Legend: A Harrowing Story from the Vietnam War of One Green Beret's Heroic Mission to Rescue a Special Forces Team Caught Behind Enemy Lines by Blehm Eric

Author:Blehm, Eric [Blehm, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: azw, azw3
ISBN: 9780804139519
Publisher: Crown/Archetype
Published: 2015-04-28T04:00:00+00:00

10

AS BAD AS IT GETS

JONES ENTERED THE First Infantry Division, brigade headquarters tent, and asked to speak with the commanding officer. Three days before, Lieutenant Jones had briefed him about the impending mission they were to launch from his base camp across the border into Cambodia.

Much of the B-56 recon missions had, in the early months of 1968, been focused within South Vietnam and on the infiltration routes along the Cambodian border. The May 2 mission was the deepest B-56 had probed into Cambodia; the strategy, according to Jones, was to fly over the enemy that was massed and entrenched along the border and insert the men where they were not expected.

Now Jones found the colonel in his office, along with his S-2 (intelligence) officer, a First Infantry Division major, up to their elbows planning San Diego (search-and-destroy) missions. They looked up from the map they were studying.

Anticipating that the team on the ground was about to get into trouble, Jones said to the colonel, “Sir, we have a Daniel Boone Emergency.”

“He looked at me like I had three heads,” says Jones. “He had no idea what I was talking about.”

“Sir,” the S-2 officer interjected, “they’ve got troops in contact in Cambodia. Across the border, Sir.”

That got the colonel’s attention. He walked around the desk, faced Jones, and with a thick, reassuring Southern drawl said, “Well, now, what do ya’ll need, Lieutenant? What can I do to help?”

“They’re far beyond your artillery range,” Jones replied. “I just wanted you to be aware of the situation, and if you have any extra gunships on alert, we might need them real soon.”

“I think we can spare a light-fire team [two helicopter gunships],” the colonel said. “You can count on that.”

“Thank you, Sir,” Jones said, feeling he had done all he could as he hurried out of the office and to the B-56 TOC to monitor the radio.

—

THE NVA squad and the B-56 team faced each other in the clearing. Then Bao moved confidently ahead and began talking loudly to the NVA squad leader.

Looking down at his boots to hide his face, O’Connor casually pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. He continued to stare at it while walking a few steps backward to stand beside Mousseau. The two men kept their heads down, studying the paper as if it were a map. Tuan came up beside them. “They think we’re from the other unit,” he whispered.

“Tell them we’re looking for a chopper that was shot at, that we heard go down,” Mousseau whispered back. Tuan nodded, but before he could move ahead and deliver the message, Bao turned around and commanded the team to search the thickest jungle area, as if he was in charge.

Mousseau and O’Connor immediately obeyed, but as they headed toward the clearing’s edge, Mousseau quietly said to O’Connor, “I think they might have seen your face. When Bao is clear, you take the left and I’ll take the right, but only if things look bad.”

Bao continued to bark orders, and the NVA leader waved what appeared to be a parting “good-bye.

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