8 Firebase Rules Grunts Lived By the Night Sappers Hit

The night a firebase got hit, it had minutes, sometimes seconds — and almost nothing the men did in those minutes was invented that night. It had been set up in daylight. Eight things, counted down: the warning that came days before, getting out of the bunker and onto the berm, grenades before rifles, finding the enemy mortar from a crater, final protective fire and Killer Junior, Spooky overhead, the aid bunker and Dust Off — and the beehive round a section chief kept apart, hoping he would never have to load it. The scene with the beehive round at the start and the end is a composite, drawn from many gun sections on many hills. Every other account is attributed: Fire Support Bases Crook, Mary Ann, Illingworth, Ripcord, Buell, Burt and Maureen, Landing Zones Russell and Bird, and Suoi Tre. When your base was hit, what did you do first — down into the bunker, or up onto the berm? Gun crews: did your section ever fire the round with the white diamonds? The base and the year, if you want. One line is enough. Chapters 0:00 The night a firebase got hit 0:20 The round with the white diamonds 1:33 #8 The warning 4:11 #7 Out of the bunker 6:52 #6 Grenades first 7:51 Put yourself in that hole 9:09 #5 Find the tube 11:35 #4 Final protective fire 13:32 #3 Spooky 15:50 #2 The aid bunker 18:06 #1 The beehive 20:35 Back to the ready rack 21:23 Your turn Sources David E. Ott, Field Artillery 1954–1973, Vietnam Studies, U.S. Army Center of Military History (1975) — beehive, Killer Junior, FSB Buell, LZ Bird, counter-mortar radar John H. Hay Jr., Tactical and Materiel Innovations, Vietnam Studies, U.S. Army Center of Military History (1974) — FSB Crook, Caisson VI, crater analysis Bernard W. Rogers, Cedar Falls–Junction City, Vietnam Studies, U.S. Army Center of Military History (1974) — Suoi Tre Roger P. Fox, Air Base Defense in the Republic of Vietnam 1961–1973, Office of Air Force History (1979) — sapper reconnaissance and raids Jack S. Ballard, Development and Employment of Fixed-Wing Gunships 1962–1972, Office of Air Force History (1982) — AC-47 Spooky Spurgeon Neel, Medical Support of the U.S. Army in Vietnam 1965–1970, U.S. Army Center of Military History (1973); Peter Dorland and James Nanney, Dust Off (1982) U.S. Army, FM 7-11, Rifle Company, Infantry, Airborne and Mechanized (1965) — night defense, final protective fires Medal of Honor citations: Sp4 Peter C. Lemon, Lt. Col. Andre C. Lucas, Sp4 Kenneth M. Kays; Navy Cross, LCpl William Castillo, USMC Archival photographs and film: U.S. National Archives (NARA) and U.S. Department of Defense, public domain; copies via Wikimedia Commons and the Internet Archive. #VietnamWar #VietnamVeteran #Firebase #Artillery #MilitaryHistory