Dante’s Inferno

By David Beakey

8/12/68

Dear Sophia,

Sorry about the stains on the paper, it’s the last piece I have. We’re low on supplies…even water! I don’t dream about hamburgers and milkshakes any more, just water, cold, clear water. We’ve got these pills that make any water fit to drink, but I still get a little queasy when I have to fill my canteen from a mud puddle, Ha! Ha! Anyway, how are you? I hope Jody hasn’t been calling on you lately! That’s a joke between us marines, but it actually happened to my buddy Cleo. He handled it well though. He’s pretty cool. He’s from Chicago and he got shot before he joined the Crotch. He was in the Blackstone Rangers, so nothing much fazes him. I better stop talking this way because you won’t understand what I’m talking about. I’ve really changed over here. Thank God I’m short (96 days and a wake up!). I don’t want to change so much that I won’t be able to change back. But things keep happening. Like a few days ago…

Stars and Stripes

Well, last week, this reporter decided to “tag along” with some marine grunts who were flushing out NVA troops from their temporary base camps west of Khe Sanh. Echo Company was on a three day mini-operation, a thrust across two mountains and down into a valley where what was left of an NVA company was pinned down by two large marine units. Echo Company Captain Egan reckoned there would be only “the quick and the dead” left by the time his men plugged up the escape route, on day three.

…we humped for two days straight, up and then down and on day three, up again. We weren’t even sure about what we were doing, but it became clearer as we got about halfway up the second mountain. Somebody was over that ridge. We started to receive sporadic sniper fire and took our first casualties. It was getting hot, too. It must have been 100 degrees. I was carrying the gun (my M-60), lots of rounds over my shoulder and across my chest, my poncho, poncho liner, some C rats and three canteens (two empty and one about ¼ full). Of course we all had flak jackets and helmets. We still had about half a click of climbing ahead of us in order to reach the crest, and then it would be downhill, to meet up with that somebody, probably NVA. We figured it was some kind of mop-up operation, because we had been out for two days with no action until now. Some guys thought we might have missed the action this time and they dreamed of choppers coming to pick us up and carry us back to the firebase. I stopped thinking about it and just focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Suddenly, the terrain changed. We entered a huge area that consisted of large grassy patches as big as several football fields, the patches gradually blended into Elephant Grass, 4-6 feet high and waving back and forth, pushed by a very warm breeze. My throat started to dry up. My stomach tightened and I had this out-of-body feeling that I get sometimes in the bush. I shook it off. I looked left then right and was surprised that I could suddenly see the whole company, spread out across the slope. Strangely, we were still in a jagged line, like a snake, moving sideways up the hill. But almost immediately, the scene faded as the hot wind blew and the grass started to obscure us, slowly, from east to west. Then I was alone, unable to see Nash or Montoya, who were so close to me that I could hear them grunting and swearing. And so it went. We kept marching up that hill, sometimes able to see each other, sometimes totally engulfed by the grass…

Stars and Stripes

As Echo Company swept up the steep plain of the second mountain, they encountered sporadic small arms fire. They responded immediately. In the brief firefight, three marines were wounded. The shooting died down. The flank squads reconnoitered and discovered several blood trails and miscellaneous NVA items such as packs and ammunition belts, indicating a hurried retreat by the enemy. The men moved swiftly up the slope, eager to attack the enemy on the far side of the mountain. Closer to the peak they encountered an estimated 20-30 NVA. They opened fire when the marines were within 200 yards, but the marines, utilizing the Elephant Grass, were able to find cover and slowly advance. The firing was over quickly, as the enemy retreated and disappeared, evidently running up over the top of the hill. The marines suffered two casualties. Again the enemy left few clues as to their actual losses. But it is estimated that they carried several dead and wounded with them, in their retreat. Now the marines faced a new foe! The firefight had started a fire on the hillside. The flames spread quickly, feeding on the Elephant Grass, spurred on by the wind.

