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(EDITOR'S NOTE: Charles Black, Enquirer military writer, is on his fifth reporting assignment in Vietnam, and en route to the war zone has visited various military hot spots in the world. This is another of his daily articles about combat missions on which he accompanied U.S. troops.)
CU CHI, Vietnam - The helicopter traffic, the sporadic bursts of radio activity, all indicated that something was happening up around Tay Ninh northwest of Delta Troop's operating base.
Capt. Joseph Seery, the commander, had a jeep and was heading over to the 25th Infantry Division headquarters area, quite a drive in this huge compound set up according to some inscrutable strategy as the home of the division, another big support base, another huge perimeter to defend.
I got out at division headquarters, it was fairly early, 7:30, and Seery said he'd pick me up after he'd finished his business - a tactical meeting of some kind - in a couple of hours.
I went over to a building in kind of an open horseshoe which the headquarters complex makes and read "PIO" on the sign so I went in. Several soldiers were in there but they were busy listening to radios and drinking coffee.
Points Thumb
I asked one of them who was in charge. He pointed a thumb over his shoulder, vaguely indicating the other end of the building, so I went back that way. A harried young lieutenant was typing very hard at a desk.
He looked up in a few minutes and asked me who I was. I told him. He said he was busy and would talk to me in 30 minutes, or better yet, I'd better wait until the officer in charge came in. He went back to his typing, frowning intently at the paper.
He didn't tell me to sit down, just to wait, so I went outside and contemplated a sign which said "Commanding General's Office." A major hurried down and accosted me.
"Who are you? What is your business here? Why are you standing around out here?"
It was very early and he'd asked too many questions for a sleepy man to get all at once so I said:
"Huh?"
Full of Questions
He was all full of questions then, locking me up pretty hard on a couple of points, such as me being a stranger in the area and standing right in front of the general's office like that being a little suspicious of him.
I thanked him for his concern and went on back toward the PIO shop but the lieutenant was still busy and the office was going full blast with everybody looking distracted.
I sat down on the steps out front and the sun was warming, and this
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mongrel dog came up and barked at me.
Seery came by in the jeep and I ran out and stopped him like a man hailing a life raft.
"You're finished already? I figured you'd be a couple of hours and I was going to come back after you," Seery said.
"No, I'm finished. Found out everything. What did you find out?" I said.
"They've got something going up at Tay Ninh, all right. We've got a LOH flying up there later. If you want to go over and see Charlie Troop, you'll probably get to the war the way it sounds now," Seery said.
He kept looking at me out of the corner of his eye and finally asked me if my boots hurt or something,
I sketched a quick summary of how my morning had gone and he grinned.
"Aw hell, you know better than to let it get you down. What do you expect, stumbling in there at this hour of the day? It's early, they've got a load on their shoulders, and you come in at dawn out of the wilderness. I'll admit, that dog would be hard to take, but the other guys are just trying to get this day started. Drink some coffee, listen to the radios, and see what's going on, and then try it again in a couple of hours," Seery said.
He salvaged the day. A couple of hours later, just as he said, it was all friendly hospitality and gracious assistance over around the big head shed.
Maj. Gen. Ellis Williamson, former assistant commandant at Fort Benning and the man I'd wanted to see until I'd got scared out of the area was back, tired and hungry from a night of work.
We had some coffee and a sandwich, he hadn't eaten anything since the evening before and had practically spent the time since 10:30 p.m. in a helicopter, and he gave me a rundown on what had happened at Tay Ninh.
The August 19-20 action at Tay Ninh, the start of a "Third Offensive" which completely missed making whatever point the enemy intended to make but caused a rash of wildly inaccurate reports during much of its course, was quite obviously underway.
Williamson had studied intelligence information and had a strong feeling during the preceding day that the enemy was up to something. He went to a brigade headquarters at Tay Ninh, West, and personally directed some changes in the U.S. tactics. Eight ambushes were set out to cover a couple slices of terrain which made good routes toward the city.
One of the 30-man ambushes triggered into a column of enemy the 275th North Veitnamese Regiment, at 10:30 p.m. Artillery, air strikes, the 25th Division's helicopter gunships (the "Crusaders" and "Diamondbacks") shot up the enemy column. The enemy effort was completely ruined and robbed of any surprise.
I told Seery and his boys goodbye and got into the LOH to go up there feeling much happier with the world than I had when the dog had barked at me.
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