Army unit being recognized for valor during 1970 Vietnam rescue
Washington Post
October 20, 2009 Pg. B1 For Heroes, Belated Honors Army unit being recognized for valor during 1970 Vietnam rescue By Michael E. Ruane, Washington Post Staff Writer The North Vietnamese soldiers were so close that Pasqual Gutierrez could see their eyes and faces as they darted among the bunkers in front of him. Bullets banged off the armor of his tank. Rocket-propelled grenades had just cut down Sgt. Foreman, and wounded Capt. Poindexter. The fighting was so fierce that machine gun barrels overheated, and one comrade stuck cigarette filters in his ears to keep out the noise. It was March 26, 1970. Location: A few Godforsaken acres of jungle, pocked by B-52 bomb craters, and now a stage where American tanks fired blasts of sharpened buckshot at an enemy who fought back from subterranean bunkers and could not be dislodged. Tuesday in the White House Rose Garden, almost 40 years later, President Obama is scheduled to pay tribute to Gutierrez and about 80 other Vietnam veterans who fought in the savage, unnamed battle, which resulted in the rescue of a company of trapped fellow soldiers. Gutierrez's outfit -- Alpha Troop, First Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment -- has been awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for its "extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry" in the fight, and the soldiers have been summoned to be honored. A truck driver from Harrisonburg, an architect from California, a businessman from Texas, they have come from across the country, many having only in the last few months reopened that harrowing chapter of their lives, when as scared, young soldiers they stood face-to-face with the enemy, as Gutierrez says, in a kind of deadly prizefight. "The analogy for me has always been: These two heavyweights stepping into the center of the ring," he said. "And then just going toe-to-toe, and pounding on each other . . . The first guy that connects, wins." A 'mad minute' of fire The Presidential Unit Citation, which was awarded to Alpha Troop in April, is the highest honor given to a military unit, and has been issued since World War II. It was delayed in part because the unit's old commander, Houston businessman John Poindexter, said he realized only recently that many of his men had gone unrecognized. He compiled a book about the battle and used it in 2005 to file for the honor. The award stems from an action in which Alpha Troop, under the command of then-Capt. Poindexter, volunteered to rescue about 80 American soldiers who were pinned down by an enemy battalion, according to official accounts. The battle took place along the Cambodian border, northwest of Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City. Poindexter had about 100 men in Alpha Troop, along with six light Sheridan tanks and about 14 Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicles, or A-cavs, bristling with machine guns. He had an additional 100 infantrymen assigned to him. Gutierrez, now a 60-year-old California architect, was then a 21-year-old welder's son from East Los Angeles, and the commander of one of the lead tanks. A platoon sergeant, he sat in the turret hatch manning both a .50 caliber machine gun, and the tank's 152mm cannon, which he said he operated with his feet. The battle began when Charlie Company, a separate group of American infantrymen, stumbled on the enemy bunkers the morning of March 26, took heavy casualties and were quickly surrounded. Based a few miles away, Poindexter, then 25, volunteered to take his outfit through the jungle to rescue the trapped "grunts." He did so, although his troop was exhausted from weeks in the field, and still in shock from an accidental mortar explosion the night before that had killed several men. As Alpha Troop pushed through the jungle, its men could see in the distance helicopters swooping low over the battlefield, Poindexter and Gutierrez said, and soon they could smell the smoke from the fighting. "It was pretty slow going," recalled Floyd Clark, 60, of Harrisonburg, a machine gunner. "You had a lot of time to think." They arrived on the scene with a suddenness that surprised both sides, Poindexter said last week. Gutierrez recalls being stunned by the sight of dead American soldiers, their bodies wrapped in ponchos, with their boots sticking out. "That . . . instilled in me that we were going to get in some serious business here," he said. Poindexter ordered everyone to open fire with all weapons for a "mad minute," Gutierrez said, "just to kind of turn the flame on the kettle and see what comes to a boil, see what comes back." Jungle went 'dead silent' Plenty came back, he said. Alpha troop answered with a burst of counter fire, Gutierrez said, and Poindexter ordered an advance. "Essentially, I don't ever remember not firing from that point on until the battle was over," Gutierrez said It was "punch for punch," he said. "Back and forth . . . Rockets are going everywhere . . . we're shooting at everything that's moving. They're shooting at everything that's moving." He saw a rocket-propelled grenade strike and kill Robert Foreman Jr., 32, a fellow sergeant and tank commander who had a wife and three children back in California. Another blast wounded Poindexter. Gutierrez, who was awarded the Silver Star for his actions in the battle, thought about his family back home, and wondered if he would survive. He was not sure how long the fight went on. But it ended abruptly. "Just like that, the jungle had gone dead silent," he said. "It was over." Alpha Troop loaded the survivors, and the dead and wounded, on its vehicles and headed back through the jungle to safety, and, for most, the rest of their lives. "The men of Charlie Company who are alive today understand that we owe our lives" to Alpha Troop, said the company commander, then-Captain George Hobson, who planned to be present Tuesday. Sgt. Foreman's widow, Gert, 75, who never remarried, will also be there with her daughter Bernadette, 43, who was 3 when her father died. Gert Foreman said the ceremony should not be about loss. "It's a celebration," she said. "It's a celebration . . . for the people who are here. . . . My daughter doesn't know much about her father. And she can listen to these guys here, telling what a wonderful person he was." |
Black Horse PUC
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/20/vietnam.citation/
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Well deserved and about time!
