But this story isn't about the action that we saw but about some of the discomfort we endured. Specifically this story is about that big hump on my back that you see in the photo here. There is a logical (militarily speaking, of course) reason that I look so weighed down--80 pounds of logic.
There is a difference in the way that recon teams are resupplied and the way that combat platoons are resupplied. Platoon size elements were resupplied about every third or fourth day. Our rucks in this situation probably averaged between 50 and 60 pounds and most of that was M-16 ammo, M-60 machine gun ammo as everyone carried at least 100 rounds for the machine gunner, and, sometimes, M-79 grenades for the grenadier. Others, like myself and the RTO had additional weight to carry as did others depending upon their specific job and the mission.
Anyway, about every third day or so a Huey 1H helicopter supported by one or two gunships would land on an LZ that we had secured to bring us ammo, c-rations, water, sundry packs, mail, replacements, etc.
It was different when I joined a 6-man LRRP (Long Ranger Reconnaissance Patrol) team. There was no resupply during our 5 day missions. So, everything we needed we had to carry on or in our rucksacks. As you can see in the photo I look a little burdened.
There were a lot of things that were down right unpleasant during my tour in Vietnam with the Screaming Eagles. Fire fights, mortar attacks, booby traps, mosquitos as big as hummingbirds, and leeches in every stream that we crossed, and I could go on and on, but, the thing that I truly hated was that damn rucksack.
As you can see and pretty well figure out this isn't a pack that you just pick up and toss on your back. Nope. We would help each other get these rucks on or a trooper would sit in front of his ruck, secure the shoulder straps and one or two of us would pull him to his feet.
Let me back up a bit. You need a little background. I was a platoon medic and shock force medic for the first four months in country. The Shock Force was a reinforced platoon that was used for special missions and we were involved in protecting the District Chieftans villa in downtown Phan Thiet during the Tet of 1968. This was twenty two very intense days of fighting and if someone wants to know more just type "Tet of '68, Phan Thiet" in your search box.
After Tet I was assigned to a six man recon team. The proper name for it is Long Range Reconnaisance Patrol. Now, Webster's Dictionary defines reconnaisance as the act of surreptitously going behind enemy lines to spy on and gain intelligence on the enemy. There were no lines in Vietnam, as everyone knows, but reconnaissance is vitally important to any combat unit. It was our mission to locate and observe NVA (North Vietnamese Army) activities and Viet Cong movements. Our job, basically, was to be inserted into an area (by helicopter) quite a ways from our objective and then move (hump) quietly to the area of interest and locate the enemy. This was not a "search and destroy" mission that the larger units were involved in but a spy mission basically. We would (as quietly as possible) search the suspected area for signs of the enemy and set up in locations where trails and villages could be surveilled without us giving away our position. That means no noise, no snoring, no coughing, no smoking, etc., etc.
Our job was to count how many enemy we saw, take note of the kinds of weapons they were carrying, what direction they were traveling, and to try to interpret their intentions. We were supposed to do all of this without being detected but way too often the teams and the enemy would meet up in some fashion (like on the same trail!) and then the fire would fly until we could be extracted or reinforced.
All of this was an every day occurrence, so to speak, so you get used to it. What I couldn't get used to was that god awful ruck sack.
And let me remind my readers that this took place in South East Asia, Vietnam obviously, where the temperatures near the coast averaged in the 90's and over 100 degrees further inland. Even during the monsoon season the temperatures didn't go down much. It just got steamier and wetter. You become accustomed to the heat but constantly battle severe dehydration, malaria, jungle rot, snake bites, and booby traps.
Looking at the photo you can see that it looks rather heavy. Right? You see canteens sticking out in various places (three are pretty easy to see) my rolled up poncho liner that I slept on, ammo pouches and the round tubular looking thing on top is called a LAW. That stands for light anti-tank weapon. It's a rocket. This particular mission in the area around Song Be was rife with tunnels. We carried the LAWS to blow up the entrances.
You can see that my camouflage isn't finished yet We had just started applying it when the battalion clerk, photograher, and historian asked us if we wanted our photos taken. Jerry Berry is his name and he wanted $3 for the photo. Since we didn't carry any money on us he took an IOU and I finally got to pay him back at a battalion reunion 30 years later.
So you see I'm carrying a bunch of stuff. But that isn't the half of it. What you can't see are the 21 magazines of M-16 ammo (378 rounds); four baseball size hand grenades, five smoke grenades, a claymore mine, a small medics aid kit that weighed about 4 pounds, LRRP (lerp) rations for 6 days (just in case) and, oh yah, 9 more canteens of water! The minor stuff that didn't weigh much were things like dry socks, a second pair of glasses, insect repellant, water purifications tablets, camouflage sticks, additional IV fluids, etc.
