Ernie Rich – Gun Crew – Part Two

LZ Sherry

The Return of Gun Three

 We brought Gun 3 back to Sherry, crew and all, in October of 1970. We had to build a new parapet for the gun and all new hooches for the crew. The only spot available was an open area just inside the first strand of wire near where an ARVN force had been earlier in the year.

The original location of Gun 3 was in the middle of the array of six howitzers, where it functioned as the battery base piece, the gun from which firing data was computed. After it took a direct mortar hit the previous summer, a new Gun 3 was sent on loan up to LZ Sandy, and its location at Sherry was never again used as a gun parapet. Instead it was rebuilt with more sandbag hooches. When Gun 3 returned to Sherry it had to find a new location.

Two months after its return to Sherry, after being gone for over a year, Gun 3 was again the center of action.

We weren’t back at Sherry very long when we took two direct hits on our ammo bunker from a 75mm recoilless rifle. The first round point detonated to the left of the bunker door, and all it did was ignite some powder bags in the doorway and burn the outside of the sandbags. They didn’t get what they needed out of that round so the next one they fired had a delayed time fuse. They wanted it to detonate inside the ammo bunker, but the time fuse was set too long and the round went through the front wall to the right of the bunker door and clear out the back wall. The guys on Gun 5 said it detonated outside the berm behind the bunker. Nobody was killed. Three guys were wounded but not real bad. We were lucky it didn’t detonate inside the ammo bunker.

Gun 3 ammo bunker
Inside Gun 3 ammo bunker
Note projectiles (lower left) and rocket exit hole (upper right)

A poor shower over on Gun 2 also took a direct hit.

Gun 2 shower

Shrapnel and fins scattered across the battery indicated that mortars and 40 mm rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) were also used in the attack. Three men were wounded that night.

Chief of Smoke

Senior sergeant in charge of the howitzer crews

Smoke had all four of his teeth done on R&R in either Bangkok or Thailand. He came back and on his four front teeth he had a heart, a spade, a club and a diamond, all outlined in gold.

Chief of Smoke

 

The sad part is I don’t remember his name. He was a nice guy and I know he liked his 12 gauge Ithaca pump shotgun. He carried that shotgun and a .45 pistol instead of an M-16.

I remember that shotgun. We had a dog named Junior come back with us from LZ Sandy. During a mortar attack up at Sandy that dog leapt on the back of Sgt. Smith and took a mortar blast that could have messed up the sergeant. Now Junior was like a member of our crew. Down at Sherry there were too many dogs and we had to get rid of Junior. I wasn’t going to give him to the ARVNs because I didn’t want him to end up on a Vietnamese menu. Smoke said I had to shoot him.

We took Junior out, dug a hole for him, and when he looked up at me from that hole I said, “I can’t shoot that dog, I’d rather shoot myself.” Hell, I would have taken Junior home with me if I could. So Smoke turned around and shot Junior with that Ithaca and killed him. And that was it.

Up at Sandy I didn’t have any trouble shooting Noodle Legs because she was suffering so much. But this was a healthy dog who saved a guy’s life. Besides, I was never a big cat lover.

Dad!

One day First Sergeant Stolberg has us on a perimeter patrol, with some of us out ahead. Here comes my Papa-san and his daughter Lin with his cart, and when he sees me he drops the cart and starts running toward me. My guys are getting ready to shoot him and I yell not to shoot. They say why not, and I say, “Because he’s my Vietnamese father.” By now Papa-san is hugging me and crying.

Top says, “You got to be kidding me.”

Lin, 16 years old

Tomorrow Maybe, But Not Today

I owe my life to Van Yaeger’s Express, the quad-50 guys, and the guys on Zig-Zag, the Duster.

We are doing a convoy and I say I do not want to be on point today. Usually I like to walk point, I don’t have any problem with that, but today I want to take it easy. I’ll hang back there with Blue, was the guy’s name, and help sweep the road. Blue did a tour in Vietnam, went to Germany, got married, his wife divorced him, and now he’s back in Vietnam. I think he has a death wish because he keeps stomping on the ground when he finds something suspicious.

I say, “Don’t do that, man, you’re makin’ me nervous.”

