Mamasan Beach hs/27
Tuesday, July 23, 2024
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Monday, April 17, 2023
27TH MARINES--The Road to Duong Son (2)--PART ONE: PUSHIN' TOO HARD
27th Marines
(LZ410 Danang)--Nearly everyone who has served in the military has an experience worth writing about, most of them go unwritten. The ones that do are somewhat predictable and usually relate, essentially, combat. But there is far more to war than heroes charging up a hill under artillery fire and hand-to-hand encounters with the enemy. Hopefully, some of that unsung hero stuff can be documented here.
I enlisted in the Marine Corps out of Reno, Nevada and went to San Diego basic training in early 1966. Having made PFC out of boot camp, my first duty station was Corry Field, Pensacola, Florida, a class A US Navy radio school. The Marine unit at the station was Company K, Sub Unit One. Running into trouble at every turn, I was eventually transferred to Camp Pendleton, and if the story of what happened at Corry is of any consequence, it can wait to be told later.
On 10 March, 1967, under "Administrative Remarks" in my Service Record Book (SRB), Major RL O'Brien, the Sub-Unit One CO, made an entry that I had been disenrolled from the CommTech "R" course. In the "Record of Service" section, the page shows 3 April '67 as the first entry for H&S Co., 3rd Bn, 28th Marines.”
My first major assignments at H&S, Camp San Mateo weren't radio training, teaching others the rapid speed I had on Morse code I learned in Florida, but chopping back all the ice plant off the sidewalks in front of the quonset huts, firewatch and guard duty all night. Although there is no entry in the SRB, sometime between my arrival in April, I was again assigned to mess duty. At San Mateo 3rd battalion messhall, the chief was Sgt. Dabney, a real slave driver but he laid off me and I was assigned the officers' mess along with CD Rossi, also from radio platoon. The star of the show, hands down, was the "bird" Pvt. Mertz who worked the GI cans out on the back landing. No matter what they threw at Mertz, it would roll off. After I'd gotten out of the Camp Pendleton brig in October for an AWOL junket to the "Summer of Love" in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, we had just returned from a field exercise and were dead in formation one morning with MSgt "Top" Casella giving us the lowdown,
"What's the matter with you people, am I pushing you too hard?"
In the ranks, Mertz begin to sing the Seeds hit released in October, 1966,
"You're pushin' too hard, you're pushin too hard...."
In January, 1968, at the White House in Washington, DC, LBJ was surrounded by his advisors and high-ranking military men from all branches. The president had received a request from US Army General Westmoreland, commander of US forces in Vietnam, for two-hundred thousand additional troops to break the combined NVA-VC Tet offensive. The advisors were at the moment more concerned with the rising tide of unpopularity of the war Back-in-the-World. At least one general wanted to crush the rebellion on the homefront, using any means necessary. Obviously this was not an option, neither was granting Westy’s request. Instead, LBJ opted for two units to go over, the US Army 82nd Airborne and another unit, a newly formed landing team out of Camp Pendleton, the 27th Marines.
In January, 1968, at the White House in Washington, DC, LBJ was surrounded by his advisors and high-ranking military men from all branches. The president had received a request from US Army General Westmoreland, commander of US forces in Vietnam, for two-hundred thousand additional troops to break the combined NVA-VC Tet offensive. The advisors were at the moment more concerned with the rising tide of unpopularity of the war Back-in-the-World. At least one general wanted to crush the rebellion on the homefront, using any means necessary. Obviously this was not an option, neither was granting Westy’s request. Instead, LBJ opted for two units to go over, the US Army 82nd Airborne and another unit, a newly formed landing team out of Camp Pendleton, the 27th Marines.
“Private L'Angelle, I didn’t think you were going to go along.”
Pausing briefly as Patti Dell drove off into history, I looked at all the apprehensive faces in the ranks and replied;
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, sir.”
In the ranks were married men who didn’t want to leave their wives and kids, there were green recruits who didn’t know a radio from a flare gun; white kids from the farm, blacks from the inner city, surfers from the coast. In one sentence I had done what the Colonel, the major, the captains, the lieutenants and the sargents couldn’t do. None of them thought I would go over to the war. I would skip out, hitchhike back to Haight-Ashbury and sleep in basements with hippies and girls from Boston. They were wrong. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I gave them all a reason, the reason, for going. It was our duty, our time had come.
James C. L'Angelle USMC 1965-70
Sunday, April 16, 2023
HILL55--The Battle for Go Noi Island--MAY 1968
27th Marine Combat Regiment RVN 1968
Operation Allen Brook--
Several very important events took place in the rather insignificant op, at least from a personal standpoint. The first was saturation bombing using C-130s dropping 55-gallon drums of napalm into those enemy fortifications hoping to dislodge them. Following the dropping of the drums, the area was hammered with 155 artillery and the entire island lit up like New Year's Eve, in the middle of the day. That was followed by a huge rain squall forming from the black cloud that rose from the ensuing fire caused by the combined napalm-artillery saturation. Must have dumped an inch of rain in less than an hour. Still the helis kept coming in, dropping off body bags and picking up ammo, water and rations for the companies pinned down by enemy machine guns from bunkers tactically placed to maximize the kill zone. One Marine charged those bunkers, managed to shut them down for a little while, lost his life in the process, and was later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his valiant effort.
