Medal of Honor (Undaunted Valor 2)

“Roger, Gambler Four-One, I will get Gambler Six, Wait one, Out” came the response from Gambler Six India. Six India was a specialist pulling the radio watch and did not have the authority to request an airstrike. Gambler Six was a colonel and did have the authority.

Dai-uy Nguyen had been asleep in the back room of the command bunker when the first rounds hit. He was now on the radio with one of his platoon leaders who was on the perimeter. Seeing Brian, he pointed to the map in front of him and placed his finger on the valley on the north side of the perimeter between Firebase Six and Highway 17. Words were not exchanged, but the message was clear: Get artillery on this position. Now.

Brian picked up his radio, an AN/PRC-77, and moved outside to observe the fire, and made the call. “Thunder One, Brave Cannon Four-One, fire mission, over.”

“Brave Cannon Four-One, Thunder One, over.”

“Thunder One, fire mission, troops in open, target reference point Alpha 2…” Brian completed the call for fire. He couldn’t observe the impacting rounds, but moving to the top of the bunker with his radio, he could see the flashes and knew that as long as the rounds were impacting in the draw, the mortar crews were not going to be able to fire. Thunder One was firing from a battery located at Dak To as the range for his own guns was too short and would require an extreme angle of fire. The battery on Firebase Six would be used in a direct fire mode if the situation became critical.

“Brave Cannon Four-One, shot over.”

“Thunder One, shot out,” Brian acknowledged and looked to see the impact.

“Brave Cannon Four-One, splash over.”

“Thunder One, splash, out.” And a bright flash was seen down the hill and in the draw followed by a thunderous sound.

“Thunder One, drop one hundred and fire for effect,” Brian directed. The first rounds hit the draw, and since the mortars went silent almost immediately, he figured they were destroyed. Next he wanted to slowly walk the artillery up the hill, killing as many of the attackers moving against the perimeter as possible. The intensity of small-arms fire had not diminished when the sound of an RPG rocket could be heard, followed by the explosion. The ARVN machine gun went silent. Dai-uy jumped up and headed out the door with his M16 rifle. Sergeant Salley was close on his tail as they headed to solve a problem. Brian knew he could do more good just adjusting the artillery up the hill towards the firebase perimeter.

A few minutes later, Brian moved into the bunker to study the map and heard someone scrambling through the door. “Hey, sir, you doing okay?” asked Sergeant Stokes, another US advisor. Like the others, this was not the sergeant’s first firebase firefight. Stokes had always been a talker, sometimes when you just didn’t want to talk. He was from Possum Hollow, Kentucky, and his slow accent came through loud and clear.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Where is everyone?” Brian asked.

Sitting down with his back against the sandbag wall, Stokes dug in his shirt pocket for a cigarette. “Well, sir, Sterling, Marthe and Terrill are on the perimeter supporting a machine gun. Sergeant Keane and Sergeant Boswell are on the south side reinforcing those folks. It appears the main attack is coming from the north, but they’re probing all along the perimeter.”

“Did you see Dai-uy?”

“Yes, sir, Dai-uy and Sergeant Salley are all over the berm out there on the north—” Stokes’s words were cut off by a seemingly large explosion that blanketed all other sound.

“What the—?” Brian said.

“That’s not good, sir. Let me go check.” And Sergeant Stokes was out the door, passing Dai-uy, who was on his way in. Hanging on the wall above the radios was a diagram of the firebase. On it, was the location of the wire, the berm and each of the bunkers as well as each artillery piece and gun pit. Dai-uy came over to the diagram and picked up a grease pencil. Sergeant Salley was right behind him.

“Bian,” he said, getting Brian’s attention. Dai-uy had never been able to pronounce Brian’s name right, but Brian couldn’t say captain in Vietnamese, so he thought they were even. As Brian looked up, Dai-uy took the grease pencil and drew an X through one bunker and a red arrow showing a penetration through the wire.

“The NVA are through the wire and inside the perimeter,” Sergeant Salley said. “We need artillery fire very close right here.”

Brian picked up his hand mike. “Thunder One, Brave Cannon Four-One, fire mission danger close, Over.”

“Brave Cannon Four-One, Thunder One, over.”

“Thunder One, troops in the open at target reference Charlie One. Danger close, fire for effect.” On being sent to Firebase Six, Brian had plotted and adjusted fires on predetermined targets identified as target reference points. The artillery batteries stored those target reference points so that when called, time could be saved quickly by shooting the mission with few or no adjustments.

A minute later, they heard, “Brave Cannon Four-One, shot over.”

“Roger, shot out.” Almost immediately Brian could hear the freight train sound made by six 105-millimeter artillery rounds coming in for a landing on the perimeter. Firebase Five about three thousand meters further up on the ridge was now supporting with artillery fire as well.

“Brave Cannon Four-One, splash over.”

“Roger, splash out, keep it coming.” This wall of steel should break the back of the attack, or at least hold them at bay and keep them from reinforcing those who had gotten past the perimeter, Brian was thinking, hoping.

Brian wanted to see the artillery impacting so he could fine-tune his adjustments. Standing and picking up his helmet, he was heading for the door of the command bunker when Sergeant Stokes came in, nearly running into him.

“Sir, it’s not good,” Sergeant Stokes said getting Brian’s and SFC Salley’s immediate attention. “Let me show you.” He moved over to the diagram of the firebase, where Dai-uy and Sergeant Salley were standing. “They took out this bunker with the machine gun with an RPG,” he said, pointing at the bunker with the red X. “They breached the wire here and here.” He drew red arrows from outside to inside the wire and across the berm. Salley hadn’t been aware of one of the breach points. “From here, they fanned out and now hold the north quarter of the perimeter. Your artillery is preventing them from reinforcing, but we need some air support up here.”

“I have already called Gambler Six and requested air support. Should hear something soon,” said Sergeant Salley.

“One other thing, sirs.”