Killer Kane by Andrew R. Finlayson

Author:Andrew R. Finlayson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2013-09-23T16:00:00+00:00

Killer Kane’s “Monkey Men”—from front to back, Donald Connor, J. D. Glor, John Slowick, R. Garner, Clarence Williams, me, and James Hauxhurst—waiting for choppers at An Hoa Combat Base.

6

* * *

The Yellow Brick Road

When Maj. Welzant pointed to the situation map on the wall of the S-3 shop, I knew immediately where he was pointing to since this area had been a fixture in my mind for the past month. It was Happy Valley. He told me my next mission was to take Killer Kane into Happy Valley so we could screen the western flank of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, who would be conducting a search-and-destroy mission a few miles east of our insertion LZ. The name of the operation we would be supporting was Operation Pecos. Division had decided to launch this operation because intelligence indicated an increased presence of NVA units in the valley and a possible storage facility for the 122 mm rockets that had been used to attack the Da Nang Airbase on 15 July, causing the destruction or damage of 42 aircraft and the death of eight Americans. Signals intelligence indicated the source of the rockets was an NVA artillery regiment that had recently arrived in South Vietnam and had established a base somewhere in Happy Valley. Division wanted to eliminate this threat to Da Nang Airbase as quickly as possible. Since this operation would involve Marine infantry units sweeping east to west in our direction and likely cause the NVA to pass through our NFZ, he suggested I take my entire platoon with me on this patrol. He pointed out that the NVA in Happy Valley probably would withdraw to the west away from the advancing infantry, and this would increase the likelihood we would encounter them. One good piece of news he passed along was the infantry would be bringing in a battery of 105 mm howitzers with them, which meant we would have access to a firing battery in direct support of us. This artillery battery would establish a fire support base on the valley floor, so our patrol would be within friendly artillery range, a rarity for patrols in Happy Valley.

With this information and some maps and aerial photos from our S-2 shop, I went in search of my new platoon sergeant, GySgt. Walter M. Webb, so we could plan the patrol together. Gunny Webb was a highly experienced reconnaissance Marine who had served with force reconnaissance companies several times during his long career in the Corps. He had made well over 200 parachute jumps, was scuba qualified, and had attended all the advanced reconnaissance training courses offered by the U.S. military. I took an instant liking to this seasoned SNCO and greatly valued his advice and assistance. We both decided that we would take every available man in the fifth platoon and we would go “heavy” in terms of weapons and ammunition. With this in mind, we decided to take two machine guns with us: an M-60 machine gun and a Stoner light machine gun.

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