Change of command in Saigon resulted in the new boss who replaced Westy, US Army General Creighton Abrams, to show up unannounced in the bunker at Liberty Bridge where the radios were buzzing with the sounds of the firefights and calls for air support and arty. One of the line officers was hollering something about casualty reports and it might have been Abrams who commented, or was told;
"You're in the game with the big boys now..."
Later on, the radio operators took a break and dodged the relentless downpour by huddling in a makeshift shower, smoking some pot and philosophizing on what was coming down. It was Cpl. Morze, a hefty Marine who looked more Chinese than White, and who could speak fluent Chinese, summed it all up;
"Who picks up the tab for civilization?"
Late in the night, I could look out over the island and beyond as flares randomly lit up the night sky way off in the distance to the south. It was the only night that I had no one to tell me what to do, where to go, and report to whom. There was nobody else around, just the jeep, the flares way off in the war somewhere, the necessities of Black Label beer, mamasan's pot and Pall Mall cigarettes. On the radio came a song I remember to this day and every time I hear it, I go back to that one night on Hill 55.
The song drifted out across the entire valley below, across the island where the VC and NVA were servicing their weapons, getting ready for the battle the next day. In the morning, I drove the jeep about five miles north back to regimental command at Duong Son 2 and to this day wonder why I wasn't ambushed and KIA on that brief drive back into the DaNang TAOR, through territory called "Dodge City." I received credit for participation in Operation Allen Brook in my Service Record Book.
The Battle for Go Noi Island went on for another year; even after the 27th Marines rotated back to the world. It was conducted by elements from the 1st and 26th Marines during Operation Pipestone Canyon in the summer of '69.
I went north to Dong Ha, on the DMZ.
James C. L'Angelle, USMC 1965-70
Monday, March 28, 2022
JOHN MCKAY--Corry Field 1966--1ST RADIO BN.
27th Marine Combat Regiment
John McKay, served with him at Corry Field USN radio school. He was quite the critic on just about everything. We had a 3-piece group with myself and Roger Gass on guitar and McKay on vocal accompany.
We would play local beach bars in Pensacola; McKay was one of the few at the base with a car. We drove to New Orleans for Mardi Gras in '66 and played the Bourbon Street "Intellect" bar for free beer; claim to fame for sure.
We also participated in a Navarine Club show on the base but lost out to a Navy sax player who did a standup performance of "Harlem Nocturne," and we left quietly amid the cheers of the sailors.
After much trouble with command, some restrictions and office hours, I literally fought my way out of that class A radio school and was transferred to the West Coast, Camp Pendleton, to the 28th Marines at Camp San Mateo. It was a new unit building up in anticipation of sending more Marines to Vietnam, that was in January 1967. McKay dropped off the radar for over 50 years, then one day resurfaced on Facebook with a friend invite; a ghost from the past.
McKay died suddenly in 2022, before we had a real opportunity to debrief on some of the more classified missions, off limits, in which we participated.
McKay profiles, 1st Radio Bn:
TO BE CONTINUED 04/16/23/1900PDT--
James C. L'Angelle USMC
Sunday, October 31, 2021
GO NOI ISLAND---23 Aug 1968--
..VC Staging Area Is 'Hairiest' Place in All of South Vietnam, By Father Michael V. Gannon (NC News Service) The Belleville, IL Messenger, 23 Aug 1968 Page 9.
"This is a staging area for the VC (Viet Cong) and NVA (North Vietnamese Army," Col. Adolf C. Schwenk, commanding officer of the 27th Marines, had explained to me the evening before at regimental headquarters in Duong Son. The Colonel is a lanky, soft-spoken Marine veteran who is much admired by his men for his "cool." He sat in his green T-shirt on the edge of a table and played his finger over an operations map displayed against a wall of his heavily bunkered Command Operations Center. Radio messages crackled in the background.
"Operation Allenbrook on which we're engaged is designed to destroy the area, to deny it to the enemy as a sanctuary and as a staging area for an attack on Da Nang. Our 3rd battalion was hit hard when we began on May 17, but we've kept pushing and we've uncovered all kinds of enemy installations--arms caches, rice caches, mess hal;l and so on. And as soon as we clear a section of the area our combat engineer comes right behind us with Rome plows to knock the countryside flat. They level everything--trees, buildings, bushes. The whole island will be a desert when we get through."
