Vietnam Medal Of Honor Heroes by Edward F. Murphy

Author:Edward F. Murphy
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Vietnam War, paperback, physical book, eBook, Medal Of Honor, Vietnam, Military, History
ISBN: 9780345366788
Publisher: Presidio Press
Published: 1990-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

CHARLES C. ROGERS

Fire Support Base Rita was manned by the 1st Battalion, 5th Artillery, commanded by Lt. Col. Charles C. Rogers. Almost one thousand yards in diameter, FSB Rita had been painstakingly carved out of the jungle adjacent to the Cambodian border by sweating soldiers a few months earlier. Night after night the artillerymen sent H&I (harassing and interdiction) fire missions from their 155mm howitzers into target areas where NVA units were believed to be sneaking across the border. As long as FSB Rita remained operational, the NVA were not safe.

Lieutenant Colonel Rogers was in his twelfth month in-country. He had originally volunteered for duty in South Vietnam because service there was critical to his well-thought-out career plans. “I wanted the combat experience, and I felt it was imperative to my career to get a combat command,” he said.

The son of a coal miner, Rogers was born in Claremont, West Virginia, on September 6, 1929. After his 1951 graduation from West Virginia State College Institute, where he took two degrees, in chemistry and mathematics, Rogers was commissioned a second lieutenant through the school’s ROTC program. Fifteen years of routine assignments preceded Rogers’s arrival in South Vietnam in the fall of 1967.

Rogers had been scheduled to depart the war zone in mid-November, but extended his tour so he could take a staff position with MACV. It was an excellent opportunity to add more experience to his already brilliant career. Now, on Halloween, he had just two weeks to go before he gave up his command.

For the previous three nights, FSB Rita had been heavily mortared. Halloween night was no different. As soon as the sun dropped below the horizon, enemy rockets and mortar shells fell from the darkening sky.

All of this enemy activity had kept Rogers from getting much rest over the past few nights. This night he was determined to get some sleep. At 12:30 A.M., November 1, 1968, Rogers crawled into his sleeping bag under the radio complex in his tactical operations center. Fifteen minutes later the base erupted in a “mad minute” (at irregular intervals, every weapon on a base fired outward in an attempt to catch an attacking enemy unaware).

The noise awakened the colonel. When the mad minute did not stop, Rogers radioed one of his battery commanders. “Captain Dan Settle told me the enemy had broken through the wire and was all over his position. So I grabbed my steel pot and flak jacket and headed over there,” Rogers recalled.

What Rogers saw outside the TOC astonished him. “All of the infantry’s armored personnel carriers on the west flank had been hit by rocket-propelled grenades. I instantly realized there was nothing there to stop the enemy but my batteries.”

Rogers raced through the carnage toward his guns’ positions. On the way there, he shot at several NVA soldiers running through the base. When he reached the howitzer position, Rogers found most of the crewmen huddled in their bunkers so they could avoid the murderous fire. He went from bunker to bunker and ordered the men to their weapons, then issued fire commands to the crews.

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