Vietnam War Timeline

437
15 January 1969
Charlie 7/17
Submitted by: Dave Fogg

Jose L. Martinez A/7/17 Cav emailed me this account of 15 Jan 1969 prior to D 1/35 going in to reinforce.


Also on the 15th, C Troop worked an AO north of Plei Djereng. The VHPA
Helicopter database has a battle damage and loss with fatalities record for
C Troop AH-1G #67-15651 at grid YA878677 flown by 1LT Sterling E. Cox and
WO1 James B. Petteys. They crashed while making a gun run and both pilots
were killed. The NVA demonstrated great fire control discipline until the
Blues were inserted. Then a huge battle developed that would last for
several days. What follows is one account of that battle:
PFC Garfield Langhorn, an RTO in C Troop\'s Blues accompanied his unit on a
search and rescue mission north of Plei Djereng. The platoon was inserted
about 300 meters from a downed Cobra. After hacking their way to the crash
site, they retrieved the bodies of the two pilots. Because of the
additional load and the terrain, the Blues were forced to travel down the
mountain side to the river where a better PZ was located. As the point
lead the way down to the stream bed, less than 50 meters from the PZ, the
entire visible length of the river bed erupted with a holocaust of weapons
fire. As the platoon leader hurriedly directed his men into a hasty
perimeter, PFC Langhorn had already radioed the platoon\'s critical
situation to the orbiting gunships and the C&C ship. The Guns provided
supporting fire but darkness soon intervened, prohibiting accurate aerial
support. Realizing this, the NVA began to probe the perimeter, lobbing
hand grenades inside. PFC Langhorn was lying between his platoon leader
and a rifleman, providing cover fire for them and his wounded comrades in
addition to controlling the radio. Suddenly, a hand grenade sailed into
the perimeter, rolling to a stop on Langhorn\'s left side, a few feet from
some of his wounded comrades. Without hesitation, PFC Langhorn chose to
protect the lives of his buddies. Thrusting his body at the grenade, he
scooped the object beneath himself and absorbed the explosion. Smothering
the blast with his body, Langhorn, in devotion to his fellow comrades,
rendered the final ultimate act above and beyond the call of duty. On Apr
7, 1970, PFC Langhorn was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

