Vietnam II: A War Novel Episode 3 (V2) (5 page)

Senior Airman Khoa Tran

Special Operations

Mountain Reeducation Camp

The assault force was made up of the operation team, two platoons of Army Rangers and two hundred Montagnards.  We had ten trucks, a dozen cars and three motorcycles.

By sunset, the force was mounted and moving through the darkness to the target, escorted by a pair of Blackhawk helicopters.

There was a slight delay when one of the vehicles had engine trouble, and had to be repaired by the Montagnards cannibalizing parts from the other eleven cars. Nevertheless, just before midnight our task force arrived at the perimeter fence of the prison complex.

Two hundred of the Montagnards were spread out on the highway covering our escape route.  Todd and Scott were leading the operators in with the Rangers plusing them up.  The Montagnards would follow to hold the ground they had taken.

“Stay with them.”  Todd told me before he and Jeff departed indicating Judge and Glun.  Scott led the convoy up onto the dirt road.  Judge and I followed with the Montagnards.  We were 200 meters from our objective.  Everybody poured on the gas.  Racing forward at nearly 70 miles per hour, the assault convoy ran southwest along the 3-mile-long road toward the prison gates, and then the teams began to split off to secure their particular objectives.

I could just barely make out the prison in the dark.  It was a lot of fence with a big brick castle of a building in the center that looked like it had started life as a French plantation.  The other buildings were newer and looked like they were made out of tin.  Most of it recycled from something else if I had to guess.

The power went out suddenly before a backup generator came on and the lights turned back on.  Seconds later an explosion rocked one of the outlying buildings, plastic explosives tore through the backup generator, and the lights went out for good.

Splitting the assault force into three parts, Scott led one team into the prison’s command and administration building, while Todd led the second team into the prison block to secure the prisoners.  The Montagnards remained at the gates and the road securing the entrance to the compound and our exit. 

All the fighting was in complete darkness, they used their night-vision goggles to great advantage during the early stages of the assault.  I even got a pair.  It was like trying to walk around with a black and white television screen in your face.  Everything was two dimensional and disorientating.  The prison guards wandered around with their flashlights struggling to see us while we knew exactly where they were.  I saw the flash of gun barrels and men falling to the ground.

It was the first time I had seen a man killed.

I moved onto the wall behind Judge at the prison gates.

Maneuvering aggressively, Todd’s team captured a number of prison guards, and assumed control of the prison block.  They arranged the prisoners against the wall outside.  They used zip ties like you would use on a wiring harness to incapacitate them.

Meanwhile, entering the administration building, Scott led his team into the structure.  He and his team would have to clear it room by room.

They told me later that this turned out to be a major chore, as the building was five stories tall, with hundreds of rooms, closets, and classrooms.  The job took precious minutes.

Meanwhile on the wall, we began to take rocket propelled grenade (RPG) fire from the west side of the wall as well as heavy machine gun fire from the guard barracks.  Setting up their rifles, Glun and his men engaged the enemy grenadiers at a range of about 500 meters.  One of his first rounds went through one of the PAV soldiers.

I concentrated my fire on the heavy machine gun team on the ground near one of the out buildings.  I cannot say that any of my rounds hit anybody.  Judge joined me.  I don’t know if he should have been firing, but I was not in a position to ask questions.  He fired his rifle repeatedly into the building.  Four PAVs came running out and crouched by the side of the wooden structure.  Glun and Judge concentrated their fire on the exposed PAVs.  One of the rounds went into a nearby propane tank, which exploded and killed the other two members of the heavy machine gun team.

With both the prison block and the administration building secure, Todd took his team, reinforced with Rangers, and moved across to the north end of the wall.  As they did, the team encountered an armored car loaded with 17 armed PAVs, which they engaged with .50-caliber machine gun fire and a TOW.  Ten of the PAVs were killed instantly, and the remaining PAVs were left scrambling for cover in the remains of the armored car and a nearby building.  A half hour-long firefight erupted.  When it was over, four more PAVs were dead, Todd and Jeff took the other three prisoner and proceeded to rescue three others who were stuck in the car wreckage.

