Lullabies for Lieutenants by Franklin Cox

Author:Franklin Cox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Published: 2012-04-03T00:00:00+00:00

The villagers then gave assistance and showed some locations of tunnels and booby traps. Accordingly, the wisdom of Marine intelligence declared the event a roaring success. But soon the Marines would discover otherwise, for when the Marines left the village the enemy filtered back in. The people would succor their loved ones—their sons, husbands, brothers, and countrymen—who also happened to be the Vietcong, by providing nourishment, shelter, and most importantly, information.

The battalion began ringing up the first body counts of confirmed VC killed. A Marine scout-sniper team using an infrared scope recorded some of the first kills. Several VC snipers were shot while perched in trees. Continuous sniper fire and hidden booby traps began to systematically add to the toll of Marines casualties. The VC quickly became adroit at isolating officers as rich targets and wounded three platoon leaders in the first few days of contact.

Each night several of my FO’s requested illumination rounds from our artillery during enemy probes of our infantry units. The permission couldn’t be given from my position in the Fire Support Coordination Center because of the rigid Rules of Engagement. All artillery fire missions had to be approved by the supported infantry company, and then up the chain of command to Battalion, Regiment, and Third Marine Division Headquarters. Further approval had to be granted by South Vietnamese Armed Forces District Headquarters.

Reasons given for this complex system of fire coordination included that the area was heavily populated with “friendly” natives, that there were low-level air corridors throughout the area because of the close proximity of the Danang Air Base, that helicopter traffic had to be monitored, and that there was a lack of command, control, and communication with the South Vietnamese Armed Forces. Furthermore, helicopter medevac flights for adjacent units also caused fire missions to be interrupted. The result was often an interminable wait of over 30 minutes. By then, of course, the situation had changed and the fire missions were often fruitless. It was difficult to explain those rules to the men and officers who were engaged in an up-close-and-personal manner with the enemy and vitally needed suupporting fire immediately.

Vietcong forces opened up with mortars and heavy small arms fire on Companies F and G, who had surrounded Duong Son (1) on July 17. Second Lieutenant Jack Swallows, attached with his FO team to Golf Company, called in several fire missions with high-explosive 105mm shells fired from our host battery, Echo 2/12. Finally the enemy broke contact and several weapons and many blood trails were found. Like the Marine Corps, Victor Charlie didn’t leave his dead comrades on the battlefield. That night the enemy was back, aggressively attacking the rifle company. I heard Jack over the artillery radio network.

“Sunrise, Sunrise, this is Echo 3. Fire Mission! Over.”

“This is Sunrise, send your mission Echo 3.”

“VC with automatic weapons and mortars, coordinates 997678, request illumination, will adjust. Over.”

The battery Fire Direction Center (FDC) acknowledged receipt of the mission. Normally illumination shells would be on the way within minutes, but not with the damnable Rules of Engagement in effect.

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