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This ‘platoon sized’ enemy force revealed itself to be at least a two VC Companies with a heavy weapons Company plus a company of local heavily armed fighters dug in amidst the old fortifications left over by the Viet Minh from the French war in this same region. @ 53
B Company and A Company were maneuvering to return fire the best they could but everyone was pinned down by relentless heavy 50 mm machine gun fire grazing across the terrain and 60 mm mortars zeroing in on our positions. I estimated the enemy fortifications were 100/150 yards from our positions. This would have been too close for any sized unit but we had a Battalion Commander within the uncomfortable reach of an enemy of unknown size— Like most of the staff officers I was armed only with a .45 cal pistol—I had it in my hand and was honestly close enough to the treeline 100 yds. or less — I was within effective range to fire into that treeline—which I didn’t—wanting to hold on to my ammo because I thought they might rush us —one of those times when I wish I had an M14 Rifle. I ran, crawled and squirmed my way across the field—there was smoke, the smell of cordite and the sounds of battle unlike any of the experiences I had up to this point. The 60 mm mortars were exploding in front of our positions —the .30 cal. and .50 cal machine gun fire was moving back and forth over and around our heads and across the field in front of us— It was a chaotic situation until I finally reached our staff command group—they were out of the line of fire and hidden within the old buddhist Temple grounds. I made contact with our communications team and began to document the reports coming in from the two companies. We located our position and that of the
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