13th Valley (100 page)

The Dust-Off comes in from the east, passes, shoots across the top of the knoll, seems to stand on its tail. Stopping, it rotates and drops left, turns around, hovers momentarily. Brooks lowers his rifle—the bird slides to a touchdown on the LZ before him. Debris is blowing everywhere. Men are running. Hill is helped aboard by the crew-chief, on the other side the medic pulls Frye in through the opened side. Gear is tossed in. Hayes' body bounces on the floor. McQueen is crying as he lays Nahele down. “Good-bye.” Tears are streaming uncontrollably down his cheeks. Brooks jerks his rifle up. The bird lifts. It edges forward then dives off the east cliff picking up speed and swinging up left, up, up out of range of ground fire, out of the flight path of the second Dust-Off coming at the LZ full bore.

“Man, them dudes are fine,” Jax yells to Doc. “One fine piece a flyin.” Jax has Egan's ruck and weapon. Brooks and Doc are holding Egan. Egan is standing, shaky, pain in his legs, but feeling. Coming down over the north-ridge are twelve Huey slicks. They are Alpha's lift birds. They are in line, two sets of six. They are coming in from the valley's west end. The second medevac bird crosses the LZ and begins turning. Doc and Brooks lead Egan toward the pick-up site. They are by the stump of the giant teak. The bird is coming at them, rotor wash lashing dust and debris into their faces. “I'm going to miss you,” Brooks yells. “You're the best they come.” “Stephanie,” Egan murmurs. His eyes are tearing. Doc Korman and Don White lead Kinderly. White sees them first and pulls Kinderly down. There are NVA on the north rim of the knoll. “You're going to see that la … oh shit.” Brooks is cut short by automatic weapons fire. They are firing at the medevac. Brooks and Doc pull Egan down behind the stump. All the boonierats have hit the earth. The helicopter shudders. Now there is return fire. Cherry is running up the LZ. There is steady firing into the helicopter. The bird shakes violently and drops onto the LZ. The tail rotor is dangerously close to the teak stump. There is firing coming from above, from across the river and up the south slope. An RPG round bursts into the bird's front Plexiglas windows. AK fire is spraying down on the bird from the rear. M-16s and 60s are returning fire, trying to suppress fire. The aircraft commander is hit bleeding slumped over the control stick, his shoulder harness holding him while rounds slam into his face and chest. The first Cobra rolls and dives raking the south slope with mini-gun fire. The medevac co-pilot is still fighting with the controls, trying to lift the ship. He pushes the stick forward increasing rotor angle. The bird does not respond. Oil lines are ruptured. The crew-chief and medic jump from the bird. The helicopter is on fire. Korman and White are pulling Kinderly back. Kinderly is frantic, blind, terrified. Brooks is lying over Egan and Doc, shielding them with his body. The helicopter is being ravaged. All enemy guns are trained on it. Cherry picks off one then another and another enemy soldier coming up over the cliff. For him it is a shooting gallery. The NVA are shooting only at the bird, trying to explode it, trying to jam the LZ so Alpha cannot be extracted. Cherry and now Jax and Pop and half a dozen others are killing NVA. AK rounds impact into the neck and shoulders of the co-pilot. He is struggling. His body stiffens then drops limp. Again an RPG smashes the bird. The bird explodes gushing flaming aviation fuel. Huge chunks of helicopter slash through the air like shrapnel. The NVA fire lulls.

“Bravo! Bravo!” Screams are coming from the south and west sides of the perimeter.

“El Paso,” Thomaston shouts, “have the lift birds come in.”

There is still firing from the south. Cherry and Denhardt race down to help suppress it. Denhardt is hit. His leg blows up splattering Cherry. Cherry thinks he too is hit.

The middle of the LZ is a ball of fire. In the flames Jax can see the pilots burning. Then he sees Brooks and Doc. They are lying lifeless on top of another body, on top of Egan. Doc's jaw is sheared, bloody, raw. Brooks is moving. Egan's legs are moving. NVA fire erupts again from the south. The enemy is right in Alpha's lines. Boonierats low-crawl and fire on enemy only feet away. Two Cobras dive. They swing in on tangents to Alpha's perimeter so as not to undershoot and hit the boonierats. They dive from west to east keeping the sun behind them. They do not fire rockets. Their mini-guns are buzzing, nailing down everything in forty foot wide swaths. A LOH is blasting away at the north side of the knoll. El Paso has picked up the LOH commander on his radio. The bird has caught a column of enemy soldiers climbing in a cleft up the knoll cliffs. A Cobra pilot reports seeing forty enemy on the valley floor streaming toward the south slope. The GreenMan orders in the extraction birds.

