Firebase Rob
I was never so happy to be back with my Platoon, my friends. Once the helicopter sat down at Firebase Rob, I told Fred to follow me to where the 3rd Platoon was sleeping. As we walked up the hill, I could start to see some familiar faces. Soon everyone was around me saying “welcome home stranger”. Fred was met by Sgt. Kirby and he took him to meet Lt. Kudla. Everyone asked about my eye. My friends told me about how our convoy had been taking sniper rounds as they drove down the roads. So far, everyone had been lucky and no one had been hit. They had been returning fire with the 106 guns that were mounted on the jeeps. We used Flechette rounds that fired hundreds of darts, much like a shotgun would. The Platoon was in for the night, tomorrow we were going to be going out again sweeping the road to keep it open.
The next morning after breakfast, I was very anxious to get back to my normal routine after spending two weeks in the hospital. I stood by the Lieutenant’s jeep and made sure the antennas for the two radios in the back were tight and secure. I jumped in the back of the jeep and turned the radios on and called for a radio check. I received a, "loud and clear". Soon Lieutenant Kudla came to the jeep. When he reached the jeep so did our driver Joe Elswick. Kudla looked back at me and said, “Sergeant, you will be riding up here in my seat today.” I said, “Yeah right!” in a joking kind of way. Kudla then said it again. I said, “what, are you crazy, I know you guys have been taking sniper fire and I am the radio man and I sit back here”. Kudla then said, “Sergeant, I am giving you a Direct Order to sit in my seat today.” I then told him, “you are full of shit, and I am not doing it”. He said, “Okay, you are on KP (kitchen patrol) for the next 3 days and you will not be going out today”. I told him, “I need to catch up on my letter writing anyway!" I grabbed my gear and gun out of the back of the jeep. I walked back to my little hooch to put away my gear as my Platoon pulled away in its convoy. I noticed that Kudla had got someone else to sit in his seat as he rode in the back between the two radios.
I did not want to get into any more trouble, so I decided to walk up the hill to the Mess Tent and report to the Mess Sergeant. I made my way to the tent and asked the Mess Sergeant if he needed any help with anything. I explained that Lieutenant Kudla had given me 3 days of KP and I did not want to get into any more trouble. He told me he had it all under control and for me to go back to my hooch and rest up. I didn’t need to hear any more, as I walked back down the hill to catch up on my letter writing. It had been at least 1 week before I got hurt and in the hospital that I had written to my Mom. As I sat on my cot, starting my first letter to my oldest Sister and Brother-in-law, I noticed it was pretty quiet without my 3rd Platoon buddies. As I looked around, the tanks were positioned all around the perimeter. Each tank had twin 40mm guns on them, along with machine guns too. Most of the tanks had tarps draped down one side where the crew would have their cots for sleeping and lounging around during the day. When I went to the hospital I didn’t remember having all of these tanks, maybe more came while I was away.
As I started to write, I was having a hard time finding the words to tell my sister I had just got out of the hospital. Words were coming slow to me as I looked around the perimeter. The next thing I knew, I heard a loud gun shot. I reacted by jumping on the ground and grabbing my rife. I looked over the berm to see if there was any enemy. The next thing I heard was someone yelling for a Medic. “Medic, medic, God Damn we need a medic!” I turned around a saw that the yelling was coming from a tank on the opposite side of the berm from me. People were running to the tank. I decided that I would walk over towards the tank to hear or see what had happened. I finally found out that one of the tank crew members was cleaning his .45 caliber pistol as he sat on his cot. Another crew member was sitting on the cot too. As the one guy put his clip in the gun and started to twirl the gun around his finger the .45 went off and struck the other crew member in the chest, killing him as he sat there. I walked back to my hooch and put away my writing material. Soon a helicopter was landing at Firebase Rob and the body of the deceased was loaded on to it. The person who did the shooting was also loaded into the helicopter and they took off. What a tragic accident! Those men were about the same age as me, 18 or 19 years of age. After I got back to my cot there was no way I could write a letter home, I just kept thinking about how fragile life was.