The colonel put his finger to the map again. "This area," he said, outlining Go Noi Island, "is probably the most booby-trapped area in all Vietnam. We've suffered a lot of casualties from mines and booby-traps, including some KIAs (killed in action) and a lot of double and triple amputations. It can be very demoralizing for the men. They have no way of knowing if their next step is going to blow them 45 feet in the air. It's a vicious phantom war. There's nothing to shoot at. You walk scared all day long. Today we took 11 booby-trap casualties, seven of them in Golf Company."
..
Saturday, August 1, 2020
Monday, May 18, 2020
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
THE PENTAGON PAPERS--Deployment of the 27th RLT--TET, 1968
VOL. III--U. S. GROUND STRATEGY AND FORCE DEPLOYMENTS, 1965--1967
The enemy ' s TET offensive, which began with the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Saigon on 31 January 1968, although it had been predicted, ~/ took the U.S. command and the U.S. public by surprise, and its strength, length, and intensity prolonged this shock. As the attacks continued, the Secretary of Defense, on 9 February, requested the Joint Chiefs of Staff to furnish plans which would provide for emergency reinforcement of COMUSMACV (pdf 8)
The three plans for emergency reinforcement examined by the Joint Chiefs of Staff were:
a . Plan One, which is based upon prompt deployment of the 82nd Airborne Division and 6/9 Marine division/wing team, callup of some 120,000 Army and Marine Corps Reserves, and appropriate legislative action to permit extension of terms of service of active duty personnel and the recall of individual Reservists .
b . Plan Two, which would deploy as many Marine Corps battalions as are now available in CONUS, less one battalion in the Caribbean, the battalion in the Mediterranean, and the Guantanamo Defense Force. This plan would not be based upon a callup of Reservists or legislative action.
c. Plan Three, which would deploy the 82nd Airborne Division but would leave Marine Corps battalions in CONUS . This plan would likewise envisage no Reserve callup and no legislative action. (pdf 9-10)
Notwithstanding the recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of Defense almost immediately approved the deployment of one brigade of the 82ncl Airborne Division and one Marine regimental landing team to South Vietnam. A total strength of almost 10,500 was assumed and publicly announced. (pdf 12)
The Marine Corps Regiment was to close in SVN not later than 26 February also. The Regiment (reinforced) less one battalion, was to be deployed by air from California at a strength of about 3,600. One battalion (reinforced) which was then embarked, "was to be deployed by surface at a strength of about 1,600. ~/
In view of the wide variation of strength associated vii th a Marine Corps Regiment (reinforced), CINCPAC was directed to advise all concerned of the identity, composition and strength of the force selected for deployment. 1/ CINCPAC nominated the 27th Marine Regiment, which included 5247 Marine and 327 Navy personnel. (pdf 12)
( 2) The Reserve force will consist of approximately 12,000 personnel. It will provide the capability to deploy a balanced, self-sustaining air/ground combat force in relief of the lightly structured 27th Marines (Rein) and permit return of the 27th Marine Regiment (Rein) to the training/rotation base in CONUS/Hawaii . This exchange would commence as soon as the Reserve unit becomes combat-ready (approximately 60 days after callup) and must be completed not later than 120 days after deployment of RLT-27. (pdf 13)
c. Navy. Support of the newly authorized deployments will require the callup of two Navy mobile construction battalions (NMCB ) totalling 1,700 personnel and 600 individual medical/ dental/chaplain Reservists . These callups will provide for bringing recalled Marine units up to strength, sustaining the Navy personnel organic to the deployed RLT. (pdf 14)
2. The Troop Request
Although the new Secretary of Defense, Clark Clifford, was formally sworn into office by the President on 1 March, his work had begun many days before .
In order to ascertain the situation in SVN and to determine subsequent MACV force requirements , General Earle Wheeler, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had been sent by the President to Saigon on 23 February. His report was presented to the President on 27 February 1968 . On the basis of this report, and the recommendations it contained, the President ordered the initiation of a complete and searching reassessment of the entire U. S. strategy and commitment in South Vietnam. (pdf 18)
New ceiling in RVN: 549, 500
a. Program 5: 525,000.
b. Emergency deployment of 82d Abn, 27th RLT : 11,000.* 13,500 .*
c. Support and sustain emergency deployment:
d. Total: 549,500.
Includes estimated 1,444 Air Force and Navy.
1st Bde , 5th Inf Div (Mech) ,Will replace 27th RLT . (pdf 83)
6. JCS Msg 9929, 130341Z Feb 68, Subject: "Deployment of Marine Corps Regiment (Reinforced) to SVN (S)."
7 • Ibid.
8. CINCPAC Msg to JCS/CINCSTRIKE, 150125Z Feb 68, Subject: "Deployment of Marine Regiment (U)" JCS in 12316. (pdf 100)
Source, https://nara-media-001.s3.amazonaws.com/arcmedia/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-C-6-c.pdf
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