Hi! Lester Higa here. I served in Vietnam from April 1970 to June 1971. When I joined “A” Battery 6/27 Arty in the field, the battery had just made the move from Quan Loi to Loc Ninh ([Webmaster Note] After stops at FSB Burkett and FSB Ft. Defiance and other locations). We weathered through the last of the dry season and a full monsoon season there and supported the 11th ACR and 1st Cav. ([Webmaster Note] For C/2/12 Cav history see http://www.tallcomanche.org) while there staging for and operating in Cambodia. Most of our missions were fired into the Fish Hook and out to Snoul, Cambodia with the 175’s. During the “Cambodian Extraction”, when the “Black Horse” and “Air Cav” were returning from “over the fence”, two 175’s from “C” Battery at Song Be ( Near Phouc Binh), located to our Loc Ninh FSB and we fired four 175’s ‘round the clock for over one week. We shot the tubes out of the guns and had to change tubes while continuing to fire missions into Cambodia. After all U.S. Forces returned from “over the fence”, the “C” Battery guns returned to Song Be and we continued to fire “arc light follow-ups”, H&I's and intelligence targets triggered by electronic sensors in Cambodia. I guess that we were there until September or November of 1970.
Some time
after the monsoon season passed and the roads began to dry out, we were ordered
to move to Bu
Dop
(aka Bu Duc).
(See
map). This move
allowed us to reach more of the area to the south and east of Snoul, Cambodia
and the bunker complexes the 11th ACR and 1st Cav. had
uncovered while in Cambodia. The move may have been undertaken in the
October/November 1970 time period. By December 1970, we were definitely settled
into Bu Dop, as you will notice by the Christmas of 1970 pictures.
The
months spent at Bu Dop were primarily devoted to firing missions into Cambodia
based on the calls for fire from
air observers flying near, on
or over “the fence”, from electronic sensors seeded into the Ho Chi Minh Trial
and roads, and from pre-scheduled H&I fires based on “intelligence” reports.
There were occasional missions fired in direct support of ARVN units and local
RF/PF units. There were even some rare “friendlies in contact” missions we
fired for ARVNs, their U.S. advisers and for the “A” team at the Special Forces
camp next to us. This period was probably from October/September 1970 to
April/May 1971.
Some
time in the April/May 1971 time period, we moved to Song Be and settled there to
support ARVN operations. I DEROS’d from Song Be and returned to the Phu Loi where the
Battalion HQ was located with only 3 days left “in country”. I left from Tan
Son Nhut on a C-141 and we flew to Clark AFB, Philippines and spent the night.
Next morning, we left for Guam and spent a couple of hours at Anderson AFB and
then continued on to Hickam AFB, Hawaii. We got there around mid-day and were
then bussed to Schoffield Barracks, Hawaii (home then and today of the 25th
Infantry Division) to be processed for separation from active duty. Because I
had extended my tour in Vietnam for an additional 46 days, I had less than 180
days of active duty remaining and was eligible for the “180 day drop” or an
“early out”. Consequently, I was separated from active duty and reassigned to
the Inactive Reserves. I received my discharge in 1975.
Lester Higa, Sgt. E-5 February 2003