Before I knew it, 2 days had gone by and my Platoon members were coming back to Firebase Rob. I greeted them as they came driving in. My first question was did you guys receive any sniper fire? They all said no, not that trip. As I was talking to all of my friends, a helicopter flew in and landed right below us, down the hill by the fuel barrels. A lot of times, helicopters and Cobra gunships would land and refuel. The people on the helicopter were picked up and driven to the top of the hill at Firebase Rob, in a jeep. As I continued to talk to my friends, I noticed Lt. Kudla and our Company Commander, Cpt. Bryner, starting to walk down the hill, heading in Third Platoon’s direction. As they started to get closer, it appeared they were heading my way. I soon moved to my right, about 10 steps to see if they were coming for me. They changed directions too, and yes, they were heading straight for me. Cpt. Bryner said, “Sergeant DeMusey, come here.” I froze as they both came and stood right in front of me. Cpt. Bryner said, “Sergeant, when was the last time you wrote your Mother a letter back home?” I started to answer when the Cpt. said, “I really don’t care! I am giving you a Direct Order to sit down right now and write your Mother. You have a half hour before I leave here and I will have your letter in my hand. Lt. Kudla, make sure he sits down right now and he starts writing. Sergeant DeMusey, do you understand?” I responded with, “Yes Sir, will do!” Oh my god, I can’t believe I just got a Direct Order to write my Mother. Lt. Kudla said, “Do you have paper and pen?” Yes I said. Go and get it done. I walked up to my cot and got out my paper and pen and started my letter to home. Lt. Kudla said that when I got hurt, the Red Cross contacted my Mother and said I was in the hospital. Since I did not write my Mom, she assumed the worst. I understood, but I was just embarrassed in front of my Platoon members. My letter was not the most friendly that I had ever written home, but I did get it done within the half hour deadline. I gave the letter to Lt. Kudla and I saw him walk up the hill and give it to Cpt. Bryner.
For the next couple of weeks, we worked the roads without any problems for us. We had taken a few sniper rounds and we fired back with our 106's and 60's. There was a bus of Vietnamese and Cambodians coming across the Vietnam/Cambodia boarder when they hit a road side mine. Our platoon happened upon them shortly after they ran over it, and there were a lot of injuries and a few deaths. There were vehicles transporting bodies back down the road into Vietnam. My platoon kept driving and continued on with our mission. Sadness was brought to D Troop, 2nd Platoon, on June 8, when the Blue Tigers lost one of its fine men, Clark (Catfish) Rogers. He was killed when his vehicle overturned while returning from Phuc Vinh with a resupply of ammunition. Clark spent ten months in Vietnam with the Blue Tigers. Memorial services were held the following day at Fire Support Base Rob. The prayers and sympathy of Delta Troop went to his family. “I wonder why the worst of men must fight, and the best of men must die." From “The Ballad of Ruben James”.
We would sweep the road each morning and afternoon. In the nearly two months Delta Troop pulled the road missions, they found a total of thirty-five mines. These mines were destroyed without loss of life or equipment to American and South Vietnamese forces. . . On the last month that we were there, we found 10 more mines. While we were at Firebase Rob, in June, the Blue Tigers were authorized to wear the Special Forces Red Beret for our outstanding job. We were told that the Troop was due to return to Di An for a five-day stand down and maintenance on June 30th. Then, we would probably return to our old stomping grounds in the Nhon Trach Province.
The morning of June 30th, I was pulling the last bunker guard from 0500 hours to sun up. I used one of our jeeps to sit in so I could see over the berm for possible enemy movement. As the sun was coming up, I could see movement from one of 3rd platoon’s hoochs. I could tell that it was SSGT Phamatter. I could see him looking around and he noticed me in the jeep and gave me a quick wave and he continued to stretch and yawn. I could see that he was messing around with something on the sand bags that encompassed the compound. I could see that he was holding the clacker (the detonator) of one of the Claymore mines that we had positioned all around the berm. Since this was our last morning at Firebase Rob, I guess he was going to wake everybody up by detonating his claymore mine. I thought to myself, no one is that crazy, not even SSGT Phamatter. The next this I knew, Phamatter removed the safety on the detonator and he exploded the claymore mine. It was such a loud distinct sound that it woke up everybody that was sleeping. As soon as Phamatter exploded the mine, I could see that he grabbed the side of his head and bent down. I could see that he was holding his right ear. He yelled for the medic. Guys were coming out of their hoochs with their guns in the ready position. Once they determined that there was no threat of the enemy, but an injured SSGT Phamatter, injured by the back blast of his own claymore mine, which he set off as a prank, people went from, we are being attacked, to, I am going to kill that son-of-a bitch. SSGT Phamatter did not place his claymore mine out the 100 feet of wire, like it should have been placed, but about half the distance, and that is why he was hit by the back blast. He had a pierced ear for a week or two after his little stunt.