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Great minds think alike, Bob:)
Here is the article that was posted on the Early bird news on AKO. http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...ad.php?t=25584 |
Outstanding news and all the best to those who served in this group.
Thank you for posting this. |
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Does anybody know if the rescued company was also 11th ACR or another unit? We (1st Cav) worked with them some in Cambodia. And you couldn't pay me enough to ride in one of those bullet magnets. |
Well Done!!
Welcome Home !!!! |
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From the citation: ...the troop volunteered to rescue Company C, 2d Battalion, 8th Cavalry, a 1st Cavalry Division unit surrounded by an overwhelming enemy force near the Cambodian border, in The Dog's Face, War Zone C, in Tay Ninh Province in the Republic of Vietnam. Company C was decisively engaged by a battalion of the 272d North Vietnamese Army Regiment |
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Amen on the bullet magnets. Well, except when they are on the way out of the firefight and stop to pick you up ;) |
There is no doubt of the courage of the 1/11 th on that day. One minor correction needs to be made. I'll pursue it. However, if anyone here has an idea of how to do so, I'll gladly take advice.
The unit rescued was not C Co. 2/8 Cav. C Co. had taken up a joint position with the 1/11 the day before since both units were operating in the same area and the 1/11 offered hot chow and a visit with some old friends. Neither unit needed orders to move out when it was learned how bad the situation was for the unit that had wandered into a regimental HQ and whose commander lacked the sense to back out. Other moments from those two days include: A Conscientious Objector medic, new to C 2/8 who had been in the field for less than a week, not terribly trusted by the others in the company because of his CO status. When the 4.2 mortar that was firing H&I fire had a round barely leave the tube before falling back into the track and detonating, said CO medic took off at a dead run. He ran from one position to another, covering the entire perimeter, putting gut on ground just long enough to make sure everyone was OK, before getting up to regain his run and dive even with ammo from the track cooking off. There were no questions about him after that night. The M113's seemingly managing to knock down every damned red ants nest while enroute from the overnight position to the location of the unit that actually was rescued. Accompanying personnel were *not* amused.:D The 1/11 tree-felling exercise upon arrival at the NVA HQ, as the Sheridans and APC's went on line. Using grape shot and some jacked-up M60's they turned a light forest into a fallen log-jam. A hand coming out the drivers hatch on a Sheridan, opening a mermite can, and said hand going back down into the hatch with a can of coke. At the time, funny as hell. The 8 track tapes blaring a la "Apocalypse Now", added to the atmosphere. With armored cav unit and infantry on line, the mass confusion (but quick reaction) as the NVA went through well-developed tunnels and came up behind the US line. RPGs everywhere and shrapnel flying like mosquitoes in the everglades at night. The orderly withdrawal after the unit originally in contact was safely brought out of their positions. That troop of the 1/11 was tight, well led and well organized. The orderly nature was remarkable because it seemed each member of the 1/11 had memorized the faces of their "grunts", the foot soldiers riding on their particular track. Each TC checked names, faces, and numbers before breaking formation. A great fear, I think, of leaving someone behind, much appreciated by the ground-pounders. And, finally, the separation of the dead and wounded in a clearing as helicopters came into the clearing that the three units occupied, a click or so away from the contact area. Incoming medivacs that looked llke they could have been a simultaneous lift for an entire company, except for the red crosses. I don't know the total number of dead and wounded, between the three units. Wounded included at least half of the rescuing 1st Cav troups who rode into battle in the 1/11 tracks. I do recall that, with each unit having nearly a full complement of officers, one LT was left after the medivacs, essentially a battalion commander for the night. Doing the math, there was probably a total of company left out of three that were engaged. Damn, if I had a bottle of scotch about now...... |
Plato,
Thank you for sharing this. Welcome Home !!! them damn protestors should have been tarred and feathered for what they did to you guys. |
They should get a lot more than a PUC imho. Welcome home, gents. Thank you!
