we first spotted them they were approx. 200 meters away and we started to get close, we crossed into the paddy where they were working and there was a sparse bamboo treeline in front of me, in front of both tanks the 1-4 and 1-3. We proceeded to move towards these people, they spotted us and they quit working and were watching us. They weren’t running, they were standing waiting for us. It looked like they were getting their ID cards because I’m sure the other outfit here did the same thing, they knew what was expected of them, so instead of running the stood there.

Pretty close to the end of the treeline I came across an island, the Vietnamese people build their houses in the middle of their rice paddy and they build up the area to keep their houses dry from the wet paddies, I ran into that. I was the 1st tank and the 2nd tank was behind me approx. 60 meters and as soon as I got abreast of the island and I couldn’t see anymore we got hit. It was a real fast report of an automatic weapon. I believe it was an M60 machine gun. I turned around from my TC’s cupola and spotted Corp. Dan Barrows get hit. I knew he was hit but I didn’t know how bad. At the same time he got hit, instead of the man going down and getting inside the cupola under protection of the tank, I don’t think there were 3 rounds fired and he was back firing that 30 again. We had the 30 sky-mounted and he proceeded to shoot at the same time he was shooting he was calling to me that he was hit. He had spotted where the fire was coming from, no sooner that the automatic fire stopped, we took a round. I believe an RPG round or possibly a LAW. It hit in front of his tank approx. 15 meters as soon as we were hit the infantry dove off the tanks and set up positions. I was trying to get back but confusion had set in and you might say had a little fear in it too because one man was hit. I was trying to backup to get to the tank at the same time Wallace was shooting. I believe why the rocket didn’t hit Wallace’s tank was mainly because of Barrow’s quick regaining his fire superiority and not giving a damn about himself. He got back on the machine gun and whether he was mad at the time or what he was thinking about but I’m sure he put that gun right down their throats.

After that we were still receiving fire, I was already backed up to a place where I could shoot from and I was already putting canister out there and Wallace’s tank was putting canister out there. They were hitting us from about 200 meters; it was a treeline a thick treeline that ran along the river. That’s where we got hit from, across the river in no man’s land they say. I started shooting my 30 caliber and my gunner was taking 5 meter intervals on the 90mm, 5 m shooting canister in this area trying to keep them down. We didn’t shoot HE because the HE fuses are delicate and if they hit the treeline which was 15-20 meters in front of us it would have blew and maybe the shrapnel would possibly hurt someone. So we kept peppering it with canister.

I was firing the 30 and I looked back at Barrows, Lance Corp. Heason was the driver and he was exposing himself to fire. Barrows was trying to figure out where enemy coming from because we were getting hit from 3 different places and all we could do is guess and shoot. Barrows had the actual information; in the meantime I kept backing up and shooting. Finally it seemed like Barrows couldn’t do any more and he fell down inside the tank, next thing I know he is pulling himself back up and instead of stepping away and keeping away he fell across the top of the turret, he was hit by a ricochet round that went inside of the right check of his butt, it splattered the pelvis and threw a piece of bone shrapnel out of the butt about 3 1/2 in long and 1/2in wide. He had a quite a nasty wound there, plus he had where the round went in and also the small bone shrapnel that came out from his hip. He was hit on the right side and he was losing a lot of blood. The Corpsmen were also jumping up there to help Barrows to patch him up.

At the time this was going on we still were receiving machine gun fire and small automatic fire. Barrows didn’t want to get inside the tank to hinder the crew from firing the machine gun. He was hit pretty bad.

After the firing stopped, I was able to contact them again and find out the situation as far as the situation with Barrows. The Corpsmen said the best thing we could do is get him out of there and back to the CP, which I did immediately. We got back on the road about 5-600 meters from where we had been hit. We didn’t receive any more fire. The Corpsman finished putting on the bandages and we went back to Kilo where med-evac came and evaced Corp. Barrows.

After that I was sent back to Hill 65 about a week later and during that time I was still in Kilo we were running our daily patrols and at night we had a tight perimeter which we had to have because before Kilo came in there was a company there and they replaced the company with a platoon. So the perimeter had to be tightened up. One thing that really amazed me, they put a platoon in a company area and I guess they’re doing okay. They seem to be getting a lot of action down that way. Just about every night they get shot at, you can see if from our position on the Hill.

