VoyForums

Fri, December 04 2009, 23:18:23 [ VoyUser Login optional ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, [7] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: Fri, January 21 2005, 5:13:01
Author: Larry Lusk
Author Host/IP: 66.214.61.174
Subject: Re: A question for the Redlegs
In reply to: Wayne Gregory 's message, "Re: A question for the Redlegs" on Thu, January 20 2005, 21:22:54

Thanks Wayne. I suspected that there were different SOP’s depending on the branch and maybe at times for different Divisions. All of our fire support unless it was from our own weapons platoon was called in to Division. That didn’t mean we would get the fire support from the base camp; that happened sometimes when we were close to it but most missions came from the outlying fire bases. I don’t know how things were routed but there was only one call sign for fire support. The only exception was when we were in Company strength; then the request was called into the company CP which made the call to Division. When we were on listening post duty around the base camp each post (squad) called in separately to mark our position for H&I fire for the night. Since we normally only had a general idea where we were in many situations the smoke round was the way we refined our coordinates. We could call for more than one round of smoke if the first was too close or we couldn’t get a compass bearing on the first.

I often forget that we operated somewhat differently than most units. When the Company or more often the Platoon was dropped off to do a sweep of an area we were seldom in a place we had been before and we were usually a long way from the base camp and out of sight from any of our fire bases. We knew our drop off point coordinates but after a few hours determining our location was a matter of matching up terrain features and guess work. Even when we called in for our pick-up it was up to us to find a reasonable LZ and we would pop smoke when we heard or saw our ride. A lot of times when we were playing bait with gunships backing us up they would call in our location. It seems sort of backwards but since the artillery knew where it was sending the spotter round we used those rounds to determine our own location. When you were halfway up a twisting foothill valley that you had never been in before you were doing pretty good if you could determine within half a klick where you were. A lot of our day sweeps were like short “long range patrols” if that makes any sense. The GPS they have today sure would have been nice to have back then.

When we were protecting one of our fire bases it seemed like most of the fire missions were during the day. They fired some H&I at night and long distance flare support for other units along with occasional fire missions either in support of a unit under attack or at a target that someone had spotted but on the nights we spent on a hill top fire base we were never even probed or took any mortar fire. I think that because the bases were small but had heavy concentrated fire power the risk of attacking them out weighed the gain. In addition to our Infantry company the battery of 105’s and 155’s had a quad fifty on each of the fire bases we protected. Camp Evans was protected by it’s own guns (which did most of the H&I during the night), most of one line battalion on listening posts (suicide duty)around it and the small fire bases near by to provide overlaping fire. If needed they would also put gunships in the air at night and there was a constant patrol of gunships around the base camp during the day. Evans got hit by 122mm rockets frequently but while the Cav was there I don’t remember hearing about a ground attack ever being attempted against it.

I know what you mean about the Naval gun fire. A couple of times we were sure 16 inch shells passed overhead because it sounded like a freight train going a hundred miles an hour in the air above us. We checked out some craters one day that could have been made by those shells or 2,000 pound bombs. Mighty big holes in the ground.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 2.94, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2008 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.