EQUIPMENT
Now on the Charlie Browns rolling tank/PC story. While in
(W. McShane)
GSR, Ground Surveillance
Radar. In theory they picked up movement with Doppler shift radar waves, it was
supposed to detect things like vehicles or people moving toward you. In fact,
the GSR took up space, and didn't do much. I think the night that 2nd platoon
had their big contact across from Cua Viet with a
couple dozen NVA naval sappers they had GSR pointed right toward the center of
the group of dinks, and didn't see squat until one of the bad guys set off a
trip flare. GSR was a technology, which had not completely arrived during the
Jim Good
Capt Spruill stated that
there was no scope in the radar set up, that the radar returns were audible
rather than visual. When the radar guys first came out with first platoon in
the latter part of 1969, of course I was curious enough to want to learn
everything I could about it, and one of the things that I did when I went up to
the tripod was to look through a radar scope. It had what looked to me like a
circular display, just like the stuff you see in the movies and a sweeping thingie going back and forth. I couldn't make heads or
tails out of the picture. They did use headphones too, but there was definitely
a green and black display. My first comment was, how
can you tell if it's people and not bushes that's moving? They said they could
tell because of their experience. When 2nd platoon got hit in April '70, the
first thing I heard was that the attack came right at the radar gizmo, and if
it wasn't for a trip flare, things would have been much different. It only
points up what I've always experienced with technology, that anything on the
bleeding edge is never ready for prime time. It takes years for the technology
to mature.
(Pineapple)
Then there was the day we
were riding along the trail and the damn left fender blew off A17 (M48). That
was the day I learned not to put trip flares and grenades in the same box. That
lid to that box must have gone 200yds up in the air. Malan
One day during the dry season we found a 1000lb-unexploded bomb. I think you
have a picture on your video of the blast (that's not
on the web site anymore...is that your picture?). I put a couple sticks of C4
on it and a long, long, fuse. We then hurried to a hilltop at what seemed a
safe distance. That damn thing looked like an atomic bomb when it went off.
Mushroom cloud, ring around the base, etcetera. To this day the most impressive
blast I have ever seen. Malan
THEN there was the time the CO took the troop out to test fire weapons (west of
A4 or C2). We came on line; A17 was the farthest track to the right, and fired
away. I shot 2 rounds of 90mm and moved to the loaders hatch where I had my
extra .50 cal mounted. The ammo was dusty so I decided to shoot it up. There
was a clump of bushes out a few hundred yards that I took aim at and opened
fire. Next thing you know there is a red star cluster flare coming out of that
clump of trees. Seems there were some friendly folks hiding in my target. SS
says He say some holes in their gear. Lucky no one was hurt. The Colonel was waiting
for us when we got back to the base. He said my .50 was unauthorized and had to
come off. I pulled the pin and moved it to the bustle rack. He said that wasn't
good enough, he wanted the mount removed (that had been arc welded on). I told
him we didn't have a torch in the field. He said you have a hacksaw don't you?
It's hard to reason with people like that. Malan
AND THEN while working out west we had to make log runs out to Hwy1 to get
supplies. We had been fording this river at a certain location for a month
without problems. The water was just deep enough that the driver had to button
up to keep the water from washing up the front of the tank. We had
Barrows and I were talking the other day and he reminded me of the time the CO
Capt. Smith decided we were using too much C4 explosive (most to heat our
C-rations but I do remember boiling 2 quail I had killed running in front of
the tank which took about a case of the stuff and they were still tough) and
started having that green plastic explosive sent out that didn't burn worth a
damn. Barrows laughed and said he never noticed we doubled our claymore orders
to get the C4 out of them. Malan
Then there was the time the new scout in the platoon
wanted to go out and learn to set up claymore ambushes with me. We found a good
spot with a trail on it; I showed him how to hook the claymores together with Det cord, and how to pull the trip wire across the kill
zone to the claymores. I was in the process of showing him how to hook the
safety pin on the end of the trip wire into the grenade's blasting cap, hooking
only one hole so it was sensitive. He was standing up looking down at me
squatting beside the 4 claymores and as I turned loose of the safety pin it
pulled out of the flip lever on the grenade's blasting cap. This gave us about
4 seconds before 5 pounds of C4 went off. He ran as soon as he saw it happen. I
didn't know if I should run or shit. I knew the back blast on one claymore was
about 18 meters and figured 4 would be much further so I decided to disarm it
by pulling out the grenade's blasting cap. I was surprised how hot the cap was
when I grabbed it (fuse inside burning) and realized that the explosive in the
cap might very well become more sensitive than usual since it was hot. I very
carefully pulled it out of the claymore and threw it. It blew up about a foot
from my hand. I got my first gray hair that day. The new guy never asked to go
out with me again. I changed to an electrical system after this so I could set
it up as hairy as I wanted to and knew that until I hooked the battery up 100
feet away I was safe. Also made it less hairy to pick them up in the morning
when you might not remember exactly where you left them. Malan
Barrows you need to tell Pineapple the story about us towing the broken Tank
and having the NVA following us with the mortar rounds and how we load rated
that bridge that day. You had better details on it than I have. I do remember
pulling out of Charlie 2 one morning during the usual mortar and rocket attack
and was amazed when the mortar fire started following us up the road. Made the hair on the back of my neck tingle a bit. Malan
Nobody has mentioned that the tanks led
the troop because the tanks could stand the mine hits better. Also Charlie
started putting some sort of counting detonator on his mines so that the tank
would not set the mine off but the APC that followed would. We then had to
start putting 2 tanks in the front of the line. .
Does anyone remember seeing some of the
remnants of the narrow gague railroad neat the
hospital & Replacement Detachment at
Jim, I recall tracks south of QT west of QL . Seem to remember taking a body maintenance stop at the
bridge. Must have been A Troops reversion of an Incountry
R & R. [Earl Schropp]
p.s. I believe that
Jim, I remember and no, there were no tracks
left when I was there. There was, however, a train still running every day from
Dong Ha to