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10. Shifting Gears
- The University of Alabama Press
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10 Shifting Gears With the armor unit’s debacle the enemy must have concluded they had a hammerlock on the 8th Airborne Battalion. The paratrooper’s were being pounded with mortar and rocket fire and enemy infantry was in the process of tightening a noose around their position. I’d been monitoring the radios from our dug-in command post when the hard-pressed paratroopers were ordered to disengage from the enemy and fight their way back down Highway 13. To accomplish that mission they would have to surprise the enemy and make their move using all the firepower available. The first indication I had that our fellow paratroopers were actually withdrawing was when their artillery trucks appeared bouncing down the road ditch, with their guns in tow. They were closely followed by several jeeps loaded with the command group and advisors. The trucks and jeeps were all carrying dead and wounded and using the roadbed for cover from the enemy ’s small-arms fire. Close behind the vehicles a rifle company of about a hundred men came jogging down the ditch. They were well spread out and covered with sweat. Helmets bouncing and bent forward under their rucksacks and weapons, they looked exhausted but quickly moved on past my position . A second and then a third company followed close behind. Finally the battalion ’s rear guard came into view, shooting and running, shooting and running . The paratroopers had been able to surprise the enemy by unexpectedly attacking out of their defensive position. Their sudden aggressiveness had been accompanied by all the tactical air support and artillery fire available. They had kicked off their move with a massive barrage including dozens of smoke rounds to mask their attack, which had been conducted straight south, back down the highway. The paratroopers had outdistanced most of Shifting Gears 47 the enemy, but a lot of small-arms fire followed them as the last soldiers moved past my position. The enemy was pressing the departing paratroopers, and several of the more careless North Vietnamese were killed by soldiers standing near me who nailed them from the top of our berm. Once the 8th Airborne Battalion had moved past our position, the advancing enemy shifted their attention to us. Everyone standing on the berm was soon forced to take cover. The enemy mortars firing at the recently evacuated position up the road began to shift their fires. Within an hour the intensity of incoming rounds increased dramatically and began to impact with greater accuracy. We were soon under a combined infantry and indirect fire attack as the enemy got coordinated. I contacted the FAC and began putting in air strikes as quickly as aircraft came on station. My focus was primarily on those mortars and I adjusted air strikes to the north and into the brush on both sides of the highway. The troops in my position were dug into the earthen berm around the perimeter , and they were finding more and more targets. The armor unit’s two tracks and several of their tanks were still idling inside the position, although the other tanks had departed back down the highway. Our artillery pieces were partially protected in gun pits and were all firing nonstop. Although we had not yet been ordered to disengage and follow our sister battalion south, I was sure we would soon be told to move. I gave Lieutenant Cover and Sergeant McCauley a heads-up and instructed my driver to get the jeep closer to the highway at the far corner of the position. I was down inside the buried command post talking to the overhead FAC when a pair of civilians unexpectedly stuck their heads through the door. A man and a woman, French reporters, dressed in olive drab chic and draped with cameras and attitude, demanded to know the latest developments in no uncertain terms. I decided to take advantage of an opportunity to escape the stifling bunker for a few minutes, despite their supercilious attitude. The battalion executive officer, a major, joined me as I climbed outside to talk to them. I noticed a third Frenchman standing near their car, which was parked close to one of the tanks. We had just gathered beside the idling tank when three mortar rounds suddenly slammed into the ground on the far side of the vehicle. Those rounds arrived with no warning and went off with a big bang. Dirt and steel shrapnel flew and smoke and dust boiled...