Vietnam War Timeline

19
26 August 1970
Bravo 2/35th
Submitted by: Jim "Doc" Hall

In one of his "Tall Tales..." Dick Arnold tells the story of the day that "Big Man See's the Elephant". My personal encounter with "The Elephant" occurred on Aug 26, 1970. His name was Roger. The incident actually started on August 24th. This is the day that they brought 1st platoon Bravo Co a brand new shiny 2nd Lt. They dropped him in during an afternoon resupply while we were out in the field. His butterbars were gold not black on his uniform and everything was shiny and pressed. Within minutes he and our new platoon Sgt were making inspection rounds of our perimeter inspecting weapons, uniforms, and personal grooming just like we were on a parade ground back in the world. We moved away from this to find a night logger a short distance away and spent an uneventful night.

On the 25th we moved out for our first official day in the field with our new leader. The turnover in our platoon during the previous month or so had been remarkable. There were very few of the old guys left. I believe that there were only 4 guys who had been with us for more than 2 months. The LT checked his map and started us out towards some destination known to but a few. We
seemed to wander aimlessly through fairly thick brush and elephant grass up hills and through valleys. Every half hour or so a halt would be called and the LT and Platoon Sgt would study their maps and argue about just where we were.

Maps would be turned in every sort of direction including upside down until finally they would call in Sgt Phil Lorino (one of the old guys). Phil would finally orient the map and off we would go. (Trouble is we always seemed to be halting and arguing in the worst tactical positions but the LT seemed oblivious to this.)

This went on all day long and the halts and resulting \"Cluster F--ks\" were nerve racking.

Late, late into the day we had to hurry to find a night logger before the sun set. The choice was absolutely the worst I\'d ever seen. It was a mushroom cap of a rock outcrop in the center of a small valley. The drop off on 3 sides was about 30 - 35 feet straight down. However these 3 sides also had towering cliffs overlooking our night logger about 50 feet away. The remaining side had a small footbridge of rock leading in (about 4 ft wide over the 20 ft span back to the valley side). We prepared the best we could before night fell. We couldn't bring Nightlogger's in very close because of the cliff's on 3 sides meant we'd have to thread a needle to avoid hitting our position. We put out whatever claymores that we could given the terrain. I had found myself as an instructor in putting out claymores over the past couple of weeks. (Remember I was a medic. This wasn't exactly in my training). This night passed without incident.

The morning of the 26th dawned and we moved out thankful for not being ambushed at our ill chosen nightlogger. However, the first trial of the day was that we had to skirt those cliffs using only a 3 or 4 ft walking path that hugged the cliff side and dropped off into the valley on the other side. Any sniper could of wiped us out on the path or when we emerged again to the jungle. This day was filled with the same starts and stops as the day before. The area was more hilly and wooded at times but also lead to expanses of tall elephant grass. We had a dog and handler with us and at times the dog would alert while crossing the elephant grass. We never found the reason for the alerts and no contact was made. Toward the end of the day we started encountering punji sticks and the dog brushed up against one and scraped his shoulder. We then emerged from the elephant grass to an area of low grass and gentle hills as far as we could see. Again it was very late in the day and we found a nightlogger that wasn't too bad on the crest of one of these hills.

When we stopped it was very near dark and the dog handler came to me to ask that his dog be medivac'd because of the punji stick wound. The wound was superficial and I had cleaned and bandaged it well but I was willing to medivac the dog the next day. The dog handler wouldn't have any of this he insisted that we call in a medivac now. Again I refused so he went to the new LT. The LT then ordered that we call in the medivac. By the time that the medivac arrived it was fairly dark and they had to use their landing lights. This certainly told every Dink in 20 miles exactly where we were. After this I still had to help the new guys by showing them where to put out claymores. I then sat down next to the RTO who was calling in nightloggers. The new LT and the platoon Sgt were arguing over just where we were on the map. At some point they had called in an "I Love Lucy" spotter round. As this was to be delivered the RTO (also a new guy) left to join the map reading group to help in the latest argument. He handed me the mike set. The ILL round came in and popped directly above our head. I keyed the mike and told the arty people \"Be advised the round popped directly over our head\". Incredibly the voice on the other end came back and asked, \"Repeat H.E.?\" At this time I found myself completely overwhelmed by the \"perceived\" incompetence around me. In disgust I keyed the mike again and said, \"Yea go ahead, You probably won\'t kill us all!\" I knew immediately that this was a stupid thing to say but before I could correct my stupidity a voice came over the radio. It was the platoon leader from one of our sister platoons. He was screaming, \"Negative, negative, do not repeat HE.\" I can\'t begin to tell you how good it felt to know that there was one competent person out there somewhere looking after us. I'm sorry today that I can't remember the name of that LT. I'd really like to tell him how much that meant.

Two days later we were called back to the rear for a 2 day standdown. During these 2 days my replacement showed up and I was officially out of the field. 3 weeks later the new LT stepped on a booby trapped M-79 round and was sent back to the world. By the way the dog's name was Roger. The medivac was on station at 1915 and completed at 1927 and taken back to LZ English.