The Bonding of Warriors
A Unit History
The Early Years (1966-1967)
Ch 8
by Winslow "Rick" Stetson
Masonite was a material in short supply yet it was just what the LRRPs needed to finish the interior of their club. Always on the alert for an opportunity to meet their supply needs, the men noticed that a chapel under construction happened to have a supply of masonite stacked nearby. In the belief their club was more in need of a finished interior than the chapel, a truck was dispatched under the cover of darkness and a load of the scarce material was transported back to the LRRP compound where it was nailed into place on the walls of the club. When the carpenters building the chapel showed up and discovered their masonite was missing, the post chaplain launched an investigation that somehow pointed him in the direction the long range patrol's construction site.
It was an unhappy chaplain who visited the visited the long range patrol compound and asked for the unit's commander. Clancy Matsuda was not in the area at the time so the chaplain turned to the highest ranking LRRP he could find, First Sergeant Roy Nelson. The chaplain, a lieutenant colonel, demanded to be taken on a tour of the buildings. Upon entering the club and spotting his masonite, the chaplain locked Nelson's heels (stood him at attention) and in a very un-chaplain like tone of voice, told the first sergeant that since the material was already nailed in place inside the building he would allow it to remain there if Nelson would guarantee there would be LRRPs in attendance at future chapel services. And so it happened that for a number of Sundays thereafter, members of the long range patrol 'got religion' as they sat together in the front pew of the base camp's newly-constructed chapel.
Building operations flourished as a steady stream of hard-to-obtain wood came rolling into the LRRP compound on a regular basis. The unauthorized method of requisition continued under the direction of LT Lawrence until one day he asked a gathering of his fellow officers why he had to be the one who always took chances with the procurement. LT Stetson said that since he did not have any patrols going out that day, he would be willing to lead a re-supply mission. After Lawrence gave him the particulars, Stetson rounded up Emory Parrish to be his driver and they set off for the engineer supply area for a load of plywood. A forklift operator was located who accepted his set of tiger fatigues and quickly went to work loading the truck with bundles of the precious wood. Stetson was watching the truck grow heavy with plywood when he noticed a jeep slow down and an officer in the passenger seat view the scene in wide-eyed amazement before speeding off. Shortly thereafter, a jeep with two large white letters on the hood, 'MP,' pulled into the area and two soldiers wearing armbands with similar letters approached Stetson and asked who had authorized him to load materials from the engineer's storage area. The lieutenant replied that he had no such authorization but that since there were no signs identifying the area as being off limits, he had assumed the materials were there for whoever needed them. One of the MP's said, 'Sir, you will need to come with us and your sergeant needs to unload that truck.' Stetson, with visions of his days as an officer coming to an end, was escorted to the MP headquarters where he was interviewed, a statement taken and his commander summoned to come pick him up. The MP officer said that since the supply area was not properly marked, he would release the lieutenant if CPT Matsuda would write a letter of reprimand to be placed in Stetson's permanent records. The letter was written and a copy sent to the MP's but Matsuda somehow 'misplaced' the original that was intended for Stetson's file and no further action was taken.
Fortunately, the construction phase of the new long range patrol area was nearing completion when Stetson got 'busted' but his apprehension by the MP's prompted a visit from a major on the staff of the Division engineers who had been instructed to determine how much material the LRRPs might have appropriated over the previous months. It did not take a math genius to compute that considerably more material had been used in the construction than had been authorized but by that time, the wood had been cut and nailed securely in place. The major, while unhappy that so much material had been stolen from the engineer's storage yard, did seem to appreciate the fine quality of construction by the long range patrol carpenters and he allowed the wood to remain in place.
When it was completed, the LRRPs spacious new living quarters, operations and classroom buildings equaled anything to be found in Vietnam. Their own club provided a boost to morale and was a favorite place for patrol members to unwind when arriving back at the base camp after a mission. Matsuda appointed Non Commissioned Officer's to manage the bar on rotating shifts and a Vietnamese day laborer named Lon was paid to clean the club after parties held the night before. The lively parties would often include guests such as helicopter crewmen from D Troop and with music blaring from tape decks, the gatherings would last late into the night. The company commander would try to have the men lower the volume, oftentimes without success, and the first sergeant usually let the music play on as he understood the need to let his men relax and blow off steam.
The LRRPs prevailed upon Special Services to provide a pool table for their club and the men obtained a black and white television. The Armed Forces Network aired only one channel and programs such as 'The Tonight Show' were several weeks old by the time they reached Vietnam. The news, however, was current and was read by soldiers from a studio in Saigon. There was considerable interest when war broke out between Israel and Egypt and shows about past wars were also popular. Roy Nelson remembers the time his men loaded into a helicopter after a difficult mission where they spent a day and a half avoiding Viet Cong who had fired warning shots throughout the area while searching for the patrol. As the helicopter made its way back to the base camp, Stephen Noonan pulled the tape back from Nelson's wrist watch and yelled into the first sergeant's ear, 'Hey Top, we'll get back in time to watch 'Combat' on TV.'
