Life and Death in the Central Highlands: An American Sergeant in the Vietnam War, 1968-1970

Chapter 6. Operations Hines and Putnam Paragon: February 16 to May 18, 1970

133 Operations Hines and Putnam Paragon February 16 to May 18, 1970 6. From mid-January to the first week of February 1970, B Company was assigned to Operation Putnam Power. The objective was to find and destroy the NVA’s Base Area 226.As a unit, we failed.As an individual soldier, I saw and participated in theVietnam War on all its levels. I saw the air war carried out by B-52 aircraft of the Strategic Air Force when they performed their Arc Light missions. I also saw the after-effect of the chemical rain of death called Operation Ranch Hand. It was the kind of warfare America went to war in Iraq to prevent: the use of chemicals as weapons of mass destruction. The chemical agent 2,4,5-T, known as Agent Orange, defoliated thousands of acres of land and spread a poison over the Central Highlands and its people. We polluted the environment for decades and caused cancers and birth defects for a generation. I also continued my part in the ground war searching out enemy supply caches and hunting their troops in vicious smallunit actions, but finally, and most frighteningly, there was my part of the war that was fought in the ground. I beat and strangled an enemy to death in a tunnel.After that, I thought I had seen it all, done it all, and things would get no worse for me before I left 134 Life and Death in the Central Highlands Vietnam. I was wrong. I was a serving NCO in the reactionary force for the 4th Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade. Our job was to move in and help the brigade when new enemy bases were found, or when unexpectedly large numbers of enemy appeared. You don’t drop in to rob the enemy of his supplies and expect your arrival to go uncontested. Neither do you get called to a firefight and not get shot at. LIFE IN THE REACTION FORCE On February 15, the First Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment was ordered to join Operation Hines. B Company, my part of the battalion, left the division base camp at Pleiku by helicopter. We landed fifty-four kilometers north of An Khe on LZ Louis. LZ Louis was originally a fire support base for the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). It was closed for a while and reopened and expanded when my battalion’s three infantry companies and one mortar company arrived there on February 15, 1970.1 B Company landed early that morning and we were ordered to do an immediate security sweep of the area. My platoon led the company single file, down a trail into the jungle toward a junction with three other trails.The junction was about five hundred meters from the fire base.The plan was to have each platoon follow a trail all the way to the floor of the valley.We only got about 100 meters from the fire base before we made contact with the enemy. The point man for our first squad spotted an NVA soldier on the trail. He fired at him and missed so he and his slack gave chase.They dropped that idea at the first bend in the trail because they found themselves in a small camp with three freshly built thatched huts. The huts were raised on platforms and about twenty by fifteen feet. One of the huts was obviously an eating facility with a long table and benches.The interesting thing was that all three were built over underground bunkers. Operations Hines and Putnam Paragon 135 First Lieutenant Tijerino, our company executive officer and soon to be company commander, called for an over-flight of the area by a scout helicopter. We stayed on the side of the mountain for two hours while the over-flight was done. First, a light observation helicopter (Loach) from the ARVN K-75 Rangers flew over the area. It flew low, trying to draw ground fire.They didn’t get shot at, but after an hour or so, they called to tell us that we were on the eastern edge of an enemy encampment.That was about 11:45 a.m. We were ordered to hold in place another hour while the K-75 people put a squad on the ground for a closer look.The Rangers dropped a squad into a small natural clearing. They conducted...