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On one day back in the
early part of 1967, Dusters from A
Battery 1st/44th Air Defense Artillery left out of our
firebase in Gio Linh to support the Marines & Sea Bee's who were going to
set up an observation tower, all went well. They dug the holes and along comes the crane helicopter and sets the
tower in place - job done - back to Gio Linh for another evening of NVA mortar and artillery "entertainment".
Next day we are out in
the field again. Grunts are out in
front sweeping for mines for the two M-48 tanks, a bulldozer and two Dusters
(A-141 & A-142). A-142 is just
ahead of us trying to stay in the tank's tread-tracks to avoid mines. I am on
A-141 bringing up the rear with our Platoon Leader Lieutenant who was riding
with us.
We get a little over a
mile or so out on a 300 yard wide, coast to coast, barren strip where nothing
thinks of growing and BOOM! Our
sister track (A-142) hits a mine. Peiro,
the driver of the track, was hurt when the explosion broke the driver's hatch
loose and cracked his head open. That
track needed to be towed home.
We waited about a half an
hour for the tank retriever to come and get them. When the retriever arrived and just about had them hooked up,
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, mortars started coming in all over the place. Our Lieutenant spotted the smoke from their tubes and called up to me and
pointed them out. So we started to return fire with our twin 40mm cannons. Next thing you know the incoming rounds started moving towards us. First to the left and front of us, then to the rear and right of our
position. Being and artilleryman, I
could see from my position in the turret that Charlie was zeroing in on us. Meanwhile Parker who was substituting for Cloudt, our regular driver who
was on R&R, was trying to get our track started. All the while the incoming
rounds kept getting closer and closer. They
had us pretty well lined up. One landed about 40 yards behind us and the next
one only 20 yards out but more centralized.
When Parker finally got
the Duster started, for some reason he put it in reverse and we started to back
up. I grabbed on to the sight bar
and stood up in the turret and screamed down to him "NOT IN REVERSE!!" Then he put it into drive and we started moving forward. Right then there
was another loud BOOM as a mortar round exploded this time not more than five
feet behind us! It's a good thing I had on my helmet and flak jacket on
because when the round went off, it felt like I was being sandblasted from
behind. We got the hell out of there in a hurry. We were about half way back to Gio Linh when our Lieutenant finally got
Parker to stop. We returned a few
more rounds of counter-fire just as our jets showed up and dropped Napalm and
some high explosive (HE) bombs. The
planes were so close you could see the difference between the Napalm and the HE
bombs as they left the planes. Napalm
would tumble when released and the HE bombs would glide straight. Even from
where we were located you could still feel the heat from the Napalm. Too close
for my comfort baby. The party was
over and it was back to Gio Linh for another evening of "entertainment".
Tomorrow is another day - hopefully.
- Paul Gronski
Next: First Rocket Attack
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