Like I said I went back to Hill 65, I had 2 tanks there and they didn’t last very long, Bravo 1-5 was told to take a convoy out with 2 trucks and 2 AmTracs, it was a PX run and we were to go to Hill 52. On our way down we were picking up speed, we found out sometimes the faster you go the better you are if it’s a delay type mine it’ll blow up behind you. We were climbing at 23 mph and we hit a 50 lb mine buried in the shoulder of the road, this time is was on the left side. It left a pretty big crater about 4 ft in circumference 2 1/2 ft deep. We took the tanks back to Hill 65. We were mined again later that day. Maybe 2 hours later another tank came down and he proceeded with the convoy and we lot it to another mine. They say the size of the mine was approx. 100 lbs they were able to fix the tank up too so 1-5 and 1-5 were pick back in operation. I might also say that the road was swept, after we were hit the road was swept from 52 to our position and the road was supposed to be clean. They had 2 ONTOS security when they came up, they we back on down and ran smack dab into a 100 lbs mine. Also they found 2 more mines buried 50-60 meters apart from the first mine they hit.

The road sweep just went through there approx. 20 mins before they hit the mine. They still say and I believe also that Charlie came in real quick like after the road had been swept, dug their holes and buried the mines and left.

We came back to Hill 65 with Bravo 1-4; we worked on that bear almost day and night putting her back together again. 1-5 went to Chadworth with our Battalion where they worked on it there. I stayed in the area back here for approx. a month and they had a big switch. A lot of people were getting short and people were rotating so I was taken over to 2nd Platoon Bravo Company and we’d been trying to get back on our feet.

I had had 3 tanks running and 2 out of the 3 tanks hit mines, one tank we were able to put back together again, on rank has been salvaged. I might say again that the tanks hit a mine on the road to Hill 52, same road I lost 1-5 and 1-4 on. Right now we’re just hanging fast, keeping one tank 2-1. She has had a lot of trouble since she hit the mine. 2-1 has had a lot of trouble lately because of the mine, portion bar has gone off on her, lower motor is dying out, just small odds and ends that we’re handling as they’re coming up. Right now she had break track yesterday and now we’re changing the left portion bar. She’s back up today and will probably go out on security tonight on the Hill with the ARMY zenon jeep on Finger 5. We have it up every night to more or less protect the bridge.

I’d like to talk about Operation ARIZONA I had taken part in. We started out bravo 1-5 and Bravo 1-1, I was on 1-1 at the time. We started out as a blocking force for Mike Company around Hill 52. That’s how we started out but after our 3rd or 4th day on the Hill; I might add before I got any further. One night I was 2nd night on the blocking force we were using our infrared light on the river to spot if any Victor Charlie’s were trying to get across the river back on this side and get back towards the mountains for safety. During the night Corp Butry was using the zenon and I just jumped on top of the tank and borrowed his binoculars and peek through and the moon was high and there was quite a glaze on the water from the moon which distorted the figures or vision into a bright light more or less a bright green light. I thought I had seen something so I asked Butry for the regular binoculars M17. So I looked through and spotted 17 people in the water. They were moving from one bank to the other. They had reeds and little clumps of grass. What made it look odd was that they were going across the river and the river was flowing down towards our position, that’s what gave it away. So I put the binoculars up to my eyes I spotted them and I notified Mike 6 Company Commander and he came up to the tank and both of us were stupefied, I couldn’t believe it, that they would try something like this kind of a game.

We spotted them and they were about mid-way through the river when we spotted them. By the time we were ready to start opening up on them. I was going to shoot a canister down through there, they were approx. 300 meters where that would spread on canister. Mike 6 told me not to fire, he had a patrol coming up the river. He told me I could work out on the 30 caliber, which we did. Between the time we started shooting and the time they were able to get a squad down there they had seen about 6 blood trails. Out of 17 people, they spotted 6 blood trails, how many got across the river, we don’t know.

The next morning we found these rice coolie hats that had bullet holes in them. We found sacks of rice that hard core usually use to wrap around their bodies, they last about a month I think with bullet holes in them. Articles of clothing ful of blood of course we couldn’t find any bodies. We found foot prints. So I’d say maybe 4 or 5 made it across the river, we had 6 probables but nothing you’d put your finger on.

During the daytime we’d pull back off the river and we’d sit down on the rice paddies and just keep observation of the river and mountain terrain behind it. About the 4th day the Retriever came down, the Sgt notified me that I was to escort his Retriever to India’s Company position. We proceeded to go across the river where I ran into Bravo 3 who had a position over there and doing quite well off there. He had 10 KIA’s on his 4th day. I might add that all the firing he was doing over there was close range; nothing over 5 meters. We got information from him to how to get into position but what he neglected to mention to us was there was more than one valley up there. We followed the tracks like he said then found ourselves in the middle of a wet rice paddy. The mud was up over the rear wheel half way up on the hill. We found out if you negotiate your vehicle through this rice paddy at full tilt low hear, you have no problem whatsoever going through it. Well we came up to one blind canyon after another, finally we got stuck. We ran into too much mud and it was such suction that we couldn’t do anything about it.