The new compound adjoined the 9th Infantry Division's Old Reliable Academy which proved to be an advantage to the long range patrol. Not only did the academy have a mess hall which allowed the patrol members to eat their meals without having to perform the tedious detail of KP, but it was where soldiers arriving in the division received an orientation prior to reporting to their units. The long range patrol was given permission to make recruiting presentations to the academy and the representatives made a sharp appearance wearing their black berets and pressed tiger fatigues with LRRP scrolls on the left sleeves just above the 9th Infantry Division patch. The team members explained to the recent in-country arrivals that the LRRPs were not for everyone and only the most dedicated and physically fit would make it and be allowed the privilege of wearing the black beret. They went on to state that the excitement of operating undetected behind enemy lines in 'Charlie's backyard' could not be equaled
The only drawback to being next to the Old Reliable Academy was a bit of jealousy that developed from some of the academy's cadre who did not care for the 'hotshot' LRRPs who made recruiting trips into their area. Sometimes, especially after a few beers in the evening, words would be exchanged between the neighboring soldiers. To prevent any unauthorized hand-to-hand combat and to keep out uninvited visitors, Matsuda had concertina wire placed between the long range patrol and the Old Reliable Academy. As soon as the wire was strung, peace prevailed between the two units.
While the construction crews kept busy sawing wood and pounding nails, other members of the unit continued to conduct long range patrol operations. On August 21, 1967 a patrol led by Roy Nelson demonstrated the ability of the LRRPs to contribute information about the enemy to the division. Nelson' patrol was described in a front page story in the September 6, 1967 edition of the Old Reliable newspaper under the headline, 'Viet Cong battalion base camp mopped up in 1st Bde sweep. 51 VC killed, many weapons seized.'
The 1st Brigade sweep was conducted after Nelson and patrol members Tom Kloak, Howard Munn, Jerry Fairweather and Hilan Jones found an enemy base camp that included 65 bunkers, fortified positions, three tunnels and four foxholes. As reported in the division newspaper: 'A monsoon downpour masked the movements of the reconnaissance experts as they managed to crawl through tangled underbrush to within 30 feet of enemy soldiers. Recon team leader Master Sergeant Roy D. Nelson, 32, of Marysville, Washington described the complex: 'We were in the underbrush watching a pair of armed VC sit out the heaviest part of the storm,' he said, 'and because the rain was making such a racket on the canopy, the VC never heard a thing. The complex was so well concealed that we were right in the middle of the base camp almost before we realized it.'
Nelson went on, 'It would have been impossible to move forward, so we went backward. Each time we moved a short distance, we'd find another bunker complex. The whole system probably covered an area 300 meters by 500 meters.' The patrol then discovered an opening in the ground and Kloak dropped down to check it out. The hole was filled with rice.
The men were able to observe the base camp without being detected for more than an hour before carefully making their way out of the area. Nelson knew that because the patrol had gone for two nights without any radio relay, and with the enemy all around, considerable caution would be called for as they moved through tall elephant grass toward a large LZ, nicknamed 'JFK.' Nelson whispered for his men to 'walk small.' Fortunately, the continued rain helped muffle any sounds made by the moving patrol and after reaching their pick-up point the men were extracted without incident.
The patrol was debriefed as soon as they returned to Bearcat. When the size of the occupied base camp was realized by the division's intelligence staff, an arc light (B-52) strike planned for another area was diverted and the pilots told to drop their payload where Nelson and his men had patrolled. The Air Force bombs were unleashed from high above, out of sight and hearing of the enemy soldiers who were busy preparing breakfast in what they thought was the safety of their base camp.
The bombs were right on target and the Viet Cong were caught by complete surprise. When elements of the 1st Brigade and 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment swept through the area later that morning, food was still in pots over the cooking fires used to prepare their meals. In addition to counting 51 enemy killed, the infantry and cavalry troopers rounded up eight detainees as well as an assortment of sophisticated weapons that included AK-47 rifles, RPG rocket launchers, a Chicom 7.62 machine gun and an 82mm mortar tube with 72 rounds. The soldiers also destroyed nearly 11,000 rounds of small arms ammunition and 28 grenades.
The 1st Brigade's intelligence officer, MAJ DiLorenzo, emphasized the dividends reaped during the quick infantry follow-up to the air strike when he said, 'We didn't give the VC a chance to gather their weapons before withdrawing from the battlefield. The sweep came so fast that we were able to establish that one of the captured rocket launchers -an RPG 7- had been made in Russia last summer.' He went on to add, 'Most of the documents captured during the action have established that elements of the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 274th VC Regiment were in the strike area.'