The heat of the burning helicopter is incredibly intense. The fire sucks air like napalm. Egan is trapped beneath Doc and Brooks. He is conscious but stoned. He can see the flames but the heat does not bother him. For a moment he smells Brooks' flesh burning but then he can no longer smell. He is calm. He has been waiting without anticipation. He does not see fire, he sees energy. Energy, he thinks. Energy is reduced by the square of the distance from its source. As his eyebrows and hair curl and blacken in the heat like melting red plastic threads, he sees an equation: L2 = L1(d
²
). It isn't energy, he thinks, it is Light. No Sight. The power of sight decreases in direct relationship to the square of the distance from the source. Or is it, S = D
²
? Oh, he smiles inwardly, it isn't distance, it is Daniel. It isn't sight, it is Stephanie. Egan sees his exposed skin peel, split, roll back from the splits and char. The surface of his eyes are boiling. The magnesium hulk medevac bird is changing from matter to energy in whitehot burning. “I don't feel we're saying good-bye,” Egan says aloud. He does not hear his voice. “Stephanie, we'll see each other again. Haven't I always come back to you?” Egan hears a rhythmic hush rushing sound and a quick pumping. It is his own breathing and his heartbeat. He does not feel his skin. He thinks he sees. He sees Stephanie.

“Jax,” Cherry screams. “Egan, Doc, the L-T.”

The first extraction bird is coming in, landing, not touching down completely, below the kickout point. Thomaston is directing. 2d Plt is loading. Doorgunners are keeping steady fire pouring south. The bird departs, a second bird lands. Wounded are thrown on. Numbnuts jumps on the second bird. Jax and Cherry are sprinting up toward the burning ground near the medevac. Pop and El Paso race after them. Enemy fire is increasing with every lift bird touching down. Mohnsen is hit boarding. Thomaston directs 3d Plt to begin loading.

“3d Sqd out,” Caldwell yells. He is backing toward the pick-up point. McQueen and 1st Sqd begin backing away from the ragged perimeter. They are firing suppressive fire trying to keep the enemy fire down.

“Get back to the perimeter,” Caldwell kicks at McQueen's ass as both of them back up.

McQueen turns. “Eat it, Lieutenant,” he snaps. “We're coming up now. You stay there.”

“Sergeant, I gave you an order,” Caldwell screams.

“No shit,” McQueen growls. Another bird leaves, another sets down. McQueen snarls.

“Get down there, Goddamn it. That's an order.”

“Like you gave to Ridgefield,” McQueen explodes.

“I didn't …”

“Like Snell. Like Nahele.”

“Sergeant …”

An ugly mask of hate contorts McQueen's face. “Like you always give.” McQueen lowers his M-16, squeezes the trigger and puts three rounds into Lt. Larry Caldwell's heart.

“Pick up the wounded,” McQueen yells to his platoon. He lifts Caldwell's body. 3d Plt is extracted.

“They aint dead,” Jax is shouting, screaming. “We ken get em.”

Lairds throws Denhardt onto the floor of the extraction bird. Marko, Hoover and McCarthy leap in. Cahalan jumps in. The bird lifts.

“Get on the fucken birds,” Thomaston shouts at Jax and Cherry. Alpha no longer has a perimeter. Gunships are diving over the tops of the lift birds spraying mini-gun fire and now rockets. Thomaston reaches Pop. He grabs him, spins him hard. “Get on the bird.” He seizes El Paso, shoves him. “There.” Cherry and Jax are crawling forward toward Egan and Doc and the L-T. They are guarding their faces. Enemy fire is increasing. There are a hundred NVA soldiers coming up the south slope. A hundred dead NVA bodies give them cover to dive behind as the helicopters fire at them and they fire back. Cherry and Jax are hugging the ground inching into the heat. Jax' fatigue shirt bursts into flame. Mortar rounds are being walked across the knolltop by NVA mortar teams. Jax sheds his shirt, running, retreating from the flames.

