Those fighting positions were no match for concentrated water power!

Transcription

1 In the latter part of December 1969, I was assigned to the Patrol River Boat (PBR) River Division 511 (a River Element of Task Force 116 Game Wardens) at Muc Hoa just down from the Cambodian Border with an Ammie Barge Base set-up at Muc Hoa City. My primary mission for RIVDIV-511 was to search out and destroy all the NVA/VC fighting positions along both sides of the river banks of the Song Vam Co Tay River which my crew and I could find which is a whole other story. My boat was a Program V converted Armor Troop Carrier Water Cannon equipped boat. The water cannons put out 2,700 gallons of water a minute at 250 pounds pressure at the nozzles. Meaning, if one was to stand next to one of the streams of water and with a baseball bat try to drive the bat through the water stream, one might get yanked over the side. More likely the striking at the water stream would be like hitting a large diameter Schedule 80 steel pipe. The water cannons were very powerful. In the area of responsibility for PBR River Division 511 there were hundreds of yards of NVA/VC Spider Holes, Fighting Trenches and Bunkers especially up near the Cambodian Border mostly along the eastern bank of the Song Vam Co Tay River. The Spider Holes and Fighting Trenches which the NVA/VC built were quite ingenious in construction to say the very least. Simply speaking, in the bottom of the holes or trenches, there was a length of hollowed-out bamboo which allowed the fighting position to drain out during an ebb tide. Not to mention that some of the berms facing the river in front of some of the trenches had 24 inches of mud backed by 6 to 8-inch diameter logs sandwiched between another 12 inches of mud. Fifty- caliber Armor Piercing Tracers wouldn t even penetrate more than 10 or so inches, into the berm, if that. This was the main reason for my boat Tango-14 being assigned to PBR River Division 511, to destroy as many ambush sights I could find. Those fighting positions were no match for concentrated water power!

2 Late one night in mid-december 1969, I was just outside of the PBR base and was monitoring the working circuit, when the AN/PRC-46 radio came alive with calls between Lima-1 and Lima-2 along with Mike-1 and Mike-2, two PBR patrols up river. Seems an NVA/VC unit was setting up an ambush which had allowed both patrols to go up river and around a bend in the Song Vam Co Tay River up towards the Cambodian Border. Neither patrol, of course, ran into anything on the way in, but coming out was another story. There were at least 100 yards of NVA/VC fighting positions set up and as you know the first Welcome to my Ambush rounds were either/or B-40 s or RPG-7 s followed by intense automatic weapons fire. Lima-1 and Lima-2 managed to evade the rockets when both patrols went to ahead full fighting their way out of the ambush site. Lima-1 called back to Mike-1 who acknowledged he saw the action and they were closing up their position at best speeds available. All four PBRs were heavily engaged and returning fire. Mike-1 called Mike-2 and told Mike-2 to,...watch out. They re directing fire at you... Mike-2 replied,...those clowns can t hit me... and a few seconds later Mike-2 was calling,...help! Help! I m on the beach. Seems Charlie had reloaded his rockets by this time and took a bead on Mike-2. The reflexes of the Boat Captain of Mike-2 were such that even at that close range, damn near point blank, he dodged the rocket with hard right rudder turning towards the river bank. In that short of distance and going somewhere near 30+ knots, the PBR hit the riverbank, went airborne, and skidded to a stop about 15 or so yards inland from the river. The PBR had effectively been converted from a fast boat to a stationary Plexiglas fort! The other three PBRs continued to prosecute the NVA/VCs and were able to beat them Back enough to rescue the crew of Mike-2.

3 Additionally, shortly into the ambush and ensuing firefight Huey Gun Ships were directly involved and directing fire into the NVA/VC positions. As a side note I m looking up river and can clearly see the Huey s and their red tracers going down with some tracers ricocheting back up at an angle. Shortly into the Huey s first pass NVA/VC then turned their CHICOM 12mm machine guns from the PBR s to the Huey s. Unmistakably, CHICOM in that the tracers are white and some green and bracketing one of the Huey s. The Huey pilot who was in the direct line of fire dove down to tree top level to get out of the cone of fire from the CHICOM 12mm. All during the firefight the three PBR s continued in the Kill Zone returning fire plus cover fire to keep the NVA/VC s at bay and from firing directly into Mike-2 now hard aground up on and in from the river bank. One of the PBR s was in the process of evacuating the grounded PBR crewmen. As the day was dawning while still covering for the stranded Mike-2, the patrols were able to extract all the weapons and radios off of Mike-2. By dawn that same morning I was tasked with picking up a First Class Diver off of Baby Giant 2 a U.S. Navy Dive Boat unit and took him upriver with me to the Mike-2 grounding site, which turned out to be a flooded area with a large number tree stumps as it turned out to be a tree cutter s area. U.S. Navy Salvage Diver s Boat Baby Giant-2

4 When we arrived at Mike-2 s location, I beached my boat so that my stern 20 mm and all my.50 calibers would provide the Diver and I cover fire from the stern directly aft to just short of the bow ramp on either side. The bow ramp was armored and afforded some forward protection for the machinery in the well deck. Taking all the extra precautions was necessary because of being in an area where the NVA/VC had heavy weapons as demonstrated the night before. Also, as I ve experienced while directing the water cannon as shown in the photograph above, I suddenly got that feeling in the back of my neck that someone was watching. I slowly turned to my right to look behind me and sure enough, maybe about 200 yard to our rear was someone in Black Pajama s with a traditional pointed straw hat was watching. The Diver and I got into the water which was chest deep and slogged about 15 Yards inland to Mike-2 where she sat in about 12 inches of water keel in the mud. What amazed both of us is that Mike-2 had skidded to a stop in-between dozens of tree stumps which were about 18 inches above the water and Mike-2 didn t have a scratch on her hull! No holes which was a definite plus.