Now why in the heck would anyone carry 12 canteens of water? What is that 3 gallons and each gallon of water weighs a little over 8 pounds. That's about right. LRRP rations are dehydrated food packets and it takes a half of a canteen of water to make one meal. We would eat two meals a day so that's five to six canteens just for the rations during the mission and the rest to use for drinking. We would use a little water to brush our teeth and then swallow. Remember, we did not want to leave any evidence of our existence in enemy territory.
But there is a logistical reason for carry the dehydrated food packets versus C-ration cans. The first reason is noise discipline. You don't want to be making much noise as you sneak around the jungle. The second is trash discipline. You don't want to leave anything behind that would let someone else know that we were in their backyard. The third reason is that LRRP rations weight much less than cans of food. Of course, that benefit was offset by the amount of water we had to carry. However, if you knew that there were decent water sources where you were going and you had plenty of water purification tablets (makes the water taste like crap, by the way) you wouldn't need to play pack mule. But this wasn't the case in any situation that my team was in.
Instead of walking around like a homeless person carrying every can they find we could pack up our wrappers and other trash and secure everything in our rucks. This way no one could follow our trail (hopefully).
Now I hope that no one invisions the six of us walking down some country road. Often we had to cut our way through the jungle like what you see in the old Tarzan movies. Or we had to climb hills by grabbing sapplings, vines, limbs, or what have you to help pull ourselves up. The most aggravating things were the "wait-a-minute-vines". You see all of the stuff sticking out every which way from the ruck so it wasn't hard to get a vine or two wrapped around something. So you whisper "wait a minute" and that's how the vines got their name.
So, from about March of 1968 until I left Vietnam in October this ruck sack was my burden. Let me say that when I arrived in country I weighed a healthy 165 pounds. By the time October came around I was down to 140 pounds. You think that that blasted rucksack would lose a little to help me out. Hell No!
Terry Plank
"Malpractice"
terrenceplank@yahoo.com
Glossary of Terms:
LRRP: Pronounced "lerp". Long Range Reconnaisance Patrol
Combat Platoon: Pre-Tet: 26-30 heavily armed soldiers. Post-Tet: 18-20
M-79 Grenade: Each grenade wieghed 1 lb. And there were different types for different purposes.
Smoke Grenades: canisters of different colored smoke for the purposes of marking LZ's, letting jet pilots and gunships know where to attack, etc.
Hump: Hike two thousand to five thousand kilometers to our designated hunting grounds. About 1 and half to 4 miles through thick jungle or up and over pretty tall hills and mountains.
LRRP rations: a packet about the size of a video tape that contained a dehydrated orange juice bar, your choice of dehydrated Chili and Beans, Chicken and Rice, or Turkey and Rice, and small amount of toilet paper. Of course, the food promoted constipation.
C-Rations: small, olive green colored cans of food. Each packet would contain things like crackers and cheese, turkey loaf, peanut butter, ham and lima beans, pork and beans, a hot chocolate pack that was accompanied by three cookies, and the like. You opened these cans by using a P-38 can opener. I have one on my key ring from 1968.
M-60 Machine Gun: this is a belt fed weapon. It was easier if everyone (except the platoon leader and RTO) carried additional ammo as one man wouldn't be able to carry more than a few hundred rounds on top of the rest of his gear.
RTO: radio-telephone operator. He carried the 12 pound PRC 25 radio that had a telephone handset attached. You've seen these in the movies.
LZ: an area large enough to accomodate one or more helicopters is called a landing zone. The open areas that paratroopers parachute onto is called a drop zone.
Claymore Mine: Also called an "anti-personnel mine" this gray colored slightly curved contraption held a one pound block of plastic explosive called C-4 behind thousands of small metal pellets. Two plastic coated wires were attached to the trigger mechanism that you depressed or you could set the mine up as a booby trap with a trip wire.
Poncho Liner: small camouflaged comforter that we slept on (and wished that I had washed more often!)
3/506th Infantry: reformed in the spring of 1967 at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky as a continuation of the "Band Of Brothers" battalion who fought with distinction in World War II.
Purification Tablets: iodine tablets that helped to combat the impurities in water. Tried it with fizzie tablets, Kool-Aid and what not. Didn't help.
"Malpractice": my radio call sign and nickname but not because I was practicing medicine without a license. (which, of course I was but there's another reason the name came about.) I'll leave that for another story.
Sundry Pack: Large boxes that held things like cigarettes, candy, toothbrushes, tooth paste, and other things that I can't remember but that we all looked forward to sharing.
Phan Thiet: a seacoast city sixty miles north of Saigon
No comments:
Post a Comment