“Get outa there,” Thomaston shouts crouching, blocking the heat from his face.

“I'm Cherry,” Cherry yells reaching, his face and hands burning. Cherry can see Egan's eyes. They are open. His arms seem to be reaching toward Cherry. Thomaston dashes in wildly, grabs Cherry's ankle and pulls. “No,” Cherry screams. Thomaston stands, jumps clutching insanely, lifting Cherry and carrying him toward the last bird. They break for the helicopter. The doorgunners are burning the barrels off their machine guns. LOHs are buzzing. Pop and El Paso reach the bird, step on the skid and spin into the open side. Jax and Cherry jump in. Thomaston jumps, Pop catches him, pulls. The bird lifts up to his not yet falling body. The noise of the rotors slaps louder, the ship dips, the tail raises. Cherry's eyes are on the pile of US bodies. The helicopter is off.

Cool wind rushes through the open sides of the helicopter.

“Where in the fuck did the gooks come from?” Thomaston cries. “They were right on the knoll with us.”

Jackson too is crying. His face is distorted, ugly. “We left em there,” he screams. “We left em there. Egan woant dead.”

El Paso vomits. Pop is dazed.

Cherry is cold, breathing hard. He looks at Jax. He says at him, a smirk on his face, “Fuck it.” He bursts out laughing. “Don't mean nothin.”

SIGNIFICANT ACTIVITIES

THE FOLLOWING RESULTS FOR OPERATIONS IN THE O'REILLY/ BARNETT/JEROME AREA WERE REPORTED FOR THE 24-HOUR PERIOD ENDING 2359 25 AUGUST 70:

AN UNDETERMINED SIZED ENEMY FORCE ATTACKED 2D PLT, CO B, 7/402 AT THEIR NDP VICINITY YD 165325 AT 0217 HOURS. CO B RETURNED ORGANIC WEAPONS FIRE. THE ENEMY WITHDREW. CO B RECEIVED SEVEN MORTAR IMPACTIONS IN THEIR NDP AT 0235 HOURS RESULTING IN THREE US WIA. COUNTER-BATTERY ARTILLERY WAS EMPLOYED TO SILENCE THE MORTARS. AT 0305 HOURS, CO B WAS AGAIN ATTACKED IN THEIR NDP AND AGAIN REPULSED THE ATTACK WITH ORGANIC WEAPONS FIRE. THREE MORE US SOLDIERS WERE WOUNDED. THE WOUNDED WERE EVACUATED AT 0410 HOURS.

CO C, 7/402 WAS ATTACKED BY AN UNKNOWN SIZE ENEMY FORCE BEFORE DAWN VICINITY YD 133318. THE ENEMY INFILTRATED TWO POSITIONS OF CO C'S PERIMETER KILLING TWO US SOLDIERS AND WOUNDING TWO BEFORE THE ATTACK WAS REPULSED WITH ORGANIC WEAPONS FIRE.

AT 0712 HOURS 1ST PLT, CO A, 7/402, WHILE ADVANCING UPHILL ENGAGED AN UNKNOWN SIZE ENEMY FORCE DUG INTO A TRENCH, VICINITY YD 148318, KILLING FOUR NVA. THREE US WERE WOUNDED.

AT 0855 HOURS 2D AND 3D PLTS OF CO A DISCOVERED AN NVA HEADQUARTERS AND SUPPLY BUNKER COMPLEX CONSISTING OF APPROXIMATELY 28 UNDERGROUND ROOMS CONNECTED BY TUNNELS. THE ELEMENT ENTERED THE COMPLEX UNOPPOSED AND CARRIED OUT FOUR SOVIET-MADE GR-9 RADIOS, AND AN ESTIMATED SEVEN TONS OF AMMUNITION INCLUDING 18 CRATES OF 82MM MORTAR ROUNDS, 36 CRATES OF 61 MM MORTAR ROUNDS, 24 CRATES OF RPG ROCKETS, 40 BOXES CHI-COM CLAYMORE MINES, 60 BOXES 37MM AA AMMUNITION, 55 CANS RPD MACHINE GUN AMMUNITION AND 3000 SACHEL CHARGES. AT 0935 AN UNKNOWN SIZE ENEMY FORCE EMERGED FROM THE TUNNELS AND ENGAGED CO A KILLING TWO US AND WOUNDING TWO. CO A WITHDREW ALLOWING AIR SUPPORT ACCESS TO THE ENEMY. 16 ENEMY WERE KILLED, 11 BY ARA. THE MUNITIONS EXPOSED BY CO A WERE DESTROYED BY ARA.