5 We slogged through the mud back to my boat and I told the Diver that I could use the water cannons to cut a trench wide and deep enough for me to get my boat into and then I d keep cutting in with the water cannons towards Mike-2. The Diver said that would be great and make the salvage mission somewhat easier. My crew and I maintained General Quarters, three manning the after machineguns, the coxswain maintaining our position on the river bank and one crew member directing the starboard water cannon. We were in heavy duty Indian Country which was most important for all of us to be on high alert. With the water cannon directed at the river bank we started cutting out and in toward the grounded PBR. After a period of time I directed my water cannon operator to direct the stream away from what he had just cut, which was a large area, and I climbed down the side of the boat into the trench he had just cut. When my feet touched the mud bottom I was about chest deep. Conferring with the Dive we both agreed that was more than deep enough to float out the PBR. After climbing back on board I had my coxswain back the boat off of the river bank and instructed him to drive the boat as far into the newly dug trench as he could, so ahead full and into the trench we went. Almost three quarters of a boat length went into the trench in the ideal position of having both of the propellers still in the main river if we needed to back out in a hurry. Again, with the water cannon the operator continued digging the trench up to the PBR Mike-2. With the water stream undercutting the PBR, the boat appeared to be ready to slide off of her perch so both the Dive and I entered the water, again about chest high at first then tapering off at a gentle slope up towards the PBR. I assisted the Diver with rigging what he said was a Salvage Bridle from what lines I had on board plus using what lines I could find on the PBR. Fortunately between the PBR s mooring lines and the lines I had on board there were just enough for the Salvage Bridle, which ran around the entire hull of the PBR, and towline running to my forward starboard Sampson Post. The purpose of the Salvage Bridle running around the PBR was so as not to crack the Plexiglas hull and especially not to attach any tow line to the cleats of the PBR as they d easily rip out. The only lines run to the cleats of the PBR were Lazy Lines which looped around the Salvage Bridle back up to each cleat to keep the Salvage Bridle in place. Just prior to starting the final phase of recovering the PBR and while the Diver was finishing rigging the Salvage Bridle, I made my way back to my boat and I called on the PBR River Division-511 Operations Frequency and advised them I d have their boat back in the river in about 30 minutes. The reply from the PBR River Division-511 Operations Officer was and exclamation of disbelief in that we were

6 ALREADY in the process of having their PBR floating back in the main river. Their response was words to the effect of,...no way..., which I of course said,...your boat will be ready by the time you get here. The Officer wanted a confirmation which I directly provided again. Then Roger Out was the only answer from PBR River Division-511 Operations Officer. The Diver was out of the water, back and safely on board and said all was ready on his part where as I directed my coxswain to start backing slowly to take a slight strain on the towline and Salvage Bridle. To break the mud suction my coxswain pivoted left then right then left again, which we d done numerous times before at other locations, and broke the mud suction on the bottom and slightly started out of the trench we d just dug. With a slight strain on the lines everything looked good, the Diver agreed and I ordered an increase of the backing bell. With the increase of the backing bell we slowly backed out of the canal we d dug and Mike-2 slid off the mud bank she was resting on and effortlessly she slid off her resting place and floated toward us on her own with slack in the towline. Increasing the backing bell and taking up the slack in the tow line to control the movement of Mike-2 we backed out of our canal with Mike-2 following my bow ramp at the end of the Salvage Bridle. When Mike-2 slid off of the mud bank she was grounded on, her motion resembled a new construction side-launching at a ship yard. The PBR just eased off the grounding site and followed us out of the trench we dug. Couldn t have been simpler. At this point while we were maneuvering to slow down the PBR and ease her alongside to tow her back to the PBR base, all of a sudden we hear the roar of a pair of PBR s and we turn to look and they re up on step heading right for our location. Full speed no less. Before we could get the Mike-2 alongside the PBR s ran up alongside their boat. Mike-2 wasn t even alongside yet, but the PBR sailors jumped onto Mike-2 anyway, threw off the Salvage Bridle into the river no less, chewed my ass out for...getting mud all over their boat..., put on their towing bridle, and roared off with Mike-2 leaving the Baby Giant Diver and myself looking at each other wondering what was all that about? Not a thank you. Just chewing our collectively asses out for getting mud on our boat!...you re welcome?.. I guess. P.S. This sea story is intended to be funny, sort of, however I still can t figure out PBR sailors.