During this time we had security and we expected to get hit any time; it was just us and a squad, a tank and one Retriever. The Retriever is fast action and good worker so along with team work form the gun crew we got her hooked up and yanked her out and got the hell out of there. Finally we found the right valley and started up the mountain side, it was quite an experience. It was something like the mountains at Camp Pendleton, same kind of terrain almost except for the rice paddies. A lot of big rocks but nothing you could say hinder you; of course you could lose some rubber on it.

Up on the hill they were calling airstrikes, the airstrikes were on one side and we were on the other and all that was between us was the valley. Jets were coming in pretty close to us. We got worried a little bit but nothing happened.

We came back down the other side of the mountain and we were picked up 3rd Platoon that took me to this position, the Retriever had to fix a tank. In the meantime they decided my tank would best be held at their position and sent the tank that was broken back to my position This decision was made because the tank they had out there had periodic problems with oil lines and transmission.

I was put the first night with Capt. Clark on a hill overlook the whole area. Where Echo Company was hit it was still smoking and burning, it was the 1st Platoon Echo Company got hit real bad. They sent HOW 6 and frechette rounds and got them out pretty good but a lot of people were hurting and a lot of people killed.

The next day we moved back and started our patrols. This was the 5th day and the operation was supposed to go to Phase 2 so we had to pull back out of there. At that, the infantry had captured 31 Victor Charlie suspects, out of 31, 28 turned out to be VC. Something unusual happened as they were bringing the suspects into the collection area. One of the Victor Charlie’s who had to be a VC popped a pill and he died almost a minute after he popped the pill. I guess it was some type of poison. None of the others would talk about it, who he was or what his job was. We had young men ranging from 17, maybe young 15 to 26. There were quite a few big fellows there; I’d say 5’8, 5’10 165-175 lbs. We made our observations that they were hardcore. We kept them at collection point and we had security around them until we were to move to the collection area where all the vehicles would be separated and picked who’s told to go where for Phase 2.

We were sent to Echo Company and it was quite hairy getting in there because it was at 7 when we left and when we got there it was 9 and dark. We had to go through a lot of jungle and we expected to get hit any time around there, but we didn’t. we had 4 tanks, we had 2 flame and 2 gun and we set it around a graveyard around the CP. During the night I had the next to last watch Mr. Richman our platoon leader had last watch. I had just woke him up and we were standing on the tank talking and I decided I’d hit the rack so I jumped back down and laid down next to Corp. Butry. I no sooner got down on the ground when there was the familiar sound of mortars being launched and they were incoming. They took about 9 rounds that morning, it was about 5-5:30 that they hit. They had the CP pretty well pegged down, they hit pretty close around the CP only one tank was anywhere near the firing. I mean within a reasonable distance around 60 meters. His crew was inside and nobody was hurt but the infantry suffered 8 people wounded and 1 KIA.

Right after we got hit with mortars we moved out about 7:00. The rice paddies were wet and we had to move along pretty fast. We came to the spot where the mortar was set in at. It was one mortar 81 or 82mm, they left in a hurry, the left 6 HE lights, 81 mortars there and they left the increments for the mortars they used. Distance that they fired the mortars from was approx. 400 meters. He left so fast he left his Ho Chi Men sandals there. It looked to be 2 people and it was a complete mortar with base plate and bit parts.

We swept down into the area and we were going through a treeline and I spotted a tank sitting next to a house 6 where Echo Company was hit. This tank was hit this morning with 2 RPG2 rounds which did not penetrate and one near miss. Almost got the Tank Commander but the round went between him and the cupola, his flack jacket got hung up and it saved his left. He was to go into the treeline to find the wounded and he did and did a fine job. He was separated from his other tanks and he was the last one left so we picked him up. We picked the flame tank and started moving through the area, moving towards the village where Echo Company got hit.

As we were moving through it we received fire from 2 angles, the right rear and the front. They were sitting in the treeline maybe 50 meters in the treeline. At that time I started calling in 60 mortars. I couldn’t shoot, I was too close to the infantry and I couldn’t shoot my 90 they were all around me. If I had shot one round we’d probably lose some men due to concussion. The 60 mortars came in and they were quite helpful. One of the gun tanks, Bravo 3-5, he fired a 90mm round delay and it went into the treeline and that helped break it up. I was to deliver fire to the rear. Later one about 1/2 hr they had us marking target with willy peter for the Huey gunships with rockets to take care of the village we got the machine gun fire from on the right rear flank.

