Joseph DeFrancisco – Battery Commander – Part Five
Settling In
After only a night at Phan Rang they flew me down to Sherry. If we had a Change Of Command ceremony I don’t remember it. I think I just walked in after Captain Heindrichs had already left.
Right away an old friend from my first Vietnam tour greeted me. He was a lone tree on a prominent ridgeline that I had used as a reference point for air missions out of Phan Thiet. At that time I was with the 2nd/7th Cav and we lived just off the Phan Thiet air strip. As the artillery liaison officer one of my principal jobs was to coordinate, execute and adjust fires on landing zones, called LZ preps, prior to inserting our troops. Many of our missions involved inserting troops into the hills and mountains, so I was always looking for reference points to help with my map navigation and LZ prep locations. This lone tree on a prominent ridge line was an ideal guide for many missions, and still there I was happy to see.
My initial impression of Sherry was that it was a well organized firebase. My first priority was to meet everyone and learn about the operation. I went around and met the two radar crews, I met the Quad-50 and Duster guys, I spent time talking to each of the gun crews, talked to the Chief of Smoke and to the maintenance sergeant, both good NCOs. I remember going around at night checking out guard towers and bunkers, even the beer bunker.
Spent a lot of time with the Fire Direction Control crew, learning gunnery from them. Remember I never went to the basic artillery course. I had just come out of the advanced course, where I learned about tactics and deployment of artillery forces, but nothing about firing the howitzers themselves. So I’d go into FDC in the afternoon and say, “OK guys, show me what you are doing here,” and they’d give me an impromptu course in gunnery.
I remember we had to go into Phan Thiet on convoys for our supplies because our air support had largely pulled out (along with the the 1/50th Mechanized, the last of the U.S. infantry). That’s how I got to know the motor sergeant so well. I’d go down there and say, “OK, how are we going to do this convoy, what have we got? We have to make sure we have enough spare parts because we don’t want trucks breaking down out there in the middle of nowhere.” I knew from my first tour with the 1st Cav that convoys could be hazardous, even though we would be in daylight both going and coming.
I spent a lot of time with First Sergeant Stollberg, a big guy and a godsend. We talked about what needed to be improved to keep things on an even keel, to make sure the troops were well cared for, that attitudes stayed positive, and to make sure nobody got hurt.
Capt. DeFrancisco and First Sergeant Stollberg
I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the troops at Sherry, having just come from Ft. Sill where I had only handful of good guys in the whole battery, or what I encountered in Germany on my first assignment out of West Point where the battalion was lacking in morale, skill and quality of leadership. It was just the opposite at Sherry. Most of the people, although nobody wanted to be there, were very good and proud to have mastered whatever job they had. The gun crews and FDC were especially good. I was very, very happy with what I saw. This was a real tribute to Captain Heindrichs and all those who came before me and built this place. I was lucky to inherit it, and I was determined to make it better than I found it.
One example: The battery already had gun crew competitions when I arrived, but I spent a lot of time on these competitions in order to keep the crews sharp and to give them meaningful ways to occupy their time. Gradually these competitions grew more complex as the Chief of Smoke and First Sergeant began adding more tasks. Rivalry among the crews for bragging rights became intense. The results included highly trained and disciplined crews with neat, orderly gun pits, and just as important with greater pride and purpose.
Bragging Rights on Barbarella – Gun 5
The Argument
Toward the end of Captain DeFrancisco’s time at Sherry his executive officer was First Lieutenant Bob Christenson, a graduate of Officer Candidate School with clear ambitions outside the military. The two had a high opinion of one another, leading DeFrancisco to encourage a promising young officer to remain in the Army, and Christenson to make the argument for his battery commander to leave.
I thought the world of Lt. Christenson. We had this talk probably before or after one of my visits to FDC. I don’t know how it started, with me suggesting he stay in the Army, or him telling me to get out. But I do remember the exchange. He would say, “What are you spending your time in the Army for? This is crazy. There are a lot of other things you could do.”
Of course at the time I had the next couple of years very well laid out for me. I was already accepted into graduate school at Rice University in Houston, and I already had a teaching assignment at West Point when I graduated. I also knew I was in good shape to go to Command and General Staff College, even though it was a board selection. Back then it was a big deal. It still is a big deal, but back then bigger and competitive. So there was no way I was going to get out, especially having convinced my wife I ought to go to Vietnam again. Bob was going to loose that part of the argument.
I also lost my end of the argument with Bob. He was pretty sure what he wanted to do. He had served his time and he thought it was appropriate to leave the Army and get on with life.
Today Bob Christenson says of his battery commander, “Captain DeFrancisco was a great guy. This was his second tour in the same area of Vietnam, and he used to point out a tree that stood out on top of a distant ridgeline that we used as an aiming reference. He said he remembered that tree from his first tour.
“I thought I had Joe talked into getting out of the Army after our tour, but he stayed and I am glad he did. He was a great officer and person, and I’m sure he played an important role in getting the Army back on its feet after the Vietnam debacle.”
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Captain DeFrancisco left Sherry in March 1971. He would serve another twenty-seven years in the Army, retiring a three-star general in 1998 with thirty-four years of active duty. Bob Christenson succeeded DeFrancisco as battery commander. Now a captain he left Sherry three months later, earned a law degree, and today is a practicing labor attorney.
