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Battle for Dau-Tieng, Base, 3Bde,25 ID
22-23 Feb. 1969
Continued
The FIRST HAND Personal Accounts of Troopers telling their version of their parts of the story. Sorry, none forwarded Pics of self. But there are more pics coming up.
(Personal account from Mike Groves)
A Co. 2/22 Inf (Mech) 25 Inf Div.)
NOTE: Mike is one of the "Triple Deuce" (2/22) Infantry men who though it was not made clear in their AAR, or anyone else - was a "Dismounted" Infantryman that night. Along with the troopers mentioned who were to man various bunkers on the perimeter the night before and during the battle.
-----Thanks to Mike for his version.
I don't know if I provided you with this. If so, sorry. Otherwise, this is
what I wrote home 24 February 1969.
"Mom has probably told you about us getting hit on the 22nd. Whew! That
was the longest night I think I've ever spent. Here I was reading a good
book at a out twelve midnight when everything started breaking loose.
Mortars started dropping on the defense perimeter and tracers from bullets
were flying everywhere. I was standing outside trying to figure if any were
dropping around our headquarters when they started dropping the things not
to far away. You ought to see how fast I can move under those
circumstances. Standing in the bunker, I was listening to sirens when the
phone rang and we were put on a red alert. A red alert is called only when
an all out attack against us is imminent. They were right. I woke everyone
up and we grabbed our weapons and ran to the part of perimeter that we were
assigned to. Everything was happening then. The whole base camp was
shooting at the insurgents. Enemy mortars, rockets, and machine gun fire
were pouring in everywhere. Almost like combat on TV, only this was for
real. I don't need to say I was scared. I stayed awake the whole night
praying they wouldn't hit our sector. Thank God, they didn't. Where they
hit, they hit hard, breaking through the wire. there were firefights all
over the base camp. We had to level one village near us because the NVA
were coming from there. Civilian's were there and a lot were killed and
wounded. It's sad, but the civilians brought it on by not informing on the
enemy. The village isn't standing anymore. The NVA that did get into our
basecamp were running up and down the air strip, shooting up everything and
placing satchel charges on planes and blowing them sky high. A platoon of
APC went to react and the NVA got two of the APCs, they were hit by RPGs
and lost two killed and five wounded. They did kill twenty and capture
fifteen NVA. You might have seen me mention John Caldwell. He and I went
through A.I.T. at Ft. Polk and APC training at Ft. Knox. Well, he was
trapped in the library for six hours. the NVA had the place surrounded for
six hours. They were saved by the APCs which came to help. The enemy finally
withdrew at about 5 a.m., but it still wasn't over. We had a lot of the NVA
running around the base camp and they had to be hunted down. I think we
caught the last one at around 2 p.m. the next day. We have some old French
mansions left over from the French. The NVA hid in these and it was quite a
job of flushing them out. All in all, Dau Tieng lost twenty two killed. We
killed seventy one. That's the number of bodies we found. It's hard telling
how many they dragged away with them. So it's been very tense here.
Intelligence expects another attack, but we don't know when for sure. Last
night we were probed and tonight there's been some action. A few rockets
have been roaming in every now and then."
The picture below is the other APC that got hit on the left (NORTH)side of the runway.
The next 2 pics are a couple of L119-"Birdog" spotter planes that the NVA destroyed with satchel charges in the Air Force area.
Another unfortunate bird dog below.
Lee (Pete) Hanner's Personal Account. Thanks to Pete!!
This web page brought back memories that I had forgotten. As an 11 Bravo
with the D Co., 1/27 Wolfhounds I saw Dau Tieng as a safe haven untill Feb.
22, 1969. I was on ambush that night just to the left of the airstrip and
just inside the woodline where the gooks came through. We were caught in a
crossfire all night long and gooks were everywhere. If my memory serves me
correctly, we pulled ambush in Dau Tieng for a few nights. We were trying
to eliminate what was still in the base camp. We left Dau Tieng in July,
when the first infantry came in. My platoon was the last to leave Dau-
Tieng.
These next 2, below are of the same OV-10. Another spotter plane the AF FACS
used to help their "Fast Mover" buddies in TA Bail our Bazuskis outta LOT of jams!
Another view of it.
Ken Whitley's Personal Account
Based on West end of Dau Teing at D-229th, 1st Cav.
WO1, Cobra Driver. Thanks, Ken!
I was an FNG Cobra pilot firing inside our own camp toward our runway. How could I ever forget? Only death will erase my vivid memories of fighting from eleven-thirty until dawn. I was gassed, shot at, scared, brave, bold, and left with a possibility of killing some friendly American's although I don't know this as absolute fact. Two plus two often adds up to a solution. An answer that I've debated inside my head ever since. It's a long scary tale that left me alive but mostly by accident rather than planning. I thought, "Never again will I live through something as bad as this," but over time I learned to never say never in war. This night was but a warm up in my struggle to stay alive for 365 days in Dau Teing, South Vietnam.
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