The routine of mud, dust and fire missions against an unseen enemy is broken when the Communists launch ground and indirect fire attacks against the firebase.
That claim would probably be disputed by many of the other cooly professional gun sections in the Cav, who delight in baiting each other to see who gets the most rounds out the fastest. Direct fire high explosives and "beehive" rounds have saved many firebases during ground attacks. Bravo, 2nd Bn, 19th Arty recently received the coveted Presidential Unit Citation for withstanding a vicious attack on LZ Bird late in 1966. The battery mowed down the attackers with swarms of "beehive" fleshettes. The same battery held off NVA in three ground attacks in the first four months of 1970, at Fire Support Bases Tina, Atkinson and Jay. Bravo Battery, 1st Bn, 77th Arty endured heavy attacks at FSB Flashner and Illingworth. When an attack starts, the gunners lower their tubes and begin pouring out a steady stream of return direct fire shells.
"During the attack at Jay the men really worked together," said Bravo, 2nd of the 19th commander Lt. Coleman. "Once I looked up and there was a guy I'd never seen before passing ammo at the number five gun. I still don't know where he came from. He isn't in the battery. During one attack, the battery fired 1,600 rounds in 12 hours. "These guys fight like crazy," said PFC Bill Walter, who is known as "Hillbilly." We were running low on ammunition at Atkinson and began firing illumination rounds direct fire. We hit three NVA with a round just as they were approaching the berm." "We really kicked them around. The NVA shouldn't be bothering us too much longer now that they've seen what we could do," said Specialist 6 Arthur Ferry, who won Silver Stars for Jay and Atkinson. He had a cook's MOS but volunteered to work on the guns. His efforts were typical of the men who man the guns at Cav fire support bases, laboring day after day as the right hand men of the infantrymen. As one infantryman said, "Those arty boys are allllll right." ARTILLERY PART 1 ARTILLERY PART 2 NEWS ARTICLES SKYTROOPERS HOMEPAGE |
"Our
first reaction is to get in the bunker. But if the rounds are landing a
little ways away and it doesn't look like they're walking towards us, we
come out and get on the gun and start to pump out rounds," said
Specialist 4 Francis Cook. "Our section's so fast they think
they've got a minigun firing over here." In fact, Cook claims his
section is the fastest and best in Vietnam.
