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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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