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I was in Hue, Vietnam from July 66-67. I was the Civil Affairs and Psycological War Officer for the first 6 months of duty there. In November I was made Captain and later became the RDMTT training officer with 2 other US Army Captains. Captain Dow was one. Our training team was awarded #1 of 6 teams in Vietnam. I had many Vietnamese friends, in fact we worked with 9 Vietnamese officers training every two weeks an ARVN unit.
I remember my Vietnamese counterpart faces but don't remember their names. That was 50 years ago. On December 23, 1996, my sergeant and I rescued 2 Marines north of Hue in a village below the DMZ. We had a Vietnamese Lt and a few of his men drive with us in another vehicle as far as we could into the jungle, then we walked on foot into a Marine operation that was being conducted to rescue the two wounded Marines.
While we were driving back, it became dark and we drove the jeep into the concertina wire protecting the Marine perimeter. We turned over the two Marines to the guards at the fence and had to leave the jeep.
My sergeant and I rode back with the Vietnamese Officer and his men in their vehicle to our base camp. It was pitch black and you could see the light in the church steeple where are camp was. At the time we drove through the enemy but they did not attack us in order to surprise attack the Marine Camp. We had radio contact with the Marine Col whose camp was 1.5 Km from ours. At 9 pm sharply, the enemy attacked the Marine camp. We provided the artillery support since our camp had a 155 and 105 under the control of Vietnamese Lt in our camp. I remember the Marine Col requesting support through his command and was unable to get any help. The Col requested from me for help. I went through MACV channels to get approval. We had the artillery in our camp fire flares to light the sky above the Marine's camp. The 50 caliber machine gun fire from the Marines seemed to be in our direction by watching the tracers from their guns.
When the Col could not get air support, I was able to get the support from MACV in conjunction with my Vietnamese counterpart.
By dawn, Puff the Magic Dragons were still zapping the enemy and circling the Marine's camp. It was an awesome sight to watch the lightening bolts from the gatling guns spray the enemy.
In the morning I went back to retrieve my jeep and learned from the Marines that no Marine was killed in this action.
To this day, I always wondered about the Captain and the Marine we helped and if the Col ever knew about the team that helped his unit. I also wonder about any of my MACV, and Vietnamese friends.
If anyone was in HUE from 66-67, or worked on the Revolutionary Development Mobile Training Team, (RDMTT) with me, I would like to hear from you.
I remember my Vietnamese counterpart faces but don't remember their names. That was 50 years ago. On December 23, 1996, my sergeant and I rescued 2 Marines north of Hue in a village below the DMZ. We had a Vietnamese Lt and a few of his men drive with us in another vehicle as far as we could into the jungle, then we walked on foot into a Marine operation that was being conducted to rescue the two wounded Marines.
While we were driving back, it became dark and we drove the jeep into the concertina wire protecting the Marine perimeter. We turned over the two Marines to the guards at the fence and had to leave the jeep.
My sergeant and I rode back with the Vietnamese Officer and his men in their vehicle to our base camp. It was pitch black and you could see the light in the church steeple where are camp was. At the time we drove through the enemy but they did not attack us in order to surprise attack the Marine Camp. We had radio contact with the Marine Col whose camp was 1.5 Km from ours. At 9 pm sharply, the enemy attacked the Marine camp. We provided the artillery support since our camp had a 155 and 105 under the control of Vietnamese Lt in our camp. I remember the Marine Col requesting support through his command and was unable to get any help. The Col requested from me for help. I went through MACV channels to get approval. We had the artillery in our camp fire flares to light the sky above the Marine's camp. The 50 caliber machine gun fire from the Marines seemed to be in our direction by watching the tracers from their guns.
When the Col could not get air support, I was able to get the support from MACV in conjunction with my Vietnamese counterpart.
By dawn, Puff the Magic Dragons were still zapping the enemy and circling the Marine's camp. It was an awesome sight to watch the lightening bolts from the gatling guns spray the enemy.
In the morning I went back to retrieve my jeep and learned from the Marines that no Marine was killed in this action.
To this day, I always wondered about the Captain and the Marine we helped and if the Col ever knew about the team that helped his unit. I also wonder about any of my MACV, and Vietnamese friends.
If anyone was in HUE from 66-67, or worked on the Revolutionary Development Mobile Training Team, (RDMTT) with me, I would like to hear from you.