Last Update: March 29th 2018
Riding with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, AKA, Blackhorse
I was a Combat Medic. When I was first sent to Vietnam in 1969, I was assigned to the 11th ACR..
After landing outside of Saigon (now called Ho Chi Minh City), in Bien Hoa, I was taken by helicopter, truck to Loc Ninh where my unit from the 11th. ACR was located. Much like the movie, “Apocalypse Now” and the poem “Heart of Darkness” going further from civilization and out to the “Boonies” as we used to say.
Later on we would patrol around Tay Ninh and Tay Ninh Mountain, before going into Cambodia when President Nixon sent us into Cambodia.
The 11th ACR was called “Blackhorse” because when they were a horse cavalry the soldiers all rode black horses, hence it was called the “Blackhorse Unit”. I was assigned to Alpha Troop, 1st. Squadron.
I was a Combat Medic. When I was first sent to Vietnam in 1969, I was assigned to the 11th ACR..
After landing outside of Saigon (now called Ho Chi Minh City), in Bien Hoa, I was taken by helicopter, truck to Loc Ninh where my unit from the 11th. ACR was located. Much like the movie, “Apocalypse Now” and the poem “Heart of Darkness” going further from civilization and out to the “Boonies” as we used to say.
Later on we would patrol around Tay Ninh and Tay Ninh Mountain, before going into Cambodia when President Nixon sent us into Cambodia.
The 11th ACR was called “Blackhorse” because when they were a horse cavalry the soldiers all rode black horses, hence it was called the “Blackhorse Unit”. I was assigned to Alpha Troop, 1st. Squadron.
To read more about the 11th ACR go to the Wiki page, hit the button below:
Riding in the center there, with the 11th ACR.
This was my entire platoon when they were fully intact with all the Tracks. If a track hit a land mine or it got disabled in combat we would have less. There were three platoons and a headquarters group with an entire squadron.
This is what it looked like when we were busting through the jungle. At least in the jungle there was less worry about land mines. But, you were more likely to run into a bunker complex. I remember looking down and seeing freshly cut trees, and then I knew we might be running into trouble. Oh, yes we did!
This is drawing I did of a birds eye view of what it looked like when we set up at night in the jungle. We would look for an open field, the bigger the better. We would set up facing out, and would spend two hours a night on guard duty behind a 50 cal. machine gun. We would put a fence up in front of the track to protect against RPG's.
As we rode on patrol, most of the time we would be attacked, because they could hear us coming and they could prepare for us. Maybe a sniper or an all out assault, land mines, we had to be prepared for anything.
Riding along, if we were fired upon, and depending if we were in a free fire zone, or not, we would turn out and open fire.
The front track most of the time a tank would cover straight ahead, then each track would alternate to the left or right and then the rear track would turn and cover the rear.
Most of the time they would fire from the elaborate tunnels that they would build for such attacks. Or sometimes they would fire from the Rubber trees.
The Rubber trees were grown in perfect rows and they could be a pretty long distance down a row and fire a shot and get away.
These overhead views are how we would ride along and turn out when fired upon.
Riding along, if we were fired upon, and depending if we were in a free fire zone, or not, we would turn out and open fire.
The front track most of the time a tank would cover straight ahead, then each track would alternate to the left or right and then the rear track would turn and cover the rear.
Most of the time they would fire from the elaborate tunnels that they would build for such attacks. Or sometimes they would fire from the Rubber trees.
The Rubber trees were grown in perfect rows and they could be a pretty long distance down a row and fire a shot and get away.
These overhead views are how we would ride along and turn out when fired upon.
Sometimes we would work with the Grunts (infantry) they always enjoyed the ride instead of walking, but they thought they were more of a target on top of these machines. The enemy could hear us coming for miles.
Sometimes we would spend months at a time living in these APC's. We would cook with C-4 (the plastic explosive), it would come in 1 lb blocks, and we would tear off a hunk and light a match to it and it burned like a Ping pong ball but for a longer time. The spark of a blasting cap is what you wouldn't want to do. We would heat up some water with the C-4 and add it to the LRP's (dehydrated food). They would sometimes send us out hot meals by Helicopter. But, other than that we would have to deal with the C-rations and the LPR's., and of course the Care packages from back home. To take a shower we would place those 5 gallon cans on the side that were under the heat all day on patrol on the side of the APC and shower off that way. Does a Bear S. . . . t in the woods? Well, I know humans do. We did.
Front
|
Back- The NVA or Viet-cong would leave these notes along the trails for us.
|
This was an x-sapper! A Vietcong or NVA regular. He was showing how they would slip thru the barbed wire at night. They would take their clothes off so they would not snag on the barbed wire.. When we out on patrol we didn't put up barbed wire but sometimes we would stay with a forward firebase. The forward Firebase would set out barbed wire and one time when we spent the night we were attacked by Sappers.
An RPG (a Rocket Propelled Grenade) had two explosions. This why we would put up a fence in front of our tracks at night. Hopefully the fence would set off the first explosion and then the second one would on impact of the track. In this photo it shows what a first explosion would do upon impact with a track. and then have the second one on the inside.
I was riding this track when we hit a land mine. It is a strange thing to get blown up and survive. When we were riding roads often we would have some guys up front walking with mine detectors. And, the driver was supposed to track behind the tracks in front of them but we sometimes would set one off anyway.
|
|
|
In the rainy season the bomb craters would fill up with water and the guys found this to be a great way to beat the heat.
|
Rolling into Cambodia
Jim looking at a Life magazine from back home and the little Cambodian kids checking it out.
My Boonie Cap with the Combat Medical Badge!
President Barack Obama awarded Alpha Troop of the 1st Squadron the Presidential Unit Citation on 20 October 2009, in recognition of a rescue mission 26 March 1970
Sentence Type: copied from Wikipedia on 1st Squadron, 11th ACR. Photo: Photographer of this photo Unknown