He says, “Ah, it’s nothin’.”

And I say, “… yet.”

He does it again and I dig down where he had stomped and there’s a five-gallon gas can in the ground, but luckily no explosives. Then we find a couple spider holes, crawl over them, and check them out because they can be booby-trapped. One we have to clear stuff out of, and Blue comes up with a long tree branch and pokes around inside. I finally say, “Forget this. You’re nuts and you’re going to get us both killed. Tell you what, I’m gonna go walk point.” I go up to the guy walking point and ask to switch with him. He is fine with that because he does not want to be on point. I say, “I’d rather take my chances up here.”

We are due to intersect with the little people, South Vietnamese Rangers. First Sergeant Stolberg comes up to me with orders from the captain; whatever you do, don’t shoot at them. I say, “OK, I won’t shoot.” I understand that they’re friendlies.

There are four of them. When I walk into their kill zone and they open up on me with an M-60 machine gun, M-16s and a grenade launcher. They have the high ground and all I have is this high, tall dead grass. You dive into the grass and there’s punji sticks in there you get shish-kabob’d, but I got no choice. I flop in as far as I can, don’t get shish-kabob‘d, and start rolling back and forth. I’d hear the phoomp from a grenade launcher, I roll and the grenade hits right where I was. M-16 rounds are flying through there; M-60 machine gun rounds are flying through there. This goes on and they’re getting too close and I am getting so tired rolling through the grass I can hardly move. Three different times I hear the captain and Top call to “CEASE FIRE, you’ve got one of our men pinned down.” I do not shoot back, I do what I was told, but boy do I ever want to. I never fire a shot.

The Duster and Quad guys finally say, Rich ain’t gonna make it, they’re gonna kill him. So they pull up and shoot into the treetops over their heads. Then the Rangers decide to stop shooting. They come out and they walk up close to me. I have my finder on the trigger of my M-16 and set on rock -n-roll (full automatic) and I am now going to kill all of them. They are the enemy as far as I am concerned and they knew damn well I was an American. There ain’t too many Vietnamese my size.

The lieutenant comes up from behind, he sees my finger on the trigger and grabs me by the arm and says, “Rich, don’t shoot. If you kill them I’ll have to send you to LBJ (Long Binh Jail). You’re a good soldier. You can’t kill them today, but maybe tomorrow. Go see Top and get a beer.”

I go back and sit in the jeep madder ‘n hell and cussin’. First Sergeant Stolberg is just as mad as me, and the look on his face – remember how red his face got? – he just stares out shaking his head. I think he would like to kill them himself.

Zigging When He Should Be Zagging

 One night we get hit and a white star cluster goes up, which means the enemy is in the wire and we could be under a ground attack. We fire the howitzers in defense along with the Quads, Dusters and tower machine guns. Then everything gets really quiet and I see somebody moving in the wire right in front of us. I tell Tommy Waldren, one of my crew, that somebody’s got to go out and see who it is, whether it’s an enemy or an American, because I don’t want to shoot the guy. I wouldn’t tell nobody to go out there to do something I wouldn’t do myself. So I tell him I’m going out and he should climb up on top of the perimeter bunker, lay there, and when he sees the guy turn a flashlight on him and hold it.

So I go out into the wire and I’m sneaking through it and I’ve got my rifle on rock-n-roll, my finger on the trigger. I see the guy and he has sandy brown hair. If he had dark hair I probably would have shot him. Tommy turns that flashlight on and it’s a Duster guy. I say, “Damn you” and I hit him BAM in the head with the butt of my rifle I am so mad. “I damn near killed you.” He says he was going to check on Mama-san (the older Vietnamese woman in charge of the civilian helpers) to make sure she was alright. I say, “Mama-san’s the least of your worries, buddy. Get back to your post.” He gets a little pissed and I say, “You get back to your post right now or I’m going to put a red star cluster right up your ass.”

A red star cluster indicated a beehive round, containing 8000 metal fleshettes, was about to be fired in the direction of the cluster, making Rich’s threat especially painful.

I am hot … I am very hot. After that we become good friends.

Ernie on Zig-Zag with the Duster friend he almost shot (head peaking out)