Kontum: The Battle to Save South Vietnam

2. Fighting in Phu Nhon

2 Fighting in Phu Nhon We don’t have 12 years experience in this country. We have one year’s experience 12 times. —Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann at the end of his 1962–1963 tour in Vietnam A steady stream of NV A soldiers and equipment was flowing toward us down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Staff Sergeant John L. Plaster was a Special Forces soldier in the Studies and Observations Group (SOG) running secret operations deep into Laos and Cambodia. In early October 1971, he was flying as a Covey rider (an airborne controller) with a forward air controller (FAC), Captain Glenn J. Wright, whose call sign was “Covey 593.” They were over Highway 110 E in Laos where that part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail ended at the triborder area—the place where the borders of Vietnam , Cambodia, and Laos meet. It was the NV A’s main route into the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. As Plaster and Wright flew over the highway, Plaster noticed long, parallel lines of bushes on either side of the road. They circled back for a closer look and saw some of the bushes move. They were camouflaged enemy soldiers —many of them. Plaster noted the interval between “bushes” and the length of the two columns and calculated the force at about 2,000 men, probably an entire enemy regiment. He radioed his SOG commander to request a B-52 strike on this target. A B-52 strike was not approved, but they got something even better: priority for all US tactical air strikes in Southeast Asia. Wave after wave of fighter-bombers arrived about ten minutes apart to bomb the NV A regiment with 500-pound bombs, cluster 24 • KONTUM bombs, and napalm. So many bombers were arriving that they had to split the target area with another Covey FAC and Covey rider from SOG so all the air assets could be used as efficiently as possible . They bombed until dark and then returned at daylight to bomb some more. The more they bombed, the more hidden enemy vehicles , camps, and supply dumps were exposed, and they, too, were bombed. As the enemy tried to reassemble his units dispersed by the earlier bombing, they were plastered again. Wiping out almost an entire NV A regiment with all its equipment and supplies was a major blow against the enemy infiltrating into South Vietnam.1 There would be many less—maybe thousands less—Communist soldiers available to attack us in the future. In early November, we started an ARVN offensive named “Operation 23/7” in Phu Nhon, northwest of Ban Me Thuot near the Cambodian border. We used four infantry battalions, including those in the division’s 45th Infantry Regiment. The senior adviser to that regiment was Lieutenant Colonel John C. Grant and his deputy was Major George Dodge, a tall redhead with a great sense of humor. The 11th and 23rd Ranger Battalions were placed under our operational control, and we were supported by the US “Sidekick ” Cobra gunships, the 17th Air Cavalry (A Troop, 7th Squadron ), and CH-47 Hooks. We brought along 105-mm howitzers and lifted them into FSBs with the Hooks. Our division forward command post was set up in a pyramid tent next to an old dirt airstrip high on a windy hill. We erected a small wall tent nearby for the advisers to live in and furnished it with some canvas cots. However, Colonel Keller flew most of the advisers back to Ban Me Thuot every evening, and then we would return with him to Phu Nhon every morning after breakfast. We always left a couple advisers in the Phu Nhon Division Tactical Operations Center (DTOC) to hold the fort overnight. The typical soil in the Highlands is red, laterite clay, which turns to dust during the dry season. A strong wind we called “the Hawk” howled day and night and covered everything with fine, red dust. Helicopters landing and taking off sent clouds of dust swirling everywhere. It covered our clothes and equipment. It was in our hair and eyes and got down inside our sleeping bags. When I undressed back in Ban Me Thuot after even one day at Phu Nhon, there would be red dust inside my undershorts.2 Enemy activity and possibly base camps were reported just FIGHTING IN PHU NHON • 25 across the border...