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Detachment there for Command
and Control functions over two A Teams. The other A Team was led by Captain
John Haley, with a brand new Second Lieutenant, Al Smith, as his XO. Team
Sergeant was an old timer named John Kessling, a transfer from the 173rd
, with another transfer from the 173rd Airborne, Fred Ice as the
Intell man. Their weapons men were John Seig and Ed Corpus, both well experienced.
Commo was handled by Tom (Squeaky ) Moore and a newbie . Johnnie Williams.
The medics were Vern Stevenson and Robert (Fat Bob)Jones. The engineers
were Les Noland and John Kelly. This was not a solid team; it had two PFCs
and a second lieutenant. This was normerly a No No in Special Forces units,
but the demand for Special Forces teams to man the ever growing number
of camps had opened the door to younger and less experienced troops. A
large nunber had come over from the Airborne Regiment on Okinawa and been
accepted for Special Forces duty without much special training. Some of
these were very, very good, but some were lacking. Haley's team alone
had five men from the 173rd Airborne. This was not so good, as there had
not been sufficient training time for these men prior to being deployed
"down south" in a combat zone.
The Kham Duc B Detachment was commanded by Major Ramon
Reed with an old hand as his Sergeant Major, Tom McGillicudy. I do not
recall the other members of the B Team as they were more of a hindrance
than a help. At any rate, on this day, March 14, 1965, our troops had taken
their traditional lunch time break, and a nap. This was PAK TIME, a centuries
old habit in Viet Nam and one we could not alter - especially while in
camp. So we were sitting around in our hut when the call for help came
in.
Captain Haley had taken an operation out for a seven
day patrol. This was the fourth day they were out, patrolling along the
old French Highway that ran for miles along the border. Route 14 it was
called. This was a prime infiltration route for the North Vietnamese Army
into South Viet Nam and it was our mission to stop it if we could. When
Haley told us of his plan, I had thought it wrong, as he had put most of his
senior men on the patrol and left the inexperienced back in camp. I think
he thought that if the camp was attacked, a strong possibility, that our
team would take up the slack. It was for certain that the B Team
could not defend the camp or itself
At any rate the patrol had been ambushed and had several
casualties, one of
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