Memories of an Alpha Regular Part 2

1st Battalion 22nd Infantry

Memories of a Regular from 3rd Platoon Alpha Company

1968-1969

by Al Ballard

Part Two

As we were getting ready to go into Plei Trap Valley, I was beginning the 6th month of my tour.
To date contact for us had been very light , we only had a couple WIA the whole first five months of my tour - we had been very lucky!
A lot of this was attributed to the reputation the unit had gained from Tet 68, the NVA would rather go around us than thru us.
There was a $1000 bounty for any 1/22 member wearing our black scarves.
As we were being CA'd out of LZ Bass the chocks got mixed up. We were supposed to be first in with C Company coming in behind us.
Instead C Company went in first - bad for them, lucky for us.
As they were hit the next morning, our 1st and 2nd platoons were sent to support them, 3rd platoon was given trail security.
Sitting there hearing all the gunfire really made you realize that things could get very hairy very quick.
A short while after the gunfire settled down, our Chu Hoi scout came walking back up the trail,
his shirt was shot to ribbons on both sides, all he suffered were minor scratches,
which was very luck for him because he wore his shirt skin tight. He said " they get me, but I got them!"

When things settled down we learned our guys had been attacked by Red Chinese tied in trees with machine guns.
We initially took 4 WIA, no KIA. The firing was so intense they had to return to our position.
The next 9 days were very rough for 1/22 - Bravo, Charlie, and Delta Companies all suffered vast numbers of KIA and WIA.
I guess we were held in reserve for something big. At the end of the operation several underground hospitals, supply points
and tunnels had been taken. The enemy suffered heavy losses as did 1/22.
On 12 April we were CA'd back to LZ Mary Lou to resupply and get replacements.
We had a few days standdown then it was time to go back to the bush.

While in Plei Trap , some LRRP's came thru our position and set up for the day. One of them was a guy from St Louis
who I had gone to college with him and his brother from 66- 67. Talk about a small world!

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Al with his M-79, LZ Slack

Before we left LZ Mary Lou after the standdown from Plei Trap,
we were told we would be going back to the hill with the number I can't remember.
As we were getting ready to leave Mary Lou, 10 of us from 3rd platoon were selected to go in before the company and recon the hill.
The PSG and 9 of us went. As we were getting ready to land, the chopper behind me fired a rocket to prep the LZ,
I swear that thing only passed a foot below my feet as I was in the lead chopper sitting in the doorway.
We landed without incident, and, as the hill was so huge, we reconned it then decided to set our perimeter up at the far edge from where we landed.
This is where the Company CP had been. We were there a week waiting for the company,
then was told to join them at LZ Slack. We had been used as bait to try to draw the NVA out.
They had wiped out a Mike force at the foot of the hill, and it was thought they would try to attack us.
Even though we weren't in combat that often, it was things like this that gave you white hair!
We reinforced LZ Slack, and, until we left there the end of August, always kept one platoon on patrol with the green eyes out, then switch off.
The rest of us would stay busy on the firebase. We had never taken incoming mortar rounds,
so around the end of May wasn't sure what I was hearing until rounds started landing outside of the perimeter.
We took incoming 3 or 4 times before they ever got any inside the perimeter, on June 5th, 1969 when we had our first KIA.
When I first joined the company at the Oasis, 1LT Young was the platoon leader and PSG Hopper arrived when I did.
They were both damn good and made 3rd platoon what it was. They both left us just before Plei Trap and took over LRRPS.
We didn't get another good platoon leader until 1LT Dennis Whitt joined us in July. We only had him a month,
but that was a good month! We went thru a few 2LT's or just the PSG ran the platoon.

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As June approached, also was my 7th month in country.
When we were reunited with the company at LZ Slack, I met my future brother in law who had just come to us from the 101st.
The 4th and 101st exchanged personnel in April to May time frame
because we had too many people leaving in September and they had too many leaving in November.
Jim Ragains missed Hamburger Hill and Plei Trap while in transit to us. He spent his first 6 months with 101st
in the monsoons, just as he got to us, our monsoons started.
There were 3 guys in the platoon from Kentucky - Red Gosser, Bill Goins, and Roger Onan.
These were the 3 "oldtimers" who took me, Andy Anderson, and Bogett out on LP the first night at the Oasis.
Andy and I stayed in the field the whole tour, Bogett was accident prone and spent more time in the rear than with us,
but we all left together on 27 Oct, 69 and we were all 3 promoted to buck Sgt.
My first squad leader was Sgt Chuck White, from Tarzana, Ca. He got injured and was sent home
while we were at the bridge in Dak To. SP4 Jack Bays took his place and, a month later he was injured
and sent home when we had a freak hailstorm come thru.
Red Gosser was my squad leader until he left in September. Mike Fink, from New Jersey was also in my platoon,
as well as Marvin Mohr from Wisconsin - I took over as RTO from him while Lt Dennis Whitt was with us.

