1ST CAVALRY GROUND OPERATION
It may take me awhile to get all of this down as I am sorely lacking in writing skills, just bear with me and I will complete it as my health and mental state allows. One great advantage that we had in 1969-70 were the lessons learned by the grunts that preceded us and the advantages that imparted. There are some negative aspects of units coming and going under a DEROS system, but without it units would have come in green without the advantage of having old timers to teach the tricks of the trade. Instead of units learning the same hard lessons, they maintained an edge and improved with age.
I can not speak for all infantry divisions or even another battalion in the 1st Cavalry, but I will attempt to define typical operations as I knew them between October 1969-October 1970.
I serve with B Company, 1st Battalion, 5th US Cavalry. We were what is known as legs or grunts. Grunts are rifleman or Light Weapons Infantrymen. Their weapons were typically M-16 Automatic Rifles, M-60 Machine Guns and the M-79 Grenade Launcher. All these weapons are quite reliable as they are still in use 30 years later. The number of men varies per unit, a full strength company with three platoons and attached personnel numbering less than 100. Each platoon has a Platoon Leader usually a Second or 1st Lieutenant and a Platoon Sergeant usually a Staff Sergeant. There are two Squads per platoon with a buck sergeant as squad leader and each squad has a machine gunner and a man that carries the M-79. The rest of the squad carries an M-16 and approximately 15 magazines. Also the assistant gunner and five more members of the squad carry a can of machine gun ammo (200 rounds each), the ammo carriers first responsibility is to get up to the gun and deposit their ammo with the assistant gunner. Defensive weapons were the claymore mine, (Claymore) without a doubt the most efficient killing device ever invented and the trip flare. The claymores were used for the night defensive position (NDP) and for ambushes. The claymore is a plastic bodied, directional firing, command detonated, explosive device. Two and one half pounds of C-4 behind a sheet of 700 ball bearings, sort of like 70- 12 gauge shot guns loaded with 00 buck shot going off in a 60 degree pattern all at once, only worse. Trip flares are metal tubes on a stake with a pinned detonator similar to a hand grenade. Green piano wire is attached to the pin and it is tied off to a tree. When an intruder tries to come into your defensive perimeter the wire is tripped and the flare explodes. The device works fine unless the intruder watches while the trips are set up and the claymores placed.
Hand grenades were optional, as the thick jungle areas we worked was not ideal for accurate or safe delivery, but they were effective for pre-inspection of a bunker perhaps. Smoke grenades were the rule and used for marking our position for air support and supply.
We were re-supplied by helicopter every three days and usually out of water and food by the time we could find a landing zone (LZ). I carried 12 quarts of water in the dry season in one (1) five quart, (2) two quart and (3) one quart canteens. We were issued 9 meals divided between C-rations and LRRP rations. Second only to water in importance on log day was our mail and in order to get mail you had to find a landing zone large enough to land the "Huey". Mail can not be kicked out, it has to be handed off to a person on the ground. I don't think enough can be said about the importance of mail to soldiers. We also got paper back books from what source I am not sure, but they were good ones for the most part and some were even borderline subversive, such as "Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo and "Vietnam" edited by Marvin Gettleman. The mail bags were made of red nylon. Just a little side note about mail that I think of to this day. One of my platoons machine gunners, Walter Huffman, was enormously popular back home and every log day the bag was brimming with Walter Huffman mail. Walter was killed in Cambodia and I couldn't help but think how many of Walter's friends and family were affected, mail call was never quite the same after that.
A little about the food, as I mentioned we had C-rations, literally food in a can and LRRP rations, which are dehydrated and require water and heat to prepare. We used a canteen cup and C-4 to heat our water. I do not remember all the meals, but I will try to glean the entire menu if possible. The least popular rations were the C-rations, because of the bulk, weight and taste. Both C-rations and LRRP 'S came with a mini pack of cigarettes and matches, salt, pepper, sugar, toilette paper, coffee, cream or cocoa, two "Chicklettes" and a tooth pick. My favorite LRRP was "chicken and rice", with other entrees such as beef and rice, spaghetti with meat sauce, chili con carne, beef stew, chicken stew, may be more just can't remember. C-rations included entrees such as Beans with franks, ham and eggs, spaghetti with meat balls, ham slices, beef slices, turkey loaf, etc. I really can't remember all the deserts other than peaches, pound cake, fruit cocktail, apricots and applesauce. They discontinued a c-ration for the Army in Vietnam that I tried and liked in the US, ham and lima beans. No one else seemed to like them, the Marines were still getting the meal and I haven't met one who liked them. No one liked ham and eggs for sure, I found a can in Ranger school and wished for more. Never got that hungry again. I can not remember how often we got "SP" packs, sundries packs were packages containing cartons of cigarettes, chewing tobacco, chewing gum, Hershey's tropical chocolate bars, shaving supplies, soap, etc.. The cigarettes were evenly dividing among the platoon regardless of whether you smoked or not.
Other equipment that we carried, air mattress, poncho liner, poncho in the wet season, smoke grenades, ammo can for storing personal items. On "log day", we could barely get of the ground, getting rid of the rucksack was a simple task of pulling a quick release on the pack strap, the act of which was called "Light to Fight", with your bandoliers of ammo tied around your waste. The only exposed machine gun ammo carried was the starter belt for the machine gun, all the other ammo was carried in 200 round belts inside the can. When a new guy came into the unit, he inherited the can of the oldest man carrying ammo, the rule applied regardless of rank, with the exception of SSgt's, medics and LT's. The Radio Telephone Operators (RTO's) carried all this and a 10 pound radio, extra batteries and antennas, still not sure how this was accomplished, when a squad got light to fight for cloverleaf patrols, the RTO went along on every other one, where the platoon sergeant or platoon leader went, he went also.
To be continued