After that there was no more gunfire.

It was over.

We gathered outside waiting for words.

Things were quiet for about a half hour.  We had no casualties and only minor injuries.  One of the Degas had taken a bullet in the wrist.  A Ranger broke his ankle jumping off of a wall.

Bill and Parker, two of the guys that didn’t talk to me much, came out of the jungle surprising everyone.  I had no idea what they were doing or that they were out there.

“There’s a major force moving toward us.  Reinforcements.  Four hundred or more.  Trucks, armored cars, the works.”  Bill said to Judge and me.

“We must have missed a phone line or they got out a radio call.”  Parker said.  “Where’s Todd?” 

I pointed into the darkened building.

The two operators went into the haunted structure.  I was happy to be outside and the fact that we were leaving soon made me even happier.  The thought was crossing my mind to jump on the choppers later with the Rangers and leave the special operators to go about their business.  They didn’t really need me anyway.  Judge could translate for them.

“What the hell!”  Mike said.  He was alternately watching the prisoners and organizing our exit with the Rangers.

“I guess they were on high alert with the deadline approaching.”  Judge said.

“What do we do?”  I asked.

“We’ll open all the cells.”  Judge said smiling.  “Release the prisoners.  It’ll take them a month to find them all in that swamp.”

Though most of them were certainly political prisoners it still bothered me that some of them might have been serial killers or rapists.  Probably not as communists countries did not believe that kind of crime could exist in their society.  When it did happen the offenders were not likely to make it to trial much less prison.  Still opening those would always haunt me.

A Ranger came running up to me while I contemplated this.

“You the translator?”  He asked.

“Yeah.”  I told him.

“They want you inside.” 

“In there?”  I asked not wanting to go in.  I could smell it from here and in the dark it looked terrifying.  Some of the prisoners were already loose in there wandering around.  I was quite happy to sit it out in the courtyard.

“You better get moving.”  Judge told me.

Unfortunately he was right.

The prison was worse than I had imagined.  Hard walls formed haunted hallways that led to dark rooms filled with hopeless men.  It smelled like body odor and feces. 

“Scott?”  I said into the darkness. 

A shape appeared in the shadows startling me.

It was one of the Army Rangers.

“They’re questioning one of the guards about the location of the prisoners.  They want you down there.”  He told me.

“Where?”

“Down there.”  He pointed.

“Can you come with me?”

“I can’t spare anyone.  It’s right down there.  You can’t miss it.”

I hesitated longer than I should have.

“You better get moving soldier.”  He said echoing Judge’s words.

“I’m not a soldier.”  I murmured under my breath.

I stumbled deeper into the building.  There were cells on either side of the narrow corridor.  Ugly men in uglier cells stared into the darkness.  They couldn’t see me and that was fine with me.  Still they could hear me.  Most cowered in their cells.  A few reached out in the darkness between their cells bars trying to grab me.  I moved quickly away.

I was still trying to use my NVGs when I hit a brick wall that turned out to be Jeff.  He knocked me completely on my ass.

“Hey!  They’re looking for you.”  Jeff offered in apology.

“I know.”  I said getting up.  “Can you show me where they are?”

“No, I’ve got to get up top and get on the radio.”  Jeff said patting the bundle under his arm.  “We’ve got to let the air bubbas know they can start their show.  You better hurry up.”

“I’m trying.  What’s the rush?”

“You didn’t hear?  We got one!  We found a POW.  Only he refuses to speak English.”

“What?”  I said to him, but he was already gone.

Lieutenant Colonel Carol Madison

U.S. Air Force Intelligence Officer

Pacific Command Operations Center

The deadline passed and two hours more.  We were all waiting in the AOC on pins and needles.  No one wanted to even go to the bathroom for fear of missing something.

The phones rang off the hook.  I fielded questions from units all over the AOR asking if they were cleared to launch.  Everyone was talking and nobody knew anything.

The only phone that didn’t ring was the red phone where the Senior sat.  He was a full bird Air Force colonel that night named Chambers.  He was waiting for something to go down and most of us had no idea what it was.

