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Date Posted: Sun, January 23 2005, 23:11:47
Author: Larry Lusk
Author Host/IP: 66.214.63.199
Subject: Re: A question for the Redlegs
In reply to: Harry Larsen 's message, "Re: A question for the Redlegs" on Sun, January 23 2005, 18:13:52

Thanks Harry, I didn’t know that about the 175’s. I don’t know how far exactly Hill 950 was from the Marine base but it could have been out of range for 105’s. That adds another piece to the puzzle. We probably assumed that the Marine’s knew or used the same procedures as our own fire support and the Marines most likely had little experience in providing fire support to Army troops. We were used to being able to call in supporting fire relatively close to our position since we knew we could correct before the heavy stuff arrived. A number of times we called in HE or air burst first but the target was at least one klick away.

I remember when we first entered Hue from the South heavy fire was hitting all around us, 155mm and larger. Got my first “wound” that day when a fragment about an inch wide and five inches long clipped a knuckle on my right hand before it stuck in the ground just missing my right foot. “Doc” just chuckled when he put a Band-Aid on it later in the day. During that period of time if a wound didn’t require a “dust off” it just wasn’t reported. We walked through this barrage for about fifteen minutes and word peculated back that the Battalion CO had been trying to get the fire lifted but he couldn’t find out where it was coming from. I had been in the field for only a week so it was either "suck it up" or totally freak out. I just kept my place in line and hoped that nothing else fell out of the sky that could kill me. In training they had told us to run if you got caught in an artillery barrage but we had been chasing a regiment of NVA for the last week and they could have been in front or on either side of us so running was not an option and staying put would have been suicide. I can only guess that I had a little taste of what the Marines had to face when taking islands in the Pacific during WWII. For next few days it was either deathly silent or it seemed like everyone was shooting at everyone else. Hue was not a nice place to be in late February of 1968.

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