I
served in an 8-inch/175 mm artillery battalion in Viet Nam from October
1965 through October 1966. During this time I served as forward
observer, battalion fire direction officer and air observer. My primary
assignment was forward observer. In this job, I coordinated, called
for and adjusted artillery fire on targets for the combat units to whom
I was assigned. I usually worked with Special Forces, South Vietnamese
Rangers, or with the 1st Infantry Division, 1st Brigade’s Armored
Cavalry reconnaissance unit. As a “free lance” forward observer who
worked with units which did not normally have organic observers, I was
totally unsupervised by a higher organization. Like Paladin of TV fame,
my paraphrased business card could have read “Have (Cannon) Balls, Will
Travel”. (Note: It takes a really big pair to call blind, unobservable
high explosive artillery fire near yourself and friendly troops during a
firefight in heavy jungle where you have only about 20 feet of
visibility and can only judge where the incoming projectiles are landing
is by the sound of their detonation!)
When I was not on special
missions as an observer with ground units, I worked either as one of our
battalion’s fire direction officers or as one of the battalion's air
observers. As the fire direction officer, I supervised the team that
decided which guns or units would fire and calculated the firing data
for the guns based on what the forward/air observer requested. Since
this process happened very rapidly (seconds!!) the fire direction
officer’s instructions to the crew were very rapid and final. Our time
standard was 3 minutes from the time we received a call for fire from an
observer until projectiles were in the air on the way to the target.
Our
battalion had two L-19 Bird Dog light airplanes , one H-13 helicopter
and three pilots. One of these three aircraft was usually in the air,
day or night, along with an observer trained to call for artillery fire
when targets were located.
I usually flew with 1LT Marce
Pearson. Our three battalion aircraft were nicknamed “Zoomy Birds”.
Marce’s nickname was “Zoomy Three” since he was the junior pilot.
Our flights were usually
about two hours in duration. As young lieutenants, Marce and I tended
to bore easily. We developed a strategy to “troll for targets” as
entertainment on our long flights. I would take a smoke grenade, pull
the safety pin while holding the trigger lever down. I would then hold
the armed grenade in my hand with my arm out of the plane's window.
Marce would fly the plane very low over the jungle with the wheels
almost hitting the treetops. When NVA/VC (North Vietnamese Army/Viet
Cong) troops on the ground would fire at us, their bullets, which were
supersonic at that range, would make a popping sound as they flew past
our plane. As soon as Marce and I heard the “pops”, he would jam the
plane’s throttle “balls to the wall” and start evasive maneuvers. I
would release the smoke grenade in my hand and get a call for fire in to
one of my fellow lieutenant fire direction officer buddies who was on
duty in the battalion fire direction center. We would then proceed to
blow away a couple of square kilometers of War Zone D jungle around
where the smoke from the grenade I had released was rising above the
treetops with our battalion’s 8-inch howitzers.
After
about a month or so of doing this, 1LT Zoomy Three and I could fly at
treetop level for hours without hearing the supersonic "pops" of bullets
passing our airplane. The NVA/VC had gotten the message……don't screw
with small green airplanes flying at treetop level…..if you do, Hell
fire and brimstone in the form of two hundred pound high explosive
artillery projectiles with fuses set to detonate in the treetops over
your heads will arrive in about three minutes!!!
HHB 6/27th Artillery
Oct 65 to Oct 66