We passed the time in the AOC watching the 24 hour news channel.  There were a lot of interviews with military advisors most of whom were former officers.  Most of them predicted massive casualties and ultimate defeat.

They interviewed former POWs, former war protesters and celebrities.  CNN even interviewed former President Nixon.  He didn’t exactly come out and say it, but he gave every indication that he was against a second Vietnam War.

Nixon was among a growing list of Republicans that wanted us to withdraw from Vietnam and engage in the Middle East.  Saddam Hussein’s armies invaded Saudi Arabia the day before.  The news turned to the Middle East when the red phone at the front desk went off.

At last the General made the call. 

Colonel Chambers got up on his feet and gave everyone on the floor a thumbs up.

We were a go.

Billy Sheriff

Apache Gunship Pilot

Radar Site, Old North Vietnam

NIGHT ONE

It was 21 minutes prior to H-hour.  0239 local time.

“Party in ten.” said U. S. Army 1st Lieutenant Abraham into his radio microphone as he fired Hellfire missiles into a PAV early warning radar site.  His trigger pull launched Operation Jungle Storm.  A split second after his missiles left the rail I pulled the trigger on our Apache’s weapons sending Hellfire missiles into the operations building. 

At 2:39 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1991, Lt. Abraham, the pilot of the lead AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, led a joint Army-Air Force strike team making a secret, nocturnal attack on selected Vietnamese radar stations.

The Stealths that hit Hanoi got most of the press, but Apaches were the ones that fired the first shots of the war.  Before the Stealths even crossed the border Task Force Normandy, consisting of a dozen helicopters including eight missile-firing Apaches with a ninth backup in case someone fell out, a combat rescue UH-60A Black Hawk for contingencies, and two Air Force MH-53J Enhanced Pave Low IIIs equipped with a terrain-following and global positioning navigation system to bring the attackers to their destination without mistake crossed the Vietnamese border.  We were the first American military force in Vietnam since the end of V1.

The attack was planned at Operations Center at Hickam.  Apaches were chosen after much discussion at PACOM.  Initially the planners were leaning toward inserting Special Forces troops to destroy the sites.  That idea was deemed too risky and then abandoned so we got the job.

In the small hours of January 17, 1991, we prepositioned our force under radio silence to th
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Nakai-Nam Theun Conservation Area, Cambodia, near the border with Vietnam.  Abraham divided the Apache strike force into two teams.  Twelve minutes after a final ultimatum to Vietnam’s President to release the POWs went unheeded the order for war came from the White House.  That night, just after midnight, Abraham led the Blue team to the radar site outside of Vinh.  The Gold team, led by Captain Black, followed 12 minutes later.

The targeted radar installations were far from the border and separated from each other by roughly 70 miles.  Around 30 miles south of the target, the MH-53Js delivered their last position update and then peeled off.  They would loiter nearby while the Apaches attacked. The two Apache teams of four ships each approached their respective radar sites.  Then each team split into a pair of two ship groups positioned half a mile apart.

The code words “party in ten” told the other eleven aircraft crews in the force that the AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles that he had just unleashed would detonate in ten seconds.

The primary targets were a pair of Vietnamese air defense radar installations.  Destroying that radar opened a penetration corridor all the way to Hanoi for coalition warplanes to attack.  The Normandy attack was perfectly timed to eliminate the radar installations based on the projected time the Vietnamese systems would detect an Air Force EF-111A Raven aircraft preceding F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighters in coordinated attacks on downtown Hanoi. 

The Hellfire warheads created a horrendous mess of metal and concrete where the radar installations used to be.  Inside the orange fireball associated with the missile there was nothing except carnage.

Our force of Apaches delayed just long enough in the area, after bringing our firepower to bear on the targets, to confirm that they had been destroyed.  When it was clear to us that the radar installations were disabled beyond repair we turned our helicopters and headed for home.

The mission was a success and at the cost of a few Hellfire missiles a 20-mile wide strip had been opened for coalition warplanes to travel into and out of Vietnam with impunity.  The first dent in the armor of the PAV Air Force’s vaunted air defense network had been made.

Combat operations in Vietnam had begun.