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 Battle of Nui Chom Nov,68 (currently 1 views) |
| Lloyd Martin C 3-82 68 |
| Posted on: November 19th, 2012, 11:18pm |
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Medium Member C 3/82nd Arty
Posts: 48
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As FO for D 4/31,I knew how important it was to get the artillery on the way ASAP, so as XO of C 3/82, I “procured” another radio and monitored the FO/FDC net. When an FO called in a mission, I had my guns ready for the command to fire. One time an FO called in a mission and I heard “all hell breaking loose on his end”. The guns were ready and loaded and I was waiting for the command to fire. After a bit, the FO is screaming for the artillery to the FDC, so I called the FDO and asked him about my command to fire. The FDO said they were waiting on “political clearance”. I said as loud as I could, “POLITICAL CLEARANCE, HELL; FIRE!!” My guns fired. The FDO said “you can’t do that.” My reply was, “Tell your FO the rounds are on the way”. We then fired the mission and I never heard another word about it, although I figured I would get a reprimand for it. To me, it was always more important to support the Infantry.
In November, the word came that my battery would be split and I was to take 3 guns and go back to LZ Karen for better support of the Infantry. (as was support of Nui Chom) I thought, well this is what I get for taking the Colonel’s wood for his bunker. I was told that I could only have 20 rounds of HE fused and ready with a total of 100 rounds of HE per gun. Well, that is nothing in a fire fight. We could use that up in a few minutes and be out of ammo. So, I started calling in “false” ammo counts to build up my supply. Soon, we had 100 rounds fused and ready to go and another 200 plus in back-up to supply each gun. We also had a lot of extra smoke and WP for extra smoke screen for dust-offs.
As luck would have it, in early November, the Artillery Division Commander, a full bird and his Armor Command Sgt. Major came to visit. My chief of smoke went with the Command Sgt Major and I got to accompany the full bird. He went right to the gun pits and lifted the sand bag covers of our ammo bunkers. I never had such an “ass chewing” as I got that day. I was threatened with an Article 15 and everything else in the book. I was assured I would not be getting any more re-supply until we shot all our ammo. My chief of smoke got chewed out as well because we had dirty uniforms and unpolished boots. What do you really expect from an armor person? I guess we missed the memo on how to keep our uniforms clean and our boots polished when we were in mud up to our asses from the rainy season. In the full bird defense, I later found out that command was afraid we might be overrun as there were 2 divisions of NVA in the mountains above us and the big brass did not want a repeat of Camp Duck.
Then the battle of Nui Chum started. We started firing early in the morning and at about 0700 BN S3 calls wanting to know my ammo count. I told him to keep the commands coming and to get me re-supplied ASAP but we were socked in with weather and would have to wait for a break for that re-supply. We were told the Infantry needed a smoke screen for a dust off and the FDC asked if I had enough smoke? “Give me the commands, we got enough” as our impromptu site inspection had noted. However, about 0900, I said I was really in need of ammo. We had been doing continuous firing all morning. One gun crew led by none other than Sgt Charlie Brown had his gun firing so fast you would have sworn it was set on automatic. (We blew the recoil that day and had to constantly add recoil oil). Col Wetzel had his huey bringing me 13 rounds at a time from my main fire support base at LZ West. As the huey hovered behind my guns, they threw the rounds out and my gun crews caught them, ripped them open, fused and fired. This went on for about 2 hours until there was finally a break in the weather to allow the Chinooks to resupply us. Someday, I wish I could meet that crew on the Chinook and thank them for all they did. That pilot had asked for us to cease fire as he was coming in. I told him he had the direction of fire and I want you to come in from the rear and drop the sortie right in the middle of my 3 guns. He was told to back out as soon as he could because I would be firing right under him-“if you get in front, you will be blown out of the sky!” The pilot did just as I asked him to, but if looks could kill, I would have been a dead man. The Infantry never knew how close they were to not having the fire support they needed. If I had followed orders, we would never have had enough ammo to keep our guns firing on that day.
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Lloyd Martin
Austin, TX
C 3/82 Arty
FO D 4/31 Feb 68 - Aug 68
XO C 3/82 Aug 68 - Aug 69 |
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| Ralph Urrutia |
| Posted on: November 26th, 2012, 7:53am |
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Medium Member C 4/31 from Oct 68 / 69 196 Inf.
Posts: 33
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| Lloyd, great story....nice to hear from the other side. Thanks for your support and Col. Wetzel for supplyng you. You guys did a great job. I know I was on the ground!!!! |
Ralph Miami Florida |
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| tdfowl |
| Posted on: April 30th, 2013, 2:07am |
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Posts: 12
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Lloyd, I was there at Nui Chom, Nov of 68. I have not been on this site in a while
Today's date is 29 April 2013, sorry to send this reply so late. My name is Terry
Fowler I live in Colorado Springs, Co. Every time I hear about Nui Chom I get a
deep feeling in my heart about what a rough day that was, thanks for all your
support to us Infantryman, you guys saved our rear more than once in our lifetime. |
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