Joseph DeFrancisco – Battery Commander – Part Two

Operation Pegasus

I got promoted to captain in Nov or Dec of 1967 at Phan Thiet, at the 2nd/7th  infantry battalion headquarters located at an airfield south of the city. Little did I know I’d be back in that same area in a couple years. Because the Army was expanding at such a terrific rate it began promoting junior officers and NCOs very quickly. It got down to two years between being commissioned as a second lieutenant and promotion to captain (two grade bumps). For me it was a little more than two years.

The beginning of the TET 68 Offensive on January 30 pulled newly minted Captain DeFrancisco  north to LZ English and then to Camp Evans into the fight associated with the Battle of Hue, one of the longest and bloodiest of the war.

Earlier that month on January 21 the Marine camp at Khe Sanh had come under a North Vietnamese ground, artillery, mortar and rocket attack that would last five and a half months.

In April of ’68 we supported the relief of the Marines at Khe Sanh out of Camp Evans as a part of Operation Pegasus, a division size operation. Marines had been there for months under siege, and we got into some pretty horrendous firefights under substantial indirect and direct fire.

Indirect fire: from weapons that lob shells into the air from a distance, such as mortars and artillery. Direct fire: from weapons that shoot directly at a target, such as rifles, rockets and tanks.

Now these were not Viet Cong out there; it was the North Vietnamese Army. We had a lot of wounded guys on the ground that had to be lifted out. We went in under very heavy fire. In fact the first time we tried to go in the helicopter got shot up so badly we had to go back to get another helicopter. We came back and still were under heavy fire, but we got in and the battalion commander and I got out and we loaded a bunch of wounded onto the helicopter and took off. That helicopter by the time we got back was finished too. So we got in our third one that day to finish up operations.

That particular operation was right before Easter. The reason I remember, my little fire support team and a couple other guys from the infantry battalion headquarters had a big Easter brunch with our C-rations. We pooled them all together and had brunch sitting on one of the bunkers there in Khe Sanh. That one I remember very well.

The A Shau Valley Incursion

I went into the A Shau Valley as kind of a provisional battery commander, because after Khe Sanh, which was pretty tough fighting, my artillery battery commander pulled me out of the field with the infantry, to come back to work at battalion headquarters. By this time I was within about two months of PCS (permanent change of station – leaving Vietnam), but the division was ordered into the A Shau Valley and we had to have a provisional battery of just two guns up on a mountain top above the middle of the valley. And so the battalion commander said, Hey, I know I just pulled you out of the field, but we need this provisional battery and we need to get some guns up there because we can’t range the A Shau from where we are, and I need an experienced guy, and you’re it.

I went off with my two guns and a bunch of 105 mm ammo to this little mountain top inhabited by a signal detachment that was relaying information from base camp into the A Shau, and a long range reconnaissance patrol for security. There were no more than thirty-five of us on that hill top. For about two or three weeks my two guns provided fire support for several small operations, until we could establish an LZ down in the valley and then bring in a full battery.

Medals

General DeFrancisco talked about his medals only because I asked him to.  Typical of men like Joe DeFrancisco he downplays their significance. Two of them he could not remember or failed to mention the circumstances. He does however remember clearly the Easter C-Ration brunch during the relief of Khe Sanh.

 We went everywhere by helicopter and we had a lot of air assaults, a daily thing. I was always flying with the infantry battalion commander and the infantry S3 (Operations Officer). I received five or six Air Medals for numerous LZ insertions and air observation missions. Along the way I also got two Bronze Stars for Valor and a Silver Star in those operations. They all involved insertions or support for the First Cav.

The first Bronze Star was, you know what, down around LZ Sherry, because we were based at Phan Thiet for while in late ‘67. There were troops in trouble on the ground and we happened to be the only helicopter in the air. So we landed, jumped out – it was so long ago it’s hard to remember – I think it was me and the S3, and helped the folks that were in trouble. It turns out the VC were involved, and after a short exchange of gunfire they just kind of melted away. Nothing particularly harrowing.

The second Bronze Star for Valor I don’t even remember where it was. I think it was around LZ English, near the South China Sea, in a similar sort of situation. I just can’t remember the details. The Silver Star was for Operation Pegasus in the relief of the Marines at Khe Sanh. (He earned a third Bronze Star, but failed to mention it entirely.)

I also got a Purple Heart in one of these operations. We were coming into a landing zone and a helicopter got shot and I took a round. I wasn’t anything serious where I had to be evacuated. It hit me in the butt on the side. In a helicopter I always sat on a flak vest so fortunately the bullet was pretty well spent by the time it got to me. I went to the clinic where they pulled the round out like pulling out a tooth, and that was it. I still have the bullet somewhere.

Battalion Commanders

The most prominent people that stand out for me were the infantry battalion commanders, because I spent so much time with them. One was Joe Griffin who retired as a colonel. He had been one of my instructors at West Point. He was very severely wounded in Korea, in fact he had a glass eye. You could still see the scar that began high on his head and went down across his face past his eye. He was my first infantry battalion commander. A wonderful man.

I served with a very special battalion commander during the relief of Khe Sanh. At the time he was a lieutenant colonel, and later became the first African American four star general in the Army. He became a very well known and accomplished officer.

Lieutenant Colonel Roscoe Robinson was a battalion commander with the 7th Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam. For his achievements there he received the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, eleven air medals, and two Silver Stars.

  It seems battalion commanders, the good ones, were not shy about putting themselves in harm’s way.

 Even as a battalion commander you could tell this guy was very special. What made him so special was his keen understanding of the mission, what we were trying to accomplish, and what we were doing. Also his genuine care and concern for his people in the midst of war. Very, very strong character. He knew what was right, and he did what was right. I thought the world of him.

My artillery battalion commander was a great guy too. I just did not see him that often. His name was Jim Coglin, a super guy, the 1st battalion of the 21st Artillery Regiment. Direct support to the 1st Cav’s 3rd Brigade.

Summing Up

To wrap up my first tour in Vietnam I would say that I went there a very young, idealistic, officer eager to do his part for his country. I remained enthusiastic throughout that tour and I found it to be exciting, fulfilling and satisfying, except for the A Shau Valley incursion, which was a little scary.

All through TET we had little idea of what was going on back in the States; we did not realize the extent of the anti-war movement. We thought we had won TET because all of our indictors were that we had caused tremendous casualties and we had pushed back the enemy in every area he had attacked. The TET Counter Offensive in our mind was a great success. We threw the NVA out of Hue, granted they killed a lot of people; we expelled them from around Khe Sanh and lifted the siege; we went into their back pocket in the A Shau Valley and won a series of battles there. We thought we had done well.

During TET ’68 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces lost approximately 45,000 killed in action, and almost 7,000 captured. The South Vietnamese lost 2,788 KIA, and the U.S. lost 1,536 KIA.

During this time was when you had the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, the killing of Bobby Kennedy, and President Johnston announcing he would not run for the presidency that year. There was a lot going on and we’re hearing about all of this, but we are in some pretty deep stuff and focused on fighting. The deterioration of national support for the war and the extent of the protest movement we did not fully understand. I didn’t and the people I was with didn’t. We had our noses and our heads deeply into combat. All that would play out to some pretty devastating effects later on.

I came home very proud of what I had done, very proud of my unit, the people I was with, and thought we all had done a really great job and done our best for our country. That is the attitude I had on the flight home. Of course it’s a lot like what we are going through now: you can’t just look at the casualties, you have to look at the political implications.