During the rest of the day, they went into the treeline. I was definitely amazed at how this village was situated. They had tank wraps almost 360 degrees around the village, they had fortified bunkers reinforced from steel rail from railroad tracks. Their bunkers were spaced 50 meters apart except for the gate, there they had bunkers on each side of the gate entering in the village. There was a tunnel network starting with the main tunnel that went down about 12 feet and there was a small aperture for a man to get through. Once through it you came into a room or cavern about 10x10 and it was 3 tunnels that branched off from that. We were setting gas from AmTrac they pumped it into the tunnel but it just barely dented it actually it just knocked dirt into it.

We found a lot of medical supplies, blankets, pajamas, sheets, morphine, penicillin, antibiotics, syringes and a lot of things labeled New York and Los Angeles and the blankets were labeled US. We found parts of carbine, looked like spare parts and found 1 carbine, I believe they found an AK47, if that’s what it was, it was an automatic weapon of some sort.

The tunnel network ran through the whole village. They estimated but they couldn’t be sure how many branches of tunnel there was and we knew that Charlie was still there but couldn’t find him. We set in the village all afternoon and my crew got restless after sitting there for an hour so they started hunting.

We found a rice cache, I’d say about 2000 lbs of rice and we blew it with C4 and we threw an incendiary grenade in and burned it. We found a lot of cookery, pots and pans I guess, salt, pepper, sugar destroyed all that and they had it hid under big stone slabs. I don’t know who we found it. So we found all this rice and destroyed it and proceeded to move out of the village again where all through the area the infantry not the tanks were receiving sniper fire. They kept getting shot at from different angles, nothing was directed our way. We pulled out of the village and there made our sweep rounds on the other side of it back to where we started from and started back.

Next day out again we came into the village and was hit again with small fire but nothing you could name. I would say I got stuck going through this, this is where you have to be real fast and real sharp, less thinking if you have to, in other words the job’s got to be done and you can’t think about it. You just do it.

We got hit, we got the tank in positions where we could fire and got stuck trying to get out of it. The flame tank knew I was in trouble and immediately started backing his tank into mine. I jumped off the tank and about the time I hit the ground, we were receiving fire, 2 rounds hit around my feet and 1 round hit into the responsive box of the flame tank as he was pulling in. Hit the ground and was able to cut the cable, pull the cable off the wall and off the hill and attached it to the flame tank and pulled her out. As soon as we got the tank out there was no more fire.

We pulled back out of that and moved into a new site, a new CP area for the night. It was a cemetery. We were always under the impression that Charlie wouldn’t shoot at this own cemetery, but that night we found out that was a bunch of baloney because we got hit. I take that back, that was last time we got mortared.

We moved back into a village about 60 meters from where we were first hit, we were told to pull the tanks in and hide them as best as possible. They had them set around a perimeter. About 2100 that night we heard the mortars go off and they were shooting from 2 places so we figured there were two guns. Bravo 3-5 spotted the mortar flashes about 1200 meters off in the distance and he fired before the 3rd or 4th round was set for the mortar and he fired directly into the mortar and it looked like he had a secondary explosion so he fired the killing cross on the area of fire, in that area 10 rounds and that knocked that gun out.

We took about 18 rounds and Charlie seemed to want the CP area and our mortars and I have to give a lot of credit to our mortar men. They stood toe to toe, for every round that came in they sent out 3. It was quite a job.

We heard the mortars come in and we were approx. 100 meters from the CP. We heard them come in and it’s the weirdest sound you’ll ever hear in your life. We were up on the tank and the word was passed incoming. I was 5th man in a crew so I dove off the tank underneath it. I ran into about 5 men underneath the tank, infantry how they got there before I did, I’ll never know. But I smacked into an M60 and as I crawled underneath the tank I heard a man moaning. I asked him what was the matter and he said that before the mortar started the man thought he’d heard something in the bush so he threw a grenade out; at the same time he threw his a Charlie thought he’d throw his. Their grenades went off at the same time. He got hit in the eye from shrapnel from the grenade. There wasn’t much damage to him just a cut. I don’t even remember if it required stitches but they were able to pull the shrapnel from just below his eye. He usually wears glasses and he didn’t have them on at the time. He was really lucky.