AT 1242 HOURS CO A WAS ATTACKED BY A LARGE WELL COORDINATED ENEMY FORCE WHILE THEY WERE EVACUATING PREVIOUSLY WOUNDED SOLDIERS. A MEDICAL EVACUATION HELICOPTER, HIT BY RPG FIRE, EXPLODED ON THE LZ KILLING THE PILOT AND CO-PILOT. CO A RETURNED ORGANIC WEAPONS FIRE AND ARA AND GUNSHIPS WERE EMPLOYED. WHILE STILL UNDER FIRE, CO A WAS EXTRACTED. ONE US SOLDIER WAS KILLED, SEVEN WOUNDED. KNOWN ENEMY CASUALTIES WERE 44 KIA, 30 BY ARA AND 14 BY SAF.

DURING THE PERIOD OF CO A'S CONTACT, COS B, C, D AND THE RECON PLT OF E ALL ENCOUNTERED SPORADIC ACTION. THE ENEMY INITIATED SEVEN SEPARATE DIRECT AND INDIRECT FIRE ATTACKS ON THESE UNITS AS THEY ATTEMPTED TO CORDON OFF THE VALLEY CENTER AREA BEING ATTACKED BY CO A. THE 7/402 COMPANIES ENGAGED THE ENEMY NINE TIMES WITH ORGANIC WEAPONS FIRE AND WERE SUPPORTED BY ARTILLERY, ARA AND TAC AIR. A SWEEP OF THE CONTACT AREA REVEALED 57 NVA KIA, 31 BY SUPPORTING FIRE. THE NVA SLIPPED THROUGH THE TIGHTENING CORDON AND ATTACKED CO B AND RECON FROM THEIR RESPECTIVE REARS RESULTING IN THREE US KIA AND TEN US WIA. AFTER CO A WAS EXTRACTED THE BATTALION'S OTHER COMPANIES ATTACKED OUTWARD FROM THE CORDON KILLING FOUR ENEMY. ALL ELEMENTS OF THE 7/402 WERE EXTRACTED BY 1600.

IN THE VICINITY OF YD 332239, TWO KILOMETERS SOUTHEAST OF FIRE-BASE O'REILLY, ELEMENTS OF THE 1ST REGT (ARVN) ENGAGED AN UNKNOWN SIZE ENEMY FORCE. THE ENEMY WITHDREW UNDER HEAVY ARA SUPPORT BY THE 4TH BN (AERIAL ARTY), 77TH ARTY (AMBL). THE ARVN ELEMENT PURSUED THE ENEMY FORCE AND WAS IN CONTACT THROUGHOUT THE DAY. A SWEEP OF THE CONTACT AREA AT 1730 HOURS REVEALED 37 NVA KIA, 16 BY ARA. NINE ARVN SOLDIERS WERE KILLED AND SEVEN WOUNDED.

ON 25 AUGUST, THE 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION (AMBL) REALIGNED ITS FORCES IN PREPARATION FOR THE NORTHEAST MONSOONS. THE 7TH BN (AMBL), 402D INF TERMINATED OPERATIONS IN COORDINATION WITH THE 3D REGT (ARVN) IN THE FIREBASE BARNETT AREA, AND MOVED TO CAMP EAGLE TO BEGIN BATTALION REFRESHER TRAINING.

THE 1ST REGT (ARVN) CONTINUED CONDUCTING OPERATIONS IN THE FIREBASE O'REILLY AREA WHILE ELEMENTS OF THE 3D REGT (ARVN) CONTINUED OPERATIONS IN THE FIREBASE BARNETT/ JEROME AREA.

DURING THE PERIOD 13-25 AUGUST COMBINED OPERATIONS IN THE O'REILLY/ BARNETT/ JEROME AREA RESULTED IN 614 ENEMY KILLED.