Holding the Line in I Corps:

Nathaniel R. Helms

Description

In this military story based on true events, a group of American soldiers find themselves at the end of a divided line between North and South Vietnam during 1968 and 1969.

It is late January 1968 when the first three incoming rounds hit Con Thien. It is undeniably the most terrifying event the rookie US Army soldiers have ever endured. Their doggie platoon sergeant, Walter Walling, who does not tolerate disrespect up or down, does his best to calm his troops. But with a North Vietnamese Army who likes laying in a few rounds and forcing the enemy to run, his job serving on the DMZ is a challenging one.
As Sergeant Walling and his men, all from varying backgrounds and parts of the United States, do their best to learn an unfamiliar terrain and prepare for battle, the young American fighting men must bravely face the possibility of death while serving their country. But as a fight for power soon reveals the horrors of war in all its glory, one thing becomes certain: none of the men will return home the same as they were before.
In this military story based on true events, a group of American soldiers find themselves at the end of a divided line between North and South Vietnam during 1968 and 1969.

Sujets

• historical
• Vietnam
• Military
• Viêt Nam
• War
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 09 mars 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665732772
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

HOLDING THE LINE IN I CORPS:
A DOGGIE’S VIEW FROM LEATHERNECK SQUARE
Nathaniel R. Helms


Copyright © 2023 Nathaniel R. Helms.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
 
 
Archway Publishing
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Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-3278-9 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-3279-6 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-3277-2 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022920415
 
 
 
Archway Publishing rev. date: 04/19/2023
Contents
Welcome to the DMZ – Chapter 1
The Rough Riders – Chapter 2
Tactical Move – Chapter 3
At The Gates of Hell – Chapter 4
Laughing on the Rain – Chapter 5
Mount Mini-Me – Chapter 6
The Hike – Chapter 7
Mortimer– Chapter 8
Orders – Chapter 9
Mudkin’s Departure – Chapter 10
The Shootout – Chapter 11
Waiting for the Long Noses – Chapter 12
Phase Two – Chapter 13
When The Clock Stops Ticking – Chapter 14
Phase 2 – Chapter 14
On Top of Old Smokey – Chapter 15
Night Ambush – Chapter 16
Where The Bamboo Crackles – Chapter 17
Taking The Flat Land – Chapter 18
Time To Boogie – Chapter 19
Spikes, Hikes and Private Nguyen – Chapter 20
Hustle Hustlin’ – Chapter 21
The Creaking Gate – Chapter 22
Mayhem – Chapter 23
Hidden In Plain View – Chapter
The Black Cats – Chapter 24
On the Other Side of the Mountain – Chapter 25
Snipe Hunt – Chapter 26
Gifford’s Little Battle – Chapter 27
Crank Time – Chapter 28
Terror Revealed – Chapter 29
Gifford’s Revenge – Chapter 30
At The Tunnel Mouth – Chapter 31
End of Mission – Chapter 32


The southern side of DMZ along the Ben Hai River, January 1968. Photo By David Sciacchitano, National Archives
Kháng chiến chống Mỹ
Resistance War Against America
Northern I Corps
Quang Tri Province
The ‘Nam
January 1968

