HILL55--The Battle for Go Noi Island--MAY 1968

 

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27th Marine Combat Regiment                                                    RVN 1968

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     Operation Allen Brook--

     (DUONG SON 2)--Early summer, 1968: Operation Allen Brook had begun and the 27th Marines was set to drop in on the VC south of their positions on Go Noi Island and push the enemy North, from Cu Ban and Le Bac into the Song Thu Bon just below Nui Dat Son, Hill 55.. It didn't quite work out that way. The enemy was well entrenched on the so-called "island" and wasn't giving an inch of swamp. Part of the radio platoon from regimental H&S company  was assigned to the north side of Liberty Bridge to coordinate the operation between the units in the bush and command back at Duong Son 2. 

 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?"

     Before the unit wrapped up the forward setup, I was fortunate to spend one night in a radio relay jeep overlooking the island from Hill 55, on the AT map at 970620, Nui Dat Son.. There are many things I remember about the war, but that's one I will never forget, for several reasons. It was the one and only time I was free from the regiment back at Duong Son 2; I had some cans of beer, some pot, some cigarettes, and a radio jeep tuned into a Danang station.

     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.

Photo is on the sands of China Beach, DaNang; probably taken by Barry Coulter; a big African-American PFC from the platoon wire section.  Barry and I braved the ARVN gun emplacements at night in a trail through the concertina wire to visit mamasan and her girls.

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James C. L'Angelle,             USMC    1965-70

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