I have
been asked to say a few words about my experience with the 7th Cav because
of the movie coming out next month. I can only say what it was like two
weeks after those two battles, as a replacement for one of those that were
killed in A Company 1/7th. I can tell what I learned from these guys and
what it was like to be in that hostile climate for my period as a FNG. I
have told some of these things in the past .
I arrived at An Khe on 2 December 1965 by myself alone and scared dropped
off the back of a 2 1/2 truck into about 3' of mud at which time I lost my
left shoe in that mud that would not let it go. I looked for someone who
could tell me where to go and where I could find a bed and so forth. The
company was in the field and only a few left in the company area. When I
walked in to a tent with a light
on and asked what to do I was told to find a bed a go to sleep. So walking
in my khakis and one shoe I found an empty bed in the dark and mud covered
fell into a cot and fell asleep. Thus ended my 5 day flight on a C-130
from Atlanta Georgia to An Khe plus the bull-shit at camp alpha.
Next day I awoke after morning chow so did not get any and was sent to the
supply sergeant on detail to separate the battalions gear from those
killed or wounded. That was my first time seeing bloody and torn web gear.
Some was
ok to be reused a lot was not. I got what was in the best shape of the
group. That day finished after dark with myself getting decked out with
the only weapon I had never seen before the M79. I was a fireman at Fort
Gordon during Airborne AIT and did not have that class, figures. Plus all
the gear the supply wanted to get rid of. Entrenching tool, machete,
sleeping bag and poncho and liner. Plus 4 grenades and I forget how many
rounds of M79 seemed everything weighed a ton. No one used a sleeping bag
in the jungle. Was thrown away that next night.
As you know when you carry an M79 or machine gun you get a 45 pistol. More
on this later.
The next morning , I was picked up at the heli-pad to be taken out to the
company in the field. As I waited for the huey to pick me up, my heart was
racing. I had never seen a huey before and except for a husky model,
my dad bought me, never seen any helicopter before. When it arrived, it
was full of
medical
supplies and other needed supplies. I ran, or what could be called running, around
the front and jumped in. Then, as I looked at the huey coming in, I
thought the blade picked it up and the exhaust made it go forward. I also
thought the FM antennas on the front were machine guns. Yes, I know how
stupid that sounds now, but at 18 years three months old, I was very
naive.
We took off and I was as excited , as any one could be, I was off to war
and would soon be joining the GUYS who knew how to fight and would soon
teach me what I needed to know. I had never heard of the FNG theory. I
would find out soon enough. But as we flew out, in what seemed a very
short ride, I would also find out what the different distance is to a
helicopter and an infantry man would be like.
I can see in the distance a hill covered with elephant grass, as I would
come to know what that was, as it would cut the shit out of you as you -
cut it for hours at a time. I could see smoke, don't remember what color
now, but probably was red or purple. Any way, we landed in the middle of a
circle of men. Three or four of them were running towards me. I thought
for just that few seconds, dam they are coming to welcome me. That thought
left as they raced by me and started
unloading supplies. Then I looked to
see if anyone was going to come and tell me what to do, nobody did. Then a
LT. started walking towards the men unloading supplies with some letters
in his hand. What did I do? Yes, you guessed it the only thing more stupid
then shooting a LT is saluting one in the field. He yelled something to me
that I did not hear and through the helicopter sounds heard something
about seeing Sgt. Hines. Now, put yourself in my position, you know no
one, your very immature, very young and in awe of everyone. I just stood
there. The helicopter left and I started walking around the line of men on
top of the hill. I asked where I could find Sgt Hines. My voice not much
above a whisper. When I got an answer it was from someone who was not
looking at me and with a tone of disgust, like you f------ idiot.
I thought to myself this is not going the way I thought it would go and
kept walking till I finally found my squad and Sgt Woody Hines. He would
be my teacher, he was black as the ace of spades, skinny with a mustache.
I would remember him forever, as the one who would say every
morning, "saddle up," for most of my tour.
Spent that first night somewhere in Happy Valley scared to death
and pulled the 2400 to 0300 watch. I had not heard so much, as a where you
from, or asked anything. These guys did not smile, let alone laugh. It
would be weeks
midway through Masher/White Wing before that would come and only
then on events that did not make me laugh, or even understand why they
were laughing.
No that would come later, you have to learn to how to hate to your very
core. I had never hated anything like that before, so I was kind of numb
in viewing certain things that would happen. I would not get their hate
till much later, long after seeing the first of many die, even after
seeing some one ripped in half by his own grenade and one man hit with a
rocket from an ARA ship. No, this hate takes a lot more then that , I
would need to survive my own day in the Ia Drang to develop
that.