Map of northern DMZ
Welcome to the DMZ – Chapter 1
The first three incoming rounds to hit Con Thien one morning in late January 1968 were undeniably the most terrifying event the three rookie soldiers had ever endured. Calling the explosions terrifying trivialized the fear produced by three keening explosions infinitely louder than any noise they had ever heard. Each impact of the 15-pound high explosive rounds promises the end of the world... saaaawisssshhhhh - BOOM! Three times. Forty-five pounds of flying death screaming, “welcome to northern I (Eye) Corps.”
“Pack 75s,” the salty teenage Marines at Con Thien call them. It is old-school slang for a once ubiquitous WWII-era American 75mm field piece the Communists captured from the South Vietnamese Army or the French before them. The ant people hauled it to the southern edge of the DMZ, roughly two kilometers north of Con Thien, across a barren strip of dead earth and denuded trees guarding the Ben Hai River. The Marines and soldiers standing guard called it the Trace. When the sun came up, it shimmered in the sunshine. People die there every day. At night it is haunting.
The NVA cannons trying to kill the soldiers and Marines are American-made M1, 75mm pack howitzers, designed in the 1920s to meet a need for a cannon that could easily be moved across rugged terrain. By contemporary standards, the NVA adaptation is a quaint-looking piece that appears undernourished. It isn’t, and it can kill with the best of them.
The Marine six-by truck 25 meters ahead of them slews sideways, white steam boiling from under the hood. Two Marines in the back bailout, quickly disappearing into whatever cover they can find. A Marine in the back is slumped over, unmoving, bleeding all over a pallet of C-rations. It is the fourth year of Kháng chiến chống Mỹ - Resistance War Against America.
The old Army sergeant watching the rounds splatter in front of him freezes. His first thought is that the North Vietnamese Army gunners across the Ben Hai River in North Vietnam are celebrating “Tet” a little early. Tet is the biggest gong-banging, incense-burning, dog-eating holiday in all of Vietnam. Word is a holiday ceasefire went into effect last night at midnight. As usual, some dumb yardbird didn’t get the word. Officially, the Lunar New Year doesn’t begin until the night of January 31. It is only the 29th. Ahead of the ecstatic celebrants is a seven-day carnival the Vietnamese divine from the cycles of the moon.
The three mounds of red dirt called Con Thien is a treasure both sides covet. It comprises three small, closely staged hills that rise incongruously from the surrounding plains less than four miles from North Vietnam. From the flat top of the 153-meter (501.9 foot) tallest knoll, the Marines could see deep into North Vietnam, west to the granite karst dubbed “The Rockpile,” and east to the South China Sea. Con Thien anchors one corner of the area known to the jarheads as Leatherneck Square. More precisely, it is a fluid, poorly defined trapezoid where Marine infantry have been battling hardcore NVA for more than two years to keep the strategically essential hills to the west in friendly hands.
The romantic name for the muddy hills is “Hill of Angels,” a not entirely accurate translation of a Vietnamese translation of nostalgic French sentiment. A North Vietnamese forward observer (FO) watching Con Thien is concealed in the scrub east of the Marine base has just informed his Đại úy (captain) that a convoy of trucks is approaching the south gate on the road from Cam Lo. The FO asked for his fire mission. His fire controller agrees. Unlike the enemy’s FOs, NVA headquarters tells him how many projectiles will be fired. He provides a well-known coordinate that marks where the road disappears behind the hills. The area had been painstakingly registered over a period of months by what seemed to be random, unaimed shelling.
The observer knows the PAVN (People’s Army of Vietnam) 324B Division’s 24B Regiment has three captured American 75mm howitzers concealed in a draw that offers an almost direct line of sight to where the trucks are forced together. The division’s 4th and 6th Battalions of the 812th Regiment attacked the Marines and Seabees at Con Thien in May 1967. The attack was repulsed with enormous PAVN casualties. It is payback time.
The 15-pound rounds exploded 100 meters in front of four soldiers from an obscure target acquisition unit named Charlie Battery (C Btry). Their elderly, slightly rotund 41-year-old platoon sergeant isn’t terrified, merely alarmed. The erupting violence transports him back to the “Bulge” in the terrible winter of ’44, on the Belgian border with Germany when he is a quaking kid, and the frozen T’aebaek Mountains of North Korea in 1950 when he is older and wiser. He stays paralyzed with dread until a rush of adrenaline runs its course, washing away the tendrils of fear immobilizing him. In an instant, he recovers. The ‘Nam is the old sergeant’s second half-assed war alongside Marines. The Army didn’t tell him he would be serving beside Marines again when he was prodded from retirement after almost 21 years of active duty. Like most career soldiers, the old sergeant doesn’t hate U.S. Marines; he merely thinks they are dangerous to be around. Serving with Marines is a standby ticket to violence. Walling calls them jarheads, and they call him doggie. Both camps think the other is staffed and led by morons. Besides that, he doesn’t hold Marines in particular awe, although he admires their outstanding dress blues. The worst thing they are guilty of is believing their own bullshit.
Walling thinks being gung-ho serves a purpose. Marines are like champion racehorses that don’t get to run enough. Inactivity makes them skittish and unpredictable. They always yearn for the gate, almost as if they can’t stand to wait for another second to test fate. He was with them at a martyred Korean shrine called the “Frozen Chosen,” a play on words for the frozen Chosin Reservoir. A few kilometers away lurked three Chinese armies numbering almost 300,000 men. The battle is the United States Marine Corps’ epic one-way fight to freedom. The surviving soldiers and Marines could not stop to regroup or dig in. Their way out of the mountains in sub-zero storms was seemingly inescapable. Close behind them were the pursuing Chinese hordes.
“Retreat hell, we’re just attacking in another direction” is the myth and legend still alive in Marine Corps lore. American Marines will always glory in it. The doggie platoon sergeant had then been a staff sergeant, three stripes up and one rocker down. All he got out of the debacle was frozen feet.
His name is Walter “Chill Will” Walling. His mother calls him Walter. His good buddies call him Will. His troops call him Sarge unless he is pissed off. Walling does not tolerate disr