Christmas 1966

On Christmas morning 1966, my rifle squad of Aero Rifle Platoon of Air Cav Troop got on an M35A2 deuce and a half and rode to the northwest perimeter of Blackhorse base camp. There, near the camp burn dump, we were met by four soldiers from K Troop. They and we were to conduct a daytime reconnaissance of a hill that sat a kilometer or so northwest of base camp and set up an ambush that night.

The K Troop sergeant mentioned to Staff Sergeant Gene Boeher that his people had been on the hill before. “We’ll go to the east,” he said. “You can find a good place on the northwest side.” We parted ways then, with a return time of 2 p.m.

Grass was thick and high going up the side of the hill. We were careful in moving. In-country since Dec. 2, we were aware there were people who wanted to kill us.

The top of the hill would have made a nice park, placed somewhere else or in different circumstances -- tall oak trees, small open areas and jungle plants with large leaves. Sergeant Boeher announced that the area would be a good place from which to conduct reconnaissance, so we all picked a shady spot and took up prone position.

We stayed on the hill until just after 1:30 and then made our way to the agreed rendezvous point. The K Troop guys showed up. We walked back to base camp and went through the wire. The truck arrived and we got on and went back to Air Cav Troop area. After stowing machine gun ammunition and M79 rounds and Claymore mines, we went to the mess hall and had Christmas dinner. Just before dark, the four soldiers from K Troop arrived in the platoon area, and we got on the truck and returned to the burn dump and went through the wire and up the hill. We set up ambush at the same area of the hill top. Nothing happened during the night, so after daylight we went back to base camp.

The thing about the hill, from a military perspective, was you could see all of base camp from the top of the hill. Every tent, every bunker, the beginning of the air strip, the Huey gunships parked in the open.

In March, while the regiment was operating near Lai Khe, Viet Cong set up mortars on the hill top and fired on base camp for more than fifteen minutes, placing rounds on specific targets. A couple of days later, engineers went up the hill and cut down and burned every tree. The hill was ugly after that.