LUCK, a  inbred CAUTION, and the ability to make decisions on my  own. As  Plt Sgt I had two men who suffered light wounds due to a enemy claymore mine.

With this kind of luck and record, the word was out that I took care of and watched out for my men. To me this was the only way, every one depends on each other. You don't take needless chances, but you have to be aggressive when it is called for. A example of this was one day on a BN sized search & destroy mission.  We had been in the field perhaps two weeks, with the BN spread over a large area. Each company was fanned out in Plt patrols, it had been pretty quite the whole time and the operation was about to wind down. At the end of this day the BN was to be together in this large open area,and we would be airlifted out the next day. My company had been one of the last to arrive and my Plt was the last to get in. The other companies had the perimeter , with my company in reserve more or less in the center. I brought 2nd Plt in last, we had hardly got our gear off when several snipers open up from the edge of the clearing, rather mass confusion with the whole BN trying to hug the dirt.

There was lots of return fire as the company on the perimeter fired BLINDLY into the woods. After a few min the firing stopped, and every thing settled back to normal. We had broke out the c-rations and then the sniper fire again, same thing all over, pretty quick it was quite again, and then more sniper fire. Well then word came down for me to go see the 1st sgt, and his orders were to take some men and get rid of the snipers, I said OK but to make damn sure we didn't get shot at by our own men. Now this was something new to me, but my old Tank  training came back, " In a Tank outfit if you are moving into a known enemy area you recon the area with fire power, mostly with all machine guns, this will either make the enemy expose his self or to bug out" Well we put on a show for the BN that afternoon.

I took the whole PLT single file at a trot to the edge of the clearing about 200 yards from where the sniper fire came from, we did a left flank and with aprox 20 ft between men set off at a fast double time, as the PLT centered it self on where the sniper fire had came from, without stopping we did a right flank and moved on line into the woods with all weapons on full auto. We moved maybe a 100 yards into the woods, shot up half a basic load, never did see any snipers, but we did find a small cache of mortar shells that would have been used against us that night. When we got back to the company and as we were getting settled down, the 1st Sgt came up, and his words were ( You guys acted like you knew what you were doing ) To me this was the top complement. This action took place after I had became Plt Sgt of the 2nd Plt. This is a good example by what I mean when I say being aggressive when needed and able to make your own decision on the spot. Not needlessly risking your men brings to mind a instance that took place when I was still a squad leader.

We were on a BN operation and my company had been airlifted in to provide security for a 155 howitzer unit We had never been in this area before, but the 155s were set up on a small hill in the center of a large plain. There was wooded low hills perhaps two miles in all directions and it was nothing but grassland in between. After setting up our positions word came down, that each Plt was to send a recon patrol to the wooded area in front of them, It was my squads turn, so off we went. As we approached the woods we could see that  it was not heavy woods but fairly open. Also that we were coming to a wide ridge that led in the direction

we were going. This ridge was a natural roadway and there was a well worn foot path leading right down it. I called back to Charlie Six ( company commander ) told him about the path and his orders were to follow it and see what we came upon. We followed this path for over a hour, going straight away from the company, As the visibility was good in all directions I was not to concerned about being this far from base camp. ( I should explain that we moved in typical Inf patrol formation) single file distance between men just where you could see the man in front, As their was no danger of ambush we had no flanks out, but the last man had the job of watching our rear.) As we moved we could see that we were coming to a narrow long valley, Maybe a ½ mile wide and several miles long. This valley was over grown with Bamboo that looked to be 30 to 40 feet tall. The ridge and trail that we were on, dropped down into this mess.

We moved off the trail and I checked in with Charlie Six, told him what the situation was, and gave him our location. Charlie Six had just taken over the unit and quite frankly he had no practical  experience and when his orders were to proceed into this valley and investigate, I knew that he had no idea just how far we had our neck stuck out.( A squad over 2 hours away from help if we got into trouble.) We took a break while I adjusted a few spotter rounds from the 155s as there was no way I was going in there without fire support ready to start firing. As we dropped down into the valley, visibility got down to a matter of feet, then the point man signaled to halt! The trail crossed a small stream, maybe 2 feet wide. In the wet mud were several tracks of HO CHI MIN sandals, all going in the same direction we were traveling. I was pretty sure that we had not been spotted by any VC on our approach to the valley, but I was not very happy with the situation that we were starting to walk into. I took one man and we moved on across the stream and up the trail for maybe 100 yards, the trail wound all over and no place could you see 10 feet in front of you. Well the hairs are standing up on the back of my neck and I came to the conclusion that enough was enough. We moved back, picked up the rest of the squad and quietly moved back up the hill to where I had called in to Charlie Six before. There we took a ½ hour break, I radioed in, we had found nothing of interest and were returning back to base. That is a example of not taking needless chances!

Another story that comes to mind, is about a squad leader in the 1st plt, I had heard that when he took out a ambush patrol, that as soon as they would be out of sight, they would set up for the night real close to the perimeter . I must explain that the locations for the ambush patrol was picked by the CO not the squad leader. At night the supporting artillery would fire harassment fire at different locations around the perimeter . Now the artillery had the locations of all ambush patrols and not even close to the patrol would they fire unless requested. But it is very  important that the patrol be where it should be. This one night, this squad Ldr took out a patrol and during the night they took a direct hit from a friendly 155 round. They had set up close to base camp( 1 KIA, 2 wounded ) A waste because of a NCO who was afraid to do what he was trained for.

For a patrol to arrive to where they should be at night is not easy, but with careful planing it can be done. To start with you have to lay out the legs of your patrol, which is simply determine at what   azimuth you will travel and how far you will travel before changing directions.