Part II
Well it is a week later and I have seen the movie about the Ia Drang
battle. I should say the first part of the Ia Drang battle. This movie
made me pause and review what I had written so far and I made a few
corrections above. No on to the second part of my FNG time in the 7th US
Cavalry.
After that first week of humping mountains during the wet season and
barely being able to keep up, which was so strange to me because I was in
the best shape of my life, as I would find out everybody goes through this
period of getting used to humidly and the heavy weight, humping
that high up in the mountains. We were sent back to An Khe.
When we arrived back at base camp it would become apparent to me that this
would be the pattern for the rest of my tour - two days back in base
camp - then on the third, back out somewhere to either a mission, or to
guard something somewhere.
We still were wearing state side fatigues and boots, which stayed wet and
the boots made climbing muddy mountains a nightmare and also made keeping
your feet dry impossible. On the first day, we cleaned our weapons and
gear, replaced any old ammo and loaded up on any short gear. During the
second day, I along with a couple of new guys, were sitting in our tent
cleaning our weapons and talking about what we had seen so far in our
short time there. * I decided I should display my quick draw techniques to
the 'newbees ' and was spinning the forty-five when one of
the old guys walked in the tent behind me. I did not see him approach but
when he got close enough he let fly a right cross to my head and was
yelling something at me that I could not hear as I was on the ground with
my head spinning. He continued to walk out the other end of the tent. I
asked the others what he had said and they told me he
said we do not play with our weapons ever, clean and empty or not. Point
was well taken and never forgotten, points given like this seldom are.
The talk in our tents at night were always was about the Ia Drang battle
in November. The old guys would always point out the difference between
the NVA and the VC. Whenever we had got hit during my first few weeks it
was always by VC and after each little fire fight, I would
say man that was some shit. Then they would say, man just wait till you
meet up with the NVA. I heard this for about a two months until Masher/White
Wing which started January 28th 1966. We would meet them then and I
would have to agree 100 percent.
When these men would talk about the November battle they would include
details of how the NVA would be able to get almost in the fox hole with
you before you could see them. They were very quiet and would take all
night to get this close before attacking you. This also stuck with me for
the rest of my tour, and the rest of my life. How they would attack in
human waves that were hard to stop. I could only remember the Jap movies I
had watched as a child, dam another fear.
These fears, I am sure are shared with most of the infantry guys from that
war and of wars that came before. We learned of the enemies ways of
getting through wire defenses and how they would tie up trip wires and
turn claymore mines around.
I am sure in my mind I made these guys out to be super men of the jungle,
men who could walk and not be seen, come at you at a fast, bent forward
run and not be heard. I'm sure most of you thought of having your throat
cut while sleeping at some base camp, or forward area, but in the jungle
they are always thought to be around you every day and more to the
point, every night, you think this will happen to you during each and
every one of them.
My take on Lt. Col. Hal Moore, during this period. As you know as a PFC
you do not sit and chew the fat with LTC'S. or for that manner, SJM'S. No,
my contact with Moore would be first, of seeing him address the Battalion
before going into Bon Son. Second, when he landed his helicopter in front
of us, while we were pinned down in rice paddies and yelling at his
company commanders why were we not moving!! I watch him in amazed
wonderment and then looked at the helicopter crewmen in his landed huey
and wondered how they felt being between the NVA and us.
When he talked you could have heard a pin drop. He never raised his voice
to make a point. He was very matter of fact in what he would say. He had
the presence of one that was in absolute control of all his men with out
question. I can attest this is a fact. From his company commanders on
down, everyone trusted him to the utmost. Only the new guys like
myself would have to wait to see why this was. It did not take long. I do
not remember anything about the SJM Plumly, so can not say anything about
him. But as he was portrayed in the movie I can only guess that was how he
was. I do know that Moore had the utmost
confidence in him so everyone else would have had to had the same.
In the movie you will hear the name of my company commander Capt.. Nadal
mentioned a few times. I remember him as one who was never shook up and
always calm no matter what was going on around him. I think he is
mentioned a lot in Larry Guinn's book Baptism. He went to the 2/7th a
short time after that and finished his tour with them. Though not
mentioned in the movie Lt Marm won the MOH in this battle, I thought that
was an over site. I learned 30 years later that as a MOH winner he never
had to see combat again, but he did go back and serve in an infantry
company for another tour. I respected him more for that than winning the
MOH.
This about wraps up my memories of these guys during those first few
months as an FNG.
Don Frederick
735 Brandy Circle Apt-A
Bowling Green Ky. 42104
VISIT HIS WEBSITE:
HTTP://WWW.ARMED-FALCON.COM
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