An LA Cop. John Bowermaster
red light from the nose of the cobra, blanketing the NVA on the ground. One has to realize tracer rounds on a belt of machine gun ammo are every fifth round. You only see 20 percent of what the weapon fires.
They leveled the two 105 howitzer artillery pieces inside Diamond III at the perimeter.
Firing beehive rounds point blank across the perimeter at the enemy. Beehive rounds contain six thousand one-inch steel darts stamped with four metal fins on one end of each dart.
There were hundreds of NVA approaching the perimeter. Men were fighting the enemy inside the wire at the breach point. The NVA were using the bunkers they destroyed along the perimeter to fight from. Captain Kotrc ordered jet air strikes to drop napalm outside the perimeter wire.
Artillery rounds were still exploding nonstop outside Diamond III’s perimeter from supporting firebases. A few minutes passed; you could hear the sound of jet aircraft inbound toward the firebase.
Seconds later, outside, the perimeter exploded in flames with a wall of burning napalm.
Men could feel the intense heat from the napalm on their faces. The NVA caught in the napalm outside the wire were screaming as they burned to death. Three men from first squad manned Ed’s bunker. Corky, his ammo bearer, a rifleman named Cecil and Bruce, who was issued Robert’s M-79 grenade launcher.
Bruce was firing grenades at the approaching enemy. Ed’s M-60 was getting hot, just as Sergeant Johnson told him it would. The barrel of the gun was glowing red. He could see the piston under the barrel traveling back and forth in the glowing red metal as he fired. Ed yelled at Corky above the noise of the gunfire to grab his spare barrel on the bunker.
Bruce was launching grenades at the approaching NVA while Cecil was killing any strays getting close to the perimeter wire. Ed grabbed the spare barrel from Corky and changed it. Word came down the bunker line ordering one man from each bunker to move to the breach point on Alpha Company’s side of the perimeter to help drive the NVA out of the perimeter.
Without hesitating, Cecil grabbed a bandoleer of M16 ammo and hung it over one shoulder across his bare chest. For the next hour, Cecil remained at the perimeter breech supporting the men from Alpha Company. Ed, Corky, and Bruce held off the NVA, trying to breech their side of the perimeter.
Flares were lighting the sky as bright as daylight over the firebase. Targets were easy to see.
The enemy kept trying to move forward toward the perimeter with what seemed like an endless supply of soldiers. Some were shoulder to shoulder in places. Trying to find openings through the burning napalm.
Eight cobra gunships were traveling back and forth from Diamond III to Cu Chi, reloading and refueling. While overhead, the mini guns would stream their solid red beam of light from the nose of their cobras while the pilot would fire rockets from the pods mounted on the side of their gunships. Ed wondered why the gunship Spooky was not overhead to help them.
Spooky was the army’s name for one of several Douglas AC-47 cargo aircraft that were converted into gunships with three electric mini guns mounted on the aircraft’s left side. Three guns could deliver eighteen thousand rounds a minute to their target. The aircraft could blanket an entire football field with bullets in one minute.
Troops called the gunship Puff the Magic Dragon. The NVA called the aircraft Dragon Ship because of the red streaming phosphorus light coming from the tracer rounds as the ship circled, firing its mini guns at their target below.
The first time, Ed watched Puff in action was a few nights after Christmas in 1968 about 2:00 a.m.
A firebase was getting overrun. You could not hear the battle or Puff’s mini guns. But you could see the red beam of light streaming from the sky toward the ground as Puff circled above.
It was a sight straight out of a science fiction movie. It must have been hell on earth for anyone on the receiving end of the Dragon’s wrath.
At 6:00 a.m., Cecil returned to the bunker. The men regained control at the breach. The fighting was subsiding. The Cobras were taking a toll on the NVA.
When Cecil returned to his bunker. Three hours of adrenaline pumping through their bodies put all of them on a wired high. Ed always carried a small camera or an 8mm video camera in the leg pocket of his fatigues.
Experiencing the horror of combat, Ed realized pictures or video was the only way to explain what war looked like. Cecil asked Ed if he had his camera with him.
“Yeah.”
“I’m going to stand up. I want you to take a picture of me standing during this ground attack!”
“If you’re crazy enough to stand up in this shit, I’ll take your picture!” Cecil stood up, and Ed flashed the picture. Cecil was wearing his helmet and his ammo bandoleer hanging across his bare chest, with a big grin on his face.
Cecil crouched back down behind the bunker. Ed handed the camera to Cecil telling him to get a picture of Corky, Bruce, and him behind the bunker. “We’re not standing up!” The three looked at Cecil; the camera flashed.
A few seconds later, a rocket-propelled grenade exploded in the dirt in front of their bunker. An NVA soldier fired an RPG at them. Everyone scanned the area, searching for the soldier with the RPG rocket launcher. Cecil yelled at Bruce to throw him his M-79 launcher.
Bruce tossed the launcher over to Cecil. The NVA was reloading his launcher. Cecil fired his M-79, striking the NVA in the middle of his chest right below his neck, blowing the upper part of his body into pieces. The soldier flew backward, slamming the ground on his back. Still holding the RPG launcher in his hand.
No one else attempted to reach the wire at their section of the perimeter.
It was getting light outside. You could see the NVA pulling back to the trees in the distance on the Cambodian side of the border. There were two Cobra gunships in the air over Diamond III.
They were killing the NVA stragglers still in the open. It was still dangerous outside the perimeter. Wounded NVA were laying on the battlefield taking shots at the perimeter.
A new RTO from Alpha Company, eager to find himself a hammock, ventured outside the perimeter. The men manning the destroyed bunkers at the breach told him not to go outside it was too dangerous. A wounded NVA laying in an artillery crater raised up and fired his AK-47 at the RTO; he fell dead twenty feet outside the perimeter.
The NVA dropped below the rim of the crater out of sight. A half-dozen men tossed grenades into the crater. In seconds, six grenades exploded. Blasting the enemy’s body out of the crater into small pieces littering the ground.
Soldiers went out to recover the RTO’s body. The NVA’s face was ripped off his head; it was lying face up in the dirt intact. It looked like a face mask someone had dropped on the ground.
At 6:30 a.m., the sun was up. The air was full of dust from the exploding artillery. An eagle flight consisting of nine choppers landed outside the perimeter bringing in supplies and replacement troops.
Soldiers started loading the dead and wounded for transport back to Cu Chi. The ground attack was over. The NVA had retreated back across the Cambodian border.
The men inside the perimeter checked the damage to the firebase. Everyone wanted to know who was killed during the attack. The new medic, Doc Duncan, arrived on the eagle flight; he was the replacement medic for the one killed during a firefight with Charlie a few days earlier.
Ed introduced himself to Doc, welcoming him to the party. That morning, Doc told Ed, “At 3:30 a.m., the lieutenant in Cu Chi came in and woke me up. He told me get dressed. Grab some body bags we’re going to Diamond, it’s under attack. A few minutes passed the lieutenant returned telling me to stand by. Diamond had been overrun. The NVA were inside the wire and they couldn’t land right now. At 6:15 a.m., the lieutenant returned to the barracks. The lieutenant said, ‘Let’s go.’”
Doc told Ed, “When he stepped off the chopper and got inside the wire he saw the dead GI’s laying in a row on the ground. He thought how would