A Corpsman dove under with me and he was shaking. I asked him what the matter was, was this his first time out? He said no, he had been out 7 months, he said that he just fell asleep and was dreaming he walked into a funeral parlor and looked into the casket and saw his face so he was shaken up. So even though he was scared he was getting back out again looking to see where the wounded was. He got to a man to the rear of the tank and helped him then he went back to the mortar pits to give ad there because they took most of the rounds there in the mortar pit. Through the night we didn’t have any more trouble. We took about 21 or 22 rounds that night.

The next day we moved out of that area, ran patrols all through the treeline that bordered the village. Finally we got on the other side of it and set in. There we made a hard left flank and went down the road about 1000 meters on a sweep. I was on a tank and I spotted something off to the distance 800 meters. I picked up my binoculars and looked through them and saw a man in uniform with a helmet and he was wearing tennis shoes and it looked like he had a sten gun or a grease gun. He was in full uniform like an olive drab, something like the ARMY issue and I don’t know what happened to him. The same time I got on the gun he disappeared into the culvert. I notified the platoon leader of the sweeping patrol and told him what I spotted. So we laid down some fire in there with no results. He got away from us.

We swept all through these villages and again we found hospital goods, medicines, penicillin, morphine or something the same is was labeled New York or Los Angeles. We swept all through down 360 and came back up the other side of the river and back to the CP. At the time we were coming in we had a lot of trouble with the infantry with heat exhaustion. They were passing out like flies. It was really hot; I’d say it was about 105-110. They were carrying all this gear. It was hot inside the tank, my gunner was there with his shirt off trying to relax. I told him to keep his helmet off and if I needed him I’d yell at him and he could go into his role as gunner. So he just sat there and relaxed until I needed him, it was about 110 outside but 120 in the tank.

When we came in we were to refuel and we refueled just as the choppers were getting off the ground. We received sniper fire to our front so as soon as the tanks were able to move into position the sniper fire stopped. Well that was really something, it seems like every time we get into position to shoot that they quit but that’s not all the time. They’ve got a lot of crust, they’re really sharp, they’re good soldiers, good fighters, I think they stay hopped up to do the things they do and how they go about getting on us. I can’t ever remember any stories in Korea about people engaging the tanks from 50 meters with a carbine.

We pulled in again that night and set up our perimeter. We were called to a meeting by out Platoon leader to let us know what was going to go on tomorrow. We no sooner got to his position when we heard the mortars. They were coming in from a village to our right approx. 600 maybe 800 meters by the time the 3rd round we because we knew the other two were close, we dove under the tank. The crew of the tank mounted the tank and got into firing position. We couldn’t spot where the fire was coming from. We took about 18 rounds but during twilight we moved the CP and the mortars and that’s where every damn mortar that Charlie shot at us hit.

Through the night we kept getting sniper fire they brought puff over and he was dropping flares and they were shooting at him and it got hot and heavy for a while. He would shoot and they’d shoot back, he’d shoot again and they’d shoot back so they called an airstrike in and the airstrike was about 300 meters from our position. It was at night and it was something else. I’d never seen anything like that. They were using napalm and I’d say 20 50lb bombs and rockets, they flew Crusaders and Sky Hawks and the Phantoms. I guess maybe 12 runs altogether on that one area and for the rest of the night it was okay.

Next day we had our patrols come back in and they told us we were going to move out the next day the operation was securing. So we pulled out and again we got stuck trying to get out of that place and the recovering seems to be as you go along over here your ability to recover gets quicker and quicker, especially when you know someone’s got their sights on you.

We were able to retrieve the tank that got stuck in the mud and in less than 3 minutes we had them out had the tow cable back and we were ready to run and without any further difficulty we got to the river and made our crossing and we could up at Phu Loc 6. When the Retriever came to pick up one tank that got wet during the crossing, his generator sucked in some water and shorted out; but the next day he was able to start the engine up and the tank was ready. They didn’t have to do any maintenance work just towed it in.

That’s about all I have as far as what went on in ARIZONA. It was quite an operation and tanks were used to its maximum. I guess they could have been used a little more or we could have been in the Operation a little earlier, we’d have probably done a whole lot better than we did.

I’d like to say a few things about how the infantry talked to me about the tanks. I might add that I feel the same way towards the infantry. They kind of looked at the tanks as a power, they really looked up to it, depended on it quite a lot and every time we come on the scene or wherever we get quite an ovation and it seems like their morale picks up quite a bit. I might add when I pull in and see a lot of grunts, I’m pretty glad to see them because we work pretty good hand in hand and I haven’t run into too many outfits, in fact I can’t remember running into one that really didn’t help me out or give me support when I needed it. I’m sure they can say the same thing about us, when they needed it we were there.