Back to Di An
Here it was, our final day in Cambodia. We left in platoon convoys, heading down the road to Di An. We were told that we were going to be on a one week stand down in the rear for the good job we did keeping the road open for the Big Red 1 to use as the US was officially making their move into Cambodia. After driving for hours and hours, we finally made it to Di An. All everyone could think about was getting a good shower and putting on clean clothes and getting something to eat at the club. It was also mentioned that there was going to be big Company party some night in the week. After 3rd Platoon took their showers and was getting ready to put on clean clothes and go to the club, one of our rear people came into our hooch and told us how one of the 11th Armor Cav men, who we shared the club with, had taken his red beret from him and placed it on the bulletin board and told him he couldn’t wear it in the club. I told the man to not worry about it, that I would retrieve it for him when I got to the club.
As we got to the club, the first thing you saw was the bulletin board. Like our man said, it was hanging high up on the board. I had Wicker get it down for me since he was the tallest. I had decided that the 11th Armor Cav would not get away with this. As we walked into the actual club, everyone was in a line, up against the wall. People were giving their food and drink order as the made their way up to the front of the line. While I was waiting in line, in the dimly lit club, I saw a table of four 11th Armor Cav men drinking and finishing their food. I decided that they were going to be my target. I left my place in line and made my way to their table. I was looking them over as I approached and the one with his back to me seem to be the biggest one at the table. I decided he was the first one that I would hit. As I reached their table the other three men saw that I was up to no good. As the man with his back to me started to turn around, I cocked my arm and fist back and was just about ready to hit him, when I looked down upon him, sitting there, and recognized him as Richard Smith, a kid that I had went to grammar school and part of high school with. I said, “Richard?” He looked at me and said, “Bill?” I brought my fist down and started to shake his hand. “Long time no see, Richard!” I went on to ask him how his family was. His family moved to Placerville when Richard was a sophomore in high school. Richard and I started to catch up on old times. I told Richard that it wasn’t cool for his guys to take the red beret from a guy in the rear and not give it back to him and that I had the beret and would return it to the owner. Richard said that it was cool, he saw it on the bulletin board, but he didn't know how it got there. After a few minutes we decided to buy some beer and go back to his hooch so we could continue to catch up and reminisce.
I bought a case of beer at the club, and since I had the Lieutenant’s jeep, we were out the door and on our way to the 11th Armor Cav’s area. Soon we were pulling up in front of the hooch that Richard lived in. We sat around his bunk area and talked about old friends and early High School days. We talked about girls and cars. I drank about 3 beers in the four hours that I was with Richard. Before we knew it, it was getting late, around midnight. I told Richard that I was tired because we had just driven from Cambodia that morning. Richard told me that he and his unit were out in the field all of the time but maybe we could hook up again before we both ended our tours. I told him good bye and that if I could, I would be back to see him. I loaded up what was left of the case of beer. We had only taken 1 can out of the case. I put the case in the jeep to take back with me. I had an almost full can of beer in my hand, but didn’t want to pour it out since it was right out of the refrigerator and still cold. I told Richard good bye and got into the Lieutenant’s jeep and started down the road. I had not driven too far down the road when I spotted a MP (Military Police) jeep sitting at the corner of one of the cross streets. As I drove past them I could see they were looking at me really close. The next thing I know they pulled out and got right behind me and turned on their red light. I pulled over to see what they wanted. As they approached my jeep, their flashlights were looking around on the floor and spotted the case of beer. The other MP shined his flashlight on the can of beer that I had between my legs. They asked me to step out of the jeep. I could not believe I was being pulled over by some damned MP’s, who I figured never seen a day in their life’s in the bush. They then asked me if I had been drinking. I told them yes, and then they asked me how many did I drink that night? I said, probably 4 throughout the course of the night. The next thing I knew they had me turn around and placed me in hand-cuffs. They had me sit in their jeep. They told me that I was driving while under the influence and I didn’t have a valid trip ticket for the jeep. A trip ticket was a ticket that was filled out before using the vehicle telling where I was going and who authorized the trip. They drove me to the MP Office and I was placed into a connex that had been converted into a jail cell. The let me sit there for a few hours before they called my Company and notified them I was being held at the MP Station. They requested that my 1st Sergeant come down and bail me out and that I would be getting a ticket in the mail in the next few days. Around 3 a.m. my 1st Sergeant arrived and I was driven back to Company area and was released back to my hooch. The next morning, after I had breakfast, I walked over to the mail room. I knew the men working in the mail room and told them of my MP encounter the night before. I told them the Company Commander was going to be getting a ticket from them for me, so he could discipline me for the DUI. They said that they would keep an eye out for the letter and would intercept it for me if they could. I told them thanks and I left.