Soldiers from the 2-39th Infantry continued a sweep through the base camp area the following day resulting in 14 additional enemy KIA along with the discovery of a cache of 10,000 rounds of small arms ammunition, seven AK-47 rifles, two RPG's with rounds and an assortment of equipment that included a Chicom field radio. Later, another 9th Infantry Division unit, 4-39th Infantry, uncovered cluster bomb units, handmade claymore mines, 500 pounds of rice, a typewriter, Russian flag and 20 pounds of documents.
After the sweeps were concluded, the commander of the 2-39th Infantry, LTC Myron Lee, was quoted as saying, 'When intelligence is working for us we can hit the enemy when we choose and this is exactly what (we have) done so well this week.'
The operation was a textbook example of how long range patrols can lead to success on the unconventional battlefield. When he returned from Nam and was assigned as an instructor in the Ranger Department, Stetson used Nelson's patrol to illustrate the value of long range patrols as an intelligence resource. He would tell captains attending the career course at Fort Benning, most of whom were headed for a tour in Vietnam, that when used properly, long range patrols were an excellent addition to a division's intelligence gathering capabilities. The key to success on the battlefield, he would stress, was the ability to act on information provided by the LRRPs in a timely manner.
Interacting with the intelligence staff at division headquarters could be frustrating for the LRRPs. The G-2 officers would often have preconceived ideas as to the nature of enemy activity in a given area. Their estimates would be derived from a variety of sources: higher headquarters, radio monitoring units, Vietnamese agents (sometimes employed by the Viet Cong to give disinformation) and by devices such as the 'people sniffer,' a high-tech contraption placed on a helicopter and flown low-level over the jungle to detect ammonia from urine in enemy staging areas. The problem was the 'people sniffer' could not determine if the ammonia had been created by a company of VC or a herd of elephants. Nevertheless, when division G-2 was handed a hot reading, they would often send a LRRP team to investigate certain the patrol would find enemy in the area. When a patrol would report back there was no sign of recent enemy activity in the AO (area of operations), the division staff officers would sometimes react as if, 'The enemy had to be in there, you just did not find him.'
The opposite attitude could also take place as when Roy Nelson's patrol returned after discovering the large enemy base camp complex. The division G-2 debriefing officer, a major, expressed considerable skepticism after hearing Nelsons, report that the patrol had found anything of significance. A cavalry unit had previously operated through the area without contact and the intelligence experts doubted the enemy could have moved in so quickly and constructed a base camp. When the youthful-looking first sergeant was debriefed he was still wearing a bloody fatigue jacket that held no indication of rank on the sleeves. Nelson told the doubting major he would 'bet his stripes' that the patrol had found a large, enemy occupied base camp. When the major asked how many stripes he had, Nelson's reply of 'six' startled the debriefing officer who was amazed to find the patrol had been led by such a high-ranking NCO. The first sergeant felt his believability factor increased when the major recognized his rank, yet he noted that while he was being questioned, Howard Munn was being debriefed in a separate room to verify the accuracy of the report. As he concluded the debriefing, the division staff officer pointed to Nelson's bloody fatigue jacket and asked if he had been wounded. 'No sir,' the first sergeant replied, 'this is what happens when you spend several nights on the ground in the jungle and the leeches find you.'
Missions such as the one conducted by Nelson' patrol helped establish the reputation of the long range patrol as a valuable intelligence asset for the 9th Infantry Division. Even when a patrol came back and reported no signs of recent enemy activity, the information was useful to the division's intelligence staff and operations planners. It took a special soldier who would volunteer to conduct patrols deep in enemy territory and out of the range of friendly fire support. The missions called for courage, resourcefulness, integrity and teamwork. Most of the soldiers possessed the requirements to belong to an elite unit, but not all and occasionally someone would find their way into the long range patrol that did not belong there.
LT Stetson had concerns about one of the sergeants who served as a patrol leader, an individual who did not seem to always demonstrate the qualities needed for a leadership position. On one occasion when Stetson was leading a patrol, the sergeant was assigned radio relay duty. As the aircraft moved close to the patrol's position at the designated time, the patrol leader made contact with the sergeant, gave his report and asked for the location of the nearest LZ in case an emergency extraction was needed. There was a long pause and finally the sergeant came back and said he was unable to provide the information because 'the big picture just flew out the window.' Stetson realized that the sergeant's map had blown out of the helicopter and he imagined what would happen if it fell into enemy hands complete with reference points, frequencies and call signs. The patrol leader did not feel comfortable until the patrol was safely extracted.