1st Battalion 22nd Infantry Bill Saling Page 6

1st Battalion 22nd Infantry

Bill Saling

1965-1967

Diary Supplement – Combat Air Assault

Support Platoon was responsible for all combat resupply - food, ammunition and replacement personnel. My platoon
under the direction of SSGT Miller performed admirably during our time in Vietnam. They weren’t much for rules
and military discipline but they did a great job of making sure no unit in our battalion was ever unable to perform their mission
because they lacked adequate supplies. This was done at great risk of either being blown up by mines in the road or being shot down
on a resupply flight.

However during a battalion combat air assault, Support Platoon was responsible for establishing the landing zone and
coordinating all follow on helicopter operations into and out of the landing zone. This responsibility meant that my platoon
was first on the ground along with one of the line companies to provide security until more troops arrived.

To help the helicopter pilots identify ground control personnel they had me wear a white engineer tape around my helmet.
I never really thought about what a dumb idea that was at the time and fortunately I was never the target of a sniper.

The period from January 1967 till April I spent all my time at the forward firebase next to the Cambodian border where
we were repeatedly mortared by the NVA. In March 1967 we were surrounded and told to expect a massive human wave attack,
which thankfully never happened. This strategy of search and destroy missions was designed to block the NVA from infiltrating
material and troops along the Ho Chi Minh Trail into South Vietnam.

These pictures will give you some sense of the chronology of a combat air assault.

An Army Pathfinder would coordinate the helicopters arriving at the correct pick up location.

Battalion staging for boarding the helicopters for the air assault.

Note the white engineer tape around the helmet. I was just damn lucky there wasn't any snipers near the LZ. Roll on my front belt
was landing panels to mark the LZ for the pilots to land.

There is nothing more exhilarating than boarding your chopper with your team waiting to go into combat. The noise is deafening.
The smell of and sounds are something you never forget.

You are on the way. Hoping the pilot doesn't turn around in his seat and tell you it is a "hot LZ". A hot LZ means the LZ is likely to be
under enemy fire when we land. That is not really true, if you have a hot LZ the helicopters don't land, they hove about 10 feet above the ground
or what they think is 10 feet and you jump loaded with a 60lb. rucksack, weapon, ammo, water, etc. If you are jumping into tall grass you may very well
be jumping 20 feet. Definitely a jarring event.

MSGT Gable, First Sergeant A Company.

Triple canopy jungle, trees 200 feet tall, many either teak or mahogany.

Bomb craters from a B-52 Arc Light strike. Each of those craters was big enough to land a helicopter.

Thomas Locke digging with Salazar keeping watch for NVA. Logs were used for overhead protection from NVA mortars.

As soon as the LZ was secured the Chinooks started bringing in our artillery. Each firebase had a battery of five 105 Howitzers
arranged in a star pattern so they could fire in 360 degrees.

Until the LZ was declared secure the pilots would not land. You can see the tree stump in the foreground
that was blown with C-4 to clear the LZ.

As soon as the LZ was secure the first task was to off load the ammunition.

This is my LZ in front of my bunker. Note the pink panel on the ground. LTC Morley was big on advertising.
Our battalion slogan was Regulars, so he had us use white sandbags to advertise our arrival.

No vehicles so all the ammo had to be carried to the gun location. This guy is carrying rounds for an 81mm mortar.
Notice the double log overhead for each bunker.

You will notice the white sandbags now read Regulars by God in response the the NVA trying to dislodge us from this firebase.

The jungle was very close so I believe we had sprayed Agent Orange on the tree line adjacent to the firebase to provide a better field of fire.
It denied the NVA from getting to close to the firebase without being seen.

To improve our field of fire the engineers rigged bangalore torpedo to clear the tree line.

Smoke from the bangalore.

Saturday night bath. We have really gone downhill from our time at Tuy Hoa and our shower point. This was life in the Infantry.
Leeches were a bitch. I still have scars where some idiot tried to remove the leech with a red hot bayonet blade.

Good aerial shot of what a firebase looked like. The top of the picture was the Cambodian border.
The smoke is from the artillery firing a barrage.

Can you find all five howitzers? We lived in our bunkers but the battalion officers had tents.

This was my home for almost six months. Lt. Duncan is standing in front of me with the pay satchel.

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