Tonight was the night that the Blue Tigers were going to have their big party for doing such a good job at Fire Base Rob. That evening, we all started to gather at the club. There was going to be a Vietnamese band playing and all of the beer and pizza was paid for by the Battalion Commander. The music started around 9 p.m. and the band sounded good, for being a Vietnamese band. Everyone was drinking, eating and just having a good time. Our Captain soon got up on the stage between songs and grabbed the microphone and started to praise us for all of the hard work we put in to make the push into Cambodia easy for the United States. He started to talk a little bit too long and you could tell he was feeling no pain from the alcohol he had been putting down during the night. The next thing I knew, the music started to play again and the female Vietnamese singers started to dance with the Captain on stage. Before the Captain knew it, the women started to take his pants down. Soon they were off. At the same time the Captain was loosing his pants, he was undressing one of the female singers. Soon the singer was butt naked, and the Captain was pant less. The flash bulbs began to flash as everyone with a camera took pictures. The night continued without any further incidents of people loosing their clothes on stage. Around 1 a.m., the club closed and we all made our way back to our hoochs.
The next morning after breakfast, I stopped by the mail room and my friends had the letter addressed to our Company Commander that contained my DUI ticket. They gave it to me and told me to do whatever I wanted to do with it, but never say how I received it. I still have a copy of the DUI ticket to this day. After getting back to the hooch from stopping by the Mail Room, SSGT Phamatter came into out hooch and said for us to start putting our stuff in our lockers and get ready to go out in the field. Everyone said that we were on stand down for a week and we had only been back to 2 days. If he was teasing, it wasn't funny. He was not teasing. The rumor was that down by the Dust Bowl, where we had did a lot of work, mostly night ambush patrols, there was an ARVN Base Camp that the NVA wanted to over run it. We would be going down there to pull night ambush patrols around their perimeters to stop any aggression to the Base Camp.
Stand down is over
Within the hour, we were loaded up in our jeeps and trucks with our entire gear heading down the highway on our way south of Saigon to Nhon Trach. Once at the Base Camp, we set up our tents and made ourselves comfortable. Once that was done, we loaded up in our vehicles and moved out to run a convoy in the area we would be setting up for that's night ambush patrol. We drove all day around the ARVN Base Camp, the one that we were going to be their early warning device for if and when the NVA came to over run it. We saw nothing out of the ordinary as we drove. If Charlie was going to over run the Camp, they would not do it during the daylight hours anyway. We arrived back at our Base Camp and had dinner that was served at the make shift mess hall.
About an hour before it was going to be dark, SSGT Phamatter came and told us to get ready to go out on patrol. We loaded up in our jeeps and ¾ ton truck and proceeded to drive to our dismount location. Lt. Kudla was not going out with us, and SSGT Phamatter was in charge. We dismounted our vehicles and got into formation to move out. There were 12 of us out of the 18 in our platoon that were going out. As they pulled away they said that they would see us in the morning at day break and to be safe. We moved off the road and headed into the field. SSGT Phamatter was leading the platoon as the point man. I guess he was doing this so he could pick out just the right place to set up for the night. We had not walked more than 100 yards off of the road and all of a sudden you could hear SSGT Phamatter yell, “Stop, stop right there!" I could not see that far in front of me to tell what was going on up front. All of a sudden you could here shots being fired from what sounded to be a .45 caliber hand gun as well as return fire from AK47’s. Everyone quickly fell to the ground and took up a firing position and started firing on our flanks. We could hear more .45 caliber rounds being fired. I could hear someone yell, “SSGT Phamatter, get back here, everyone hold your fire.” It appeared that SSGT Phamatter, while walking down the trail, came upon two VC dressed in black pajamas and carrying AK-47’s, coming up the same trail. Phamatter had spotted them a half a second before they spotted him. He yelled for them to stop but they fired at him as he returned fire at them. The problem was, Phamatter decided to chase the two VC down the trail, shooting at them with his .45 hand gun while they returned fire as they ran to get away. The platoon could not lay down a base of fire in front because Phamatter was out in front of us. In about 5 minutes Phamatter came back up the trail to rejoin the platoon. Phamatter’s radio man, Ron Hill said, “what in the hell is a matter with you. You could have been shot or killed by them or us, once you decided to take off after them!” SSGT Phamatter played it off and said, “That was cool”. Hill told Phamatter that he was not John Wayne and if he did it again that he would shoot him himself.