CW2 Bob Mitchell provides another account of this battle. The story really
starts the night before. There was a real argument in Doug Hammond\'s (the
Gun platoon leader) room over who would fly with Sterling Cox. Cox was
known as a \"cowboy\" and a young WO we nicknamed \"hayseed\" (because he was a
blonde towheaded young kid) was refusing to fly with him. He would not be
persuaded as he insisted Sterling was going to kill someone, and it wasn\'t
going to be him. The argument stopped when Jim Petteys, another AH-1G AC,
said: \"stop the argument, I\'ll fly with him.\" Hayseed flew wing the next
day and lived; Petteys and Cox did not. I was flying lead Scout. I would
fly lead if the schedule dictated, but I much preferred the wing position
because it had the minigun. I think that was probably a carry over from my
days flying Guns. I wanted a trigger under my finger. The morning was
pretty much uneventful as we were searching the river west of Kontum for
crossing sites. There were major trail networks coming in from the west to
the river, about 30 to 50 meters wide at the point of our search. They
picked up on the east side and continued east. We stopped at a small SF
Camp, Polei Kleng I think, for lunch. We were sitting around on a bunch of
old 175mm barrels eating Cs and shooting our 38s at tin cans. In the
process we discovered if you took real careful aim you could shoot the
barbed wire fence in half. Well, shortly after we had broken the second
strand of a three strand fence, a jeep came flying up and a young SF CPT
got out and ripped us a new one. He wanted to know who was in charge. We
were all WOs or enlisted, so we pointed to 1LT Cox. The CPT raved about
how they had put up the fence to keep the cows off the blankety-blank
airstrip to make it better for the aviators and now here were the aviators
shooting down his fence. Well, Sterling just took the heat and gave us
that little grin of his as the CPT drove off. We finished lunch and headed
for our aircraft when I remembered I had not crossed the date off my \"short
timers calendar\"; something I did every morning without fail. I mentioned
it to Jim Petteys, who was climbing into the front of Cox\'s Snake. He made
the hex sign at me with his fingers and said \"stay away from me, something
bad\'s going to happen.\" We all laughed and started out on the mission. I
was hovering around down on the river searching the banks when we
discovered several dugout canoes sunk close along the bank. They had large
rocks in them to hold them under water until they were needed to ferry
supplies across the river. I informed the Guns and asked if they wanted to
shoot them up. Dumb question! Gun pilots live to shoot! Sterling called
for us to mark the target, which I did. We hovered in close, let a smoke
start to burn and then dropped it in the water. It dyed the water and made
a good aim point. I said, \"Smokes out\" and started a climbing left turn
watching the first Cobra (Cox) inbound out the left door looking across in
front of the observer. The run was being made perpendicular to the valley
with fairly high terrain to the rear (east) and a more gentle, but rapidly
rising terrain to the front (west). The first rockets were long, impacting
on the shore west of the boats. The Cobra\'s dive steepened sharply, too
low, as I can only assume Cox knew we would raze him for missing the
target. I could see the mini raking the water as Jim worked the
turret. Too late Cox pulled the Cobra up sharply. The aircraft responded
and was in a nose up attitude, but continued to \"mush\" through. It started
hitting trees, the blades coned incredibly as branches and large limbs
flew. I started down, knowing they were going to crash. The Cobra
staggered and started to rise -- they were going to make it -- but then
exploded!! The explosion was as a napalm strike and Cox and Petteys died
instantly. MAJ Ledford told me to go in to look for survivors. I did, but
knew there was no hope. The fire was intense and the onboard ammunition
was exploding everywhere. It was dangerous to stay too close, but I
tried. The CO was beside himself! He called and launched the blues; then
landed about 150 meters away and let his crewchief and gunner out - telling
me to guide them to the wreckage. I did this by hovering slowly backward
down the hill, guiding them through the thick jungle with hand signals. As
I neared the wreck, a huge explosion rocked my ship. I can only assume it
was the 40mm drum going up all at once. I was thankful the two guys on the
ground weren\'t that close to the site yet. The Lift arrived and a Scout
escorted them into the LZ as the Gun team on station was a composed of two
very inexperienced wingmen. As the Blues started walking down toward the
wreck, we had to break for fuel. When we arrived back on station, there
was big trouble!! The NVA had allowed our Blues to get the bodies (they
were too hot to handle and the slicks had hovered in one by one dropping
fire extinguishers which the Blues used to cool the bodies enough to get
them in the bags) and then ambushed them as they worked their way down to
the river where a sandbar was to be their PZ. I found the Blues laying in
a small clearing, in a small circle, almost feet to feet, facing out. I
think there were 18 of them. The NVA was very close in on them. So close
in fact, that we had to use the Scouts for fire support as the Guns
couldn\'t shoot that close. We made pass after pass with 60 door guns
shooting within ten meters of our guys and them all the while telling us to
move it in. It was beginning to get very dark when the our Lift arrived
with the ready reaction force. A night insertion, time and time again,
into hot LZs - who ever said \"slicks are for kids.\" Bob Parker, one of the
original Chaparrals and a great slick driver, put seven guys in the wrong
LZ. On climb out, he realized he had put them in short and called that he
was going back to get them. The battalion CO said to leave them; they
would marry up later. They turned out to be the luckiest group as they
were in the NVA\'s rear and the NVA didn\'t seem to know it!! They watched,
counted, and killed when they could for the next two days. The first night
was probably the worst. The NVA had our guys surrounded, calling to them
in the night as in the old Japanese war movies. Grenades rained in all
night. I remember talking to the LT over a game of pool some time
later. He was still \"rattled\" by those days; but he did a GREAT job during
that battle. He said you\'d hear a thud and only have a split second to
decide if the grenade was in the hole with you or had just landed
nearby. Once or twice he had jumped out of the hole and laid flat on the
ground when the blast went off. Once he didn\'t move and nothing
happened. The next morning almost everyone found a dud grenade near them;
his was in the hole with him!! It was during this period the PFC Langhorn
covered a grenade as noted above. The LT also said there were holes in the
Cobra\'s mast and that crash site was in close proximity to an NVA bunker
complex. He said it seemed possible to him for the NVA gunners to believe
the Cobra was firing at them and that they had opened up on Cox as he was
coming through the trees! Anyway, finally it was too dark and the Scouts
were of no more use; we were ordered home. I gave the controls to my
observer and hung my head and cried. Sterling was a very good friend. I
didn\'t fly the next two days as the battle ragged. I don\'t know why. I
think because I was so close to Cox. Instead I paced the Troop area
waiting for word from the front. The NVA finally withdrew and we got
everyone out. I believe there were five US dead. C Troop lost PFC
Langhorn and the two pilots, but I also think almost every one of our Blues
were wounded.