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I'd sure like to see the AA report and find out who the rescuees were. Hard to believe they'd get it wrong in the citation but stranger things have happened.
EDIT: Well, I see on page 38 of Into Cambodia it identifies the rescued unit a C co 2/8 cav who were operating out of FB Illingsworth. I remember when Illingsworth got hit a while later we fired support from our 2/7 base, Hannas, a couple of klicks away. That was a bad night for them when their 8 inch ammo dump went up. But the book says that Capt Hobson took over Co C at Illingsworth in April when their Capt was wounded which was after the Alpha Troop action in March. So I'm assuming, as Plato says, it wasn't C co who was rescued but Hodges' previous company before he took over C co in April. ?? Ahh the fog of war.... |
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But the book says that Capt Hobson took over Co C at Illingsworth in April when their Capt was wounded which was after the Alpha Troop action in March. So I'm assuming, as Plato says, it wasn't C co who was rescued but Hodges' previous company before he took over C co in April. ?? Ahh the fog of war....[/QUOTE] And the FOG of war;). The bit about CPT Hobson is the part that makes me try hard to rethink this. I'm only assuming that I have the unit right. I was one of the 2/8 platoons riding in on the M113s to pull the mangled company out of the complex. And I mean just that. I'm assuming. :confused: I met my theoretical CO, Ray.... (don't even recall his last name) once, months before, and after three days platoons split off to operate independently until we rejoined at Tay Ninh, as a company, with the 1/11 troop. We weren't "assigned" to them, by the way. We were simply co-resident. Again, we're talking hot chow and actual showers, water trailers sling-loaded in. It's possible that my platoon could have actually been part of a company designated A or B, or whatever. I know that sounds flaky, but when you're the Plato platoon and don't operate as a company, it doesn't stick in the memory well. Still, I'm close to sure that we were part of C Co. I *know* we were part of 2/8 because the plaque downstairs says so. :D If the Co. we pulled out was also 2/8 that may explain the confusion. My platoon had only been out of the field once, for a three day in country R&R, (Bien Hoa, steam baths, beer and great massages) so I wouldn't recognize anyone from the Battalion, except for my CO and that from only a few days together. On the date of the contact, I was a week from inheriting the company, because Ray was due to DEROS. I know he was up and walking afterward, and don't remember any sign of wounds. So, if someone inherited a command from a wounded CO, it wouldn't have been from us. I left the battlefield in the supine position, however, and never made it back to my "almost" command. I don't recall meeting the CPT who commanded the 1/11 troop either. I knew their XO, and it seemed to me that he was the one giving the directions. That doesn't mean that I was right. There may have been a stray ACav CPT in the AO. :) And, if the CPT remembered a company of the 2/8 in the action, he was certainly correct. There was at least one (mine), and possibly two. I know that the CPT who had walked his company into the obvious Regt. HQ had no serious wounds. He had a couple of small pieces of shrapnel in the cheek and jaw, and was moving the well, the last I saw of him, about 15 minutes before we withdrew. And, I don't think my company from the 2/8 ever went to Illingsworth, when I got back from Bien Hoa, they had been assigned to being Palace Guard for the 1Cav HQ. Not back to 100%, I wound up at Division G-3, so I got to see them there. Does the book mention any other 2/8 units around that time? Now I'm really wondering. And, thanks for the words from those here to the Vietnam vets. I sometimes wonder, though, if we would have felt so close to each other if the opposition hadn't pushed us into closing ranks. |
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