I am SP/5 L Coover assigned to the 185th Maint Bn, Long Binh Vietnam 1971 t0 1972. We were a small unit of only about 150 men. So being a small outfit we had the job of getting equipment ready for shipping back to the USA. Everything you could imagine; small weapons were destroyed and much more bigger stuff was cleaned for shipping.
It was during the Tet of 1972 that things were happening all over the country. One of the first things I encountered was when I was on day guard on the perimeter. During my time in the bunker I was assigned to I saw about six Vietnamese persons handling a small mortar. They were about 150 feet in front of my bunker.
“Dung lai! Dung lai! Dung lai!”
in a bunker
As I was trained, I gave the challenge, “Dung lai! Dung lai! Dung lai!” 3 times. (Dung lai (pronouneed “zoong lye” was Vietnamese for “halt” or “stop.”)
They responded in their broken English as well as giving me the finger. One of them yelled back to me “Fungoo numba 10 GI.”
Almost simultaneously, I was on the phone to the SOG for permission to fire. Mr. Horn was the SOG officer and he told me to do nothing till he got there. It took about 10 min for Mr. Horn a CWO to get to the bunker.
I stood fast almost growling at the enemy.
When he saw the same thing, he also phoned for permission to fire. Keeping my finger on the trigger of the M-60 locked and loaded, I stood fast almost growling at the enemy. During the time we waited for a response to fire we saw a small scout chopper going close to the ground. As well as a cobra up about 2000 feet over that target.
We waited for almost 30 min and the field phone rang. Mr. Horn answered the phone and listened to the instructions. When he hung up the phone he looked me in the eye with a dumbfounded look of disbelief. Then he said the request went all the way to department of the Army in DC.
“Permission to fire” was denied due to the folks in DC not wanting to endanger the lives of innocent civilians.
That night that mortar was used on our fuel dump. Half of it was destroyed, and I was told the three guys in that exclusion area were killed. Burned to nothing. To this day this incident has been bothering me and I still don’t know… why?
at the Company AO
A week or so later my unit issued three brand new FADAC computers to the ARVNs.
They were instructed that the computers were very highly classified and must be returned in a few weeks for recalibrations. When they were returned for servicing all we got back was the chassis de-void of all secret boards and components. I believe that equipment went to China and the former USSR.
Also, during that time we were told that six commie tanks were coming for us. My outfit had 2 recoilless rifles with only 4 rounds, one weapon didn’t have a sight. We were told that we could also expect to be attacked by NVA troops.
Going to the unit supply room to draw ammo I was only issued one bandoleer. That is 120 rounds. I told the supply sergeant that wasn’t enough to even get started in a fire fight. He said to me, “Congress will not give us the money we need to buy the ammo we need.”
Thankfully the USAF took care of those approaching tanks and the troops.
Background photo is L.Coover with the only known cat in Long Binh. Her name was Stinky.