Boot on Hill 1154

LZ ARGONNE

'Peace with honor'.  That was what President Nixon had said in his campaign.  In 1969 that meant a victory and that meant hurting the enemy, bad.  That's all hind-sight now, back then I didn't know anything about policy or tactics, just what I had been trained to do.

At the age of 19 and less than six months in the Corps and five days in Country I was on Fire Base Russell.  Get ready we're going to another hill tomorrow, I was told as I arrived at the firebase.  You'll be with #1 Sec. 81's second ammo man.  That night Arty started a barrage that went on all night, prepping the LZ we were going into.  Early the next morning I was given 3 rounds of H.E. to strap on to my pack and we waited for our turn to get on a bird.  That came around 1000 when we boarded a '47' to some place called Argonne.

Twenty minutes or so into the ride the door gunner locked and loaded his M-60.  I noticed the others exchange looks, maybe this isn't usual.  As the bird descended the tail gate dropped and the rear wheels touched, the door gunner flipped up his mike.  And yelled, 'You've got 3 seconds to get off this bird and 2 of them are already gone.  Now move, MOVE MOVE!!  We piled off as fast as we could.  Wow, this is just like John Wayne and the 'Fighting Leathernecks'.  Get down, snipers, yelled the grunts around us so we leap frogged up the hill to our pre-assigned meeting area.  'Don't fall over that body'.

On top of the hill is the upper LZ and a Huey is just sitting there with blood spattered on the windshield.  That will have to be pushed off and burned so we can get some re-supply in.  The rest of the day we made the gun pit ready and set up the 81mm mortar.

The next morning a pallet of H.E. was dropped on the lower L.Z. and I was told to stack it in a crater half way up the hill.  I had about half of it stowed in the hole and stopped for a breather, it was hot already and it's not even 0900 yet.  I noticed the Col. and a couple Lts. talking a few feet away.  A helicopter was dropping something off on the upper LZ and left, leaving the hill quiet for a moment.  Out of nowhere the sound of whistling, a descending sound that anyone would recognized as the sound of a bomb dropping.  No time to think just drop, I'm a a hole about waist deep, why is gravity so slow, as my eyes go below ground level it hits, rapidly expanding with black smoke, marbled with red flame, not more the 3 to 5 ft. from me.  82mm rounds began landing all over the hill and kept coming in for what seemed like a long time.  When the smoke cleared the Col. and a Lt. was dead, they didn't have a chance.  I was closer to impact than they but just deep enough to duck it.

Our Plt. C.O. and one of the guys had had the presence of mind to return fire with the 81mm mortar, but the Cpl. was wounded and med-evaced out leaving our gun crew with three.  Parch was now the gunner, Silky the A-gunner and I was assigned as #1 ammo man.

The side of the hill we were on faced west towards the hill the gooks held.  They were also dug in on the side of our hill.  Air strikes were called on on that position, maybe 100 meters outside the perimeter.  The jets came in low dropping napalm several times on the hole they held.  Each time when the flames cleared they came out and returned fire with AK's.  The only way our guys could get them out was to get right on top of them and chuck some frag's inside.  The grunts were engaged in firefights all around the hill. 

The air strike on the hill opposite us was carried out by two Phantoms who circled taking turns dropping their loads.  When they had dropped all their bombs and napalm they continued to strafe.  Each pass they received fire from the ground.  It was just small arms I think but one of the jets received enough damage that it had to boogie out and ditched in the gulf.  After that we didn't see any more air support from them, but Spooky was called in to circle Argonne at night with it's mini guns.  After several nights of continued fire from Spooky the hill the gooks were on no longer had any trees on it, just saw dust.

Every time a helicopter came in we received more in coming so re-supply became impossible.  The water bull on top of the hill became our only source of water and it was running low.  Every time we got in coming the holes were plugged with sticks and other pieces of wood.  An armed guard was put on it to keep people from stealing water.  An attempt to air drop a water bladder failed.  It bounced off the hill and impaled itself on the trees.  No more water available.  We were cut off and essentially surrounded.

The X.O. and Sergeant Major had managed to get a bird out after the C.O. was killed, apparently he could lead better from the rear.  We now had several bodies stacked up on the lower LZ and no way to get them out.  After 4 or 5 days the odor became intolerable.  An emergency night med-evac was called for.  Heat tabs were lit in the foxholes around lower LZ and a few minutes before it landed a strobe light was turned on to mark the LZ.

The gun I was on had a direct line of sight to NVA positions across the valley.  Parch zeroed his gun sight and we commenced direct counter mortar fire.  They in turn tried to take us out.  They had an advantage because they knew exactly where we were and we did not know the position of their gun.  At night the southern quarter of their hill was lit with hundreds of lights to get us to fire on them where they weren't.

Shorts rounds are the worst possible thing to happen when firing close support for the riflemen.  My job was to pull the rounds out and set the charge by removing increment bags off of the fin assembly.  Silky always checked to be sure they were right before he dropped it in the tube.  I had it wrong once and he caught it, the look he gave me could have killed.  While were were shooting illumination a fin broke off of one as it left the tube.  It began tumbling and fell inside our line.

'Get of the gun and do not touch anything'.  A round had fallen short and some of our own were hit.  Everything was checked out, plotting board correct, gun sight correct, everything was right and we were absolved of responsibility.  It was deemed that it had been a bad round.  God I hope that was the truth.  When Alpha came in I could see that they wanted to kill us.

One afternoon the sky flashed and the ground started shaking we ran to the north side of the hill, I saw a con trail directly above us.  In the valley below, inside the DMZ, a double line of what looked like 500 pounders, was devastating a large section of ground.  He must have dropped his whole load.  I heard that a regimental size force was coming to re-enforce the gooks. 

If it was quiet for a moment I would take a walk around the hill.  One evening I stood beside a Lt. and watched as an NVA convoy, with their headlights on, came through a pass inside Laos.  They were unafraid some 10 miles from the border.  They knew we wouldn't hit them that far across the border.  So this is why we're here and why the gooks are so determined to stop us.  I watched for a half an hour and the trucks didn't stop coming.  I didn't know how big that convoy was but it was big.

The days wore on, we received fire daily and the grunts had multiple firefights until the hill opposite us was taken.  An aerial observer called in the fire mission for us to drop White Phosphorus on the convoy to mark it for an air strike.  The report we got was that it had been completely destroyed with massive secondary explosions.  Job done.

I don't know what the over all affect was but I believe that when that convoy was destroyed we hurt them bad, real bad.  Later that year the first units of the 3rd Marine Division were pulled back to Okinawa.

To the men of 1st Battalion 4th Marines, I am proud to have served with you and to witness such uncommon courage.

Samuel W. Gatlin