There was Divelbliss from Pa, Sp4 Young was Andy's squad leader. Also there was Catron from Boston,
Grosshans from Detroit, and Van Nor Los - the Dutchman from Battle Creek, Mi. These are the main guys I served with,
as they rotated home and we got replacements whose names I can't remember except for a couple.
3rd Platoon's call sign when we joined them was 4-3, they had a reputation as being the best,
and we felt honored to be called 4-3 and company. We replaced a company one time and didn't have any problems doing it.
By May the call sign had changed to November 6, but the original 4-3 guys still called ourselves that.
LZ Slack was in a strange location, there was a ridge running 100 meters or so over to another hill
that looked exactly like Slack. The most security was provided at that end, as well as our ingress and egress.
Ragains was standing guard just as daylight broke one morning at the bunker on that end, a tiger reared up and stared him in the face.
It had come thru the concertina without setting off a trip flare. Before Ragains could react, the tiger left the way it had come in.
That day we were putting out more concertina and trip flares at that spot.
Most of the time we were on Slack we would put out H and I fire on guard at night.
Bamboo grew pretty close to the perimeter and there was always some kind of movement.
I got to where I was taking the last guard in the morning, just as daylight was breaking.
We used my M-79 to send out the H and I.
The M79 never kicked, but when I shot it off one morning it almost knocked me off the bunker.
The only thing we could figure out was that the firing pin got wet. It never did it again, but when I took over as RTO I switched back to the M-16.

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Airstrike seen from LZ Slack

I had been tagged with the nickname of "Short Round" shortly after arriving at the platoon.
Everyone had nicknames, that's why it is hard to recognize real names, sometimes.
Andy was 6ft 4in tall, standing next to him with my full 5ft 4in it was easy to see how I got my nickname.
There was another guy in mortars called Short Round, but he wasn't even 5ft tall.
At LZ Slack we had our 81mm mortarsand a battery of 105's.
On 5 June 3rd Platoon was tagged for patrol and I got tagged for another green eyes.
There were 3 green eye patrols dropped off and we were the farthest team from the firebase. Red Gosser was my team leader,
a new guy had the radio, and I still had the M-79. We had left a couple of guys back at Slack, Jose Echevarria, Roger Onan
and a few FNG's that I can't remember all their names, there was Ledbetter, and Tim Shue, to name the ones that I can remember -
I'm not sure if Shue had arrived by then or came later.
By the time we got to our position and dug in it was late afternoon. Just at dusk we heard mortars being fired toward
the firebase, and they sounded like they were only 100 meters from us - the pop they made leaving the tube sounded real close.
Red was in the foxhole before I knew it, with the RTO on top of him. There wasn't room for me so I lay beside them.
I figured the NVA had to know we were there so I wanted to make sure they weren't sneaking up on us.
Red called in the mortars from Slack, along with the 105's. We had 155's firing from Dak To, and 175's firing from Kontum.
It seemed like they zeroed in on us! I felt like a ping pong ball laying there. I could hear the shrapnel right above my head.
Before they got the mortars, or they had gotten away, our mortars on Slack had taken hits,
knocking some of the tubes out of action and causing a few WIA. I lay on the ground all night.
The next morning when we were able to see everything just a few inches above my head was shredded by the shrapnel.
We never received any more incoming.
Everyone thought we had been blown away, we were only too glad to let them know we were still there.
The next closest Green Eyes actually reported us as being gone.
We found out that we had 1 KIA on Slack - Jose Echevarria. Roger Onan was WIA and medevaced out and got sent home.
Really felt strange not to see those guys after we came back in.
Even though we had not had much contact, we had little skirmishes here and there.
The NVA were all around, you just couldn't see them because of the thick jungle. If you did see them it was only 2 or 3 at a time.
When they fired, you fired back hoping you hit something.

After I got home and the movies Apocolypse and Platoon came out they didn't help the image a lot of people had
of us all being pot smoking baby killers. If we caught anyone with pot they were sent to the rear.
Your life depended on the guy next to you and you didn't want him to be doped up. There were very cases of sending people back.
Also, thankfully, we never had to search any villages.

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continued on next page................

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