1st Battalion 22nd Infantry Kuhn's Story Page 1

TUY HOA
April 1971

1ST BATTALLION 22nd INFANTRY DIVISION
BRAVO COMPANY (Company B)

THE MISSION OF THE 1st BATTALION 22nd INFANTRY:
Provide security for the Tuy Hoa Army Installation.
In addition to perimeter guard,small nightly ambushes
will be employed. The secondary mission of the battalion
is to provide a reaction force to any firebase in
Military Region II that was is in danger of
being overrun, and to provide security in the
event that a military aircraft went down in
Military Region II. One company remains at An Khe
opcon to Task Force 19, on a rotating basis, operating primarily
from Fire Support Bases Buffalo, Schuller, and Action.

After being held over at Cam Rahn Bay, pulling guard duty for more than a month, I was transferred to the
Tuy Hoa Army Air Base near the end of April. Once again I found myself at a place where I didn’t know
a single person but I liked the look of this place. It was an Air Base with lots of helicopters and planes and it wasn’t
too far north. Soon I would discover that the base had all of the amenities. There was a PX (Post Exchange), a gym,
an EM (enlisted men’s) club, and most importantly it had showers. The weather was EXTREMELY hot and humid,
even worse than our hottest humid days at home. Upon reporting to the company HQ I was promptly assigned as a
rifleman to the 3rd platoon.

The barracks were pretty shabby looking but not bad. It looked like the guys just threw up some sheets or blankets
or partitions out of whatever materials that they scrounged up to make rooms for themselves.
I was directed to a room that I would share with Dominguez. It didn’t take long till somebody in the barracks yelled
out “new guy!” and the first thing they asked me was “How many days do you have left? “ and they laughed.
They were surprised when I said 330. Even though that’s a lot of days left in country, most new guys that came into the unit had
almost 365 days left. It was all good natured though, the guys seemed nice.
I thought to myself that maybe I lucked out with this assignment.

As I was unpacking my duffle bag in our room, which everyone called their hooch or AO (area of operation);
I was asking Dominguez how it was there. He replied that it’s really not bad here on Base but we did get hit a few
nights ago, most nights are quiet though. He was kind of laughing when he said “You came at a good time,
in a few days we’re going out to the field.” I wasn’t sure what he meant and didn’t know where the field was.
He then explained that the company was going north to An Khe…the boonies, the bush. He said that I should start
getting my stuff together later on today and tomorrow. I remember not even knowing what stuff we were expected
to take. I asked how long we would be gone. He told me about a month probably. Later that afternoon I confessed
that I really didn’t know what stuff to get ready. In his Spanish accent He said
“no sweat man, we’ll find you some stuff”.

Before the day was over I had a
whole big pile of stuff lying on the hooch floor.

• 4 days of c-rations, (12 meals)

• 4 canteens of water

• Air mattress

• Poncho

• Blanket (poncho liner)

• Writing paper and envelopes

• Toiletries

• 1 claymore mine

• A block of c-4 explosive

• 2 flares

• Some wire

• An ax

• 250 rounds of machine gun ammo

• 450 rounds of M-16 ammo

• 2 towels

• 3 pr of socks

• Cigarettes

• And probably a lot more
that I can’t think of right now.

Source: http://www.combatreform.org/soldierbackpacknam.jpg

The next challenge was how to get all that stuff into the rucksack (back pack). It took me several tries
and some help from Dominguez to fit it all. Next I decided I better learn how to wear a rucksack and
when I went to put it on my back, I could hardly lift it! I wondered how I could ever walk around
with all that weight. Dominguez laughed, you’ll get used to it he said, and actually forget
all about it when the shooting starts! Now I was getting scared.

The next morning we all loaded onto trucks and I was on my first convoy headed north on Highway 1 to An Khe.
Along the way I really got to see a lot of the countryside, the people and how they lived. It was something to see.
The country actually is pretty in a lot of places. The people seemed dirty to me though and very poor too.
Many lived in shacks made out of just about any material that they could find, even cardboard. There were many
villages along the way and the kids lined up along the road as we passed by. The guys would toss candy or cans of
C-rations off of the back of the truck to the side of the road where the kids would all scramble to gather it up.
There were a lot of women (mama-san) and children (baby-san). You never saw any men other than
old men (papa-san) or disabled men usually missing an arm or a leg. All of the rest of the adolescent boys
and adult men were in the Vietnamese army.

It took us several hours to get to the firebase where we spent the night sleeping on cots in some big tents.
The next morning the CO called us all into this huge sand bag bunker.
“Men, this is a “Search and Destroy” mission that will last 3 to 4 weeks."
It is all a blur to me now but he went on to talk about getting kills
and calling in body counts and such!

After breakfast we all loaded into APC’s (armored personnel carriers). I hated them because you can’t see out of them
and it is a noisy rough ride. We were escorted by some other vehicles with guns on them but I’m
not sure what they are called. We just called them “tracks”. After a long ride they finally stopped and dropped us off.
They didn’t hang around long and neither did we. The APC’s turned around and headed back to base
and we started walking. Here I was out in the middle of nowhere in a mountainous jungle
with a bunch of guys that I just met 3 days ago!