Since we had giving our position away, we had to walk farther to get out of that area. It was getting dark by now and finally Phamatter choose a place to set up for the night. We got in a tight circle and placed our claymore mines out in front of us in a circle. I knew that Phamatter placed his claymore mine that whole 100 feet after the little incident at Fire Base Rob. We were finally able to relax and settle in. We were sitting on top of a hill where we could see back to our left. To our left was where the ARVN Base Camp was the NVA wanted to over run. The ARVN’s also sent out night ambush patrols that were on our right, somewhere. The moon was bright this night and we could see pretty well with the moon light. It was now 10:00 p.m. and some of the guys were starting to fall asleep. We had already determined who was taking the 1st watch and it rotated around the circle counter clock wise all night until day break. We had a rope that we strung out between the guys who were opposite us in the circle. Each pair of men would stay up and hour and on the hour would wake the man to his left and pass the rope to him. This rope was used to pull on to see if the opposite guy was awake or if you needed to alert him incase if you saw or heard something out of the ordinary. Every hour on the hour, who's turn it was to be awake, had to call on the radio and do a radio check with Bluetiger Headquarters. It was to let Headquarters know that everything was okay or not. The radio call went like, “Bluetiger HQ, this is Bluetiger 30 delta, radio check.” The response was two clicks on their radio which meant that they heard you loud and clear.
At 11:00 p.m., it was my turn to be awake for the next hour watch, along with the person opposite me in the circle. After I received the rope, I gave it a tug and I felt someone pulling back. After about 5 minutes of being awake, I could hear the big shells cutting through the night sky from being fired over our heads from the ships that sat off the Vietnam coast. We never could hear them explode, so we knew they were being shot a long ways away. They made a funny sound as the cut the night air. It was a kind of low whistle sound. As I lay there, looking up at the stars as the big rounds when over us, all of a sudden I could hear the sound of mortars being fired from the ARVN Base Camp. You could hear the mortars explode in the air high above where the ARVN night ambush patrol was positioned. It was a luminary round that lit up the sky and ground beneath. All of a sudden you could hear the M-16s from the ARVN’s being fired and the crack of AK-47’s being fired back. As the luminary round would fall to the ground you could see the tracers from the guns being fired. We were too far away to do anything but watch the action. As luminary rounds were being fired from the Base Camp the shooting on both sides continued. After about 3 minutes there was silence. SSGT Phamatter had a star light scope in his gear and he was trying to see what was going on. When the luminary rounds were lighting up the sky, he couldn’t see anything. When it finally got dark he thought he could see movement coming in our direction. He ordered everyone to get up and be on the ready incase the enemy was to come up the hill towards us. He instructed me to put my radio on the same frequency as the ARVN Base Camp’s. I did, and the only thing I could hear was voices that were talking very fast in Vietnamese. I did make out what sounded like coordinates. The next thing I knew the Base Camp was firing live mortar rounds in the directions the enemy had quickly left. This direction was towards us. The rounds started to fall and they were still far away from us. As they made corrections of their fire the rounds were now starting to get closer. Now we had mortar rounds getting extremely close and the enemy running our way. Since we had to move our original position, where we were going to set up for the night, because of our encounter with the VC, we were not where the Base Camp thought we were. After 3 mortar rounds fell, each one getting closer and closer, SSGT Phamatter grabbed my radio and yelled into to it for the Base Camp to cease fire. One final mortar round fell and the firing quit. Now all we had to worry about was the enemy coming up the hill at us.
It was now 12:00 a.m., and everyone was still awake and on guard. Phamatter was still looking through his star light scope. He said, “I see two of them running into the tree line to our right, down at the bottom of the hill.” He went on to say that they were too far away for us to fire at them and give up our position. He then used my radio and called into Headquarters and reported the sighting to them. Headquarters went on to say that they would forward the information on but doubted that anything would be done that night. I think I fell asleep around 3:00 a.m. and slept until we were woken at day break. We broke down our position and headed down the hill to walk out to the road to be picked up by our guys and taken back to base. That morning, we could hear the sounds of jets bombing. We figured it was in the location of where we saw the enemy the night before.
During the day, we would pull rat patrols. This is where we would load up in our vehicles and drive off into the fields trying to draw the enemy out. One of the days we were pulling our rat patrols, convoys through the fields, we started to receive sniper fire. The jeep that Eldon Preuss was the gunner on sped up to get out of the line of fire. Driving fast through the field that had trees and bushes, Eldon was knocked off his jeep, injuring himself. I remember that he had several injuries not only to his left knee but also to his torso. He was in bandages for weeks after that incident. We continued our convoys during the day, and night ambush patrols at night for the next week when we were relieved and went back to Di An.