…Then I heard an AK open up. Damn! It was on our right flank. For a few minutes the rounds were popping, and then it quieted down. I was steadily looking around as I walked, expecting some fire from the other side, but it became quiet again. We kept humping up that hill. It was really getting hot now and I started to worry about my lack of water. I was usually good at estimating when we could refill our canteens, but not this time. I walked on. Then we started taking fire from directly in front of us. It seemed more serious, more coordinated than the small firefight on the right flank. I took the 60 off my shoulder and held it by my hip and considered unleashing about 50 rounds. I heard Montoya and Nash open up with their M-16’s. We were still in the tall grass. Now I longed for that hot breeze, to blow the sweat out of my eyes. I put the 60 down. I didn’t want to give away my position yet. I pulled out my 45. I fired three rounds in the direction of the hilltop. The firing stopped after a few minutes. It was then that I heard screaming. Someone was yelling, “Fire! Fire!” Several marines opened up again, but then it got quiet and suddenly, I smelled smoke. “Oh, that kind of fire!” I heard Montoya yell. Somehow, the hill had caught fire and the wind was blowing our way. Then the tall grass spread apart and I stumbled into a huge clear area. I looked left and right and watched as the men on each side of me broke through the grass, as I had. I could see for 400 yards to my right and my left. I saw men fall to their knees. Those walking were starting to stagger. My own legs had become like rubber halfway up the hill. I caught a glimpse of Nash’s back. He had taken off his flak jacket like he was going to fling it. But he must have changed his mind and was putting it back on. His shirt was black and shiny from the sweat. Montoya looked worse. I walked over to him and shared my canteen with him. He nodded. I looked again to my right. The scene had changed. The fire had broken through the tall grass and was moving diagonally up the mountainside. Someone must have dropped some ammo, because rounds starting cooking off. I knew it was our stuff from the sound and because the men closest to the noise weren’t really ducking. We kept moving. What else could we do? The fire at our backs made us scramble faster. The bad guys in front of us were quiet, but that only made us nervous. They could be anywhere. We were so disoriented from fatigue and edginess that we had ceased to act like anything resembling a unit. Each man just wanted to reach that crest. I thought about the “Killer Teams” we ran out of C-2, just south of Con Thien. No flak jackets, no helmets, just 10 marines, quietly patrolling for three days. We caught a few by surprise that way. That’s how to fight this war, I thought, not like this! We kept moving up the hill. Periodically, I would glance across the side of the slope. The shorter, yellow grass shimmered. The smoke formed white puffs which were pushed westward across the troops, by the wind. The sky was bright blue and cloudless. The men were inching their way up the mountain. We were nearing the crest. Some of the men started to fall, from fatigue or dehydration. A few got up and trudged on but several lay where they fell. I started to panic, but quickly talked myself out of it. I heard numerous cries of, “Corpsman up!” I kept humping. About 20 minutes later, we reached the top. There was a flat area about 100 yards wide and then it started to slope down again. The fire continued to burn across the slope, but luckily, it didn’t come over the crest of the mountain. After some confusion, we set up a perimeter. The choppers came to take out the wounded and dead. Rumor had it that 3 marines from 2nd Platoon had died of heat exhaustion. The real casualty figures for Echo Company were, 1 dead, from heat exhaustion, 13 down from the heat, 4 men burned by the fire and 6 hit on the way up the hill…

Stars and Stripes

The men tried to outrun the fire and stay in their attack formation at the same time. They managed to reach the top of the hill, but several marines suffered burns from the fire. As they readied to attack, word came that the battle below had ended. But the blocking maneuver by Echo Company had been successful in keeping the foe cornered. The NVA rear scouts had reported a large force moving up the opposite side of the mountain, (Echo Company) so the enemy had no alternative but to stay where they were. The final body count was 47 NVA killed and 3 prisoners taken. Delta Company, 2/1 lost 6 marines KIA and 14 wounded. It is speculated that some NVA managed to escape. The marines of Echo Company, 2/1, in addition to “closing the rear door”, captured several maps and battle plans, left by the fleeing NVA scouts. Colonel William Tecumseh Johnson (St. Paul, Minnesota) gave Echo Company a great deal of credit when he said, “The men who climbed that last hill and sealed off the enemy escape route were a big help. They ignored sniper fire and a brush fire that burned right through them, to plug up that gap.”

…After the choppers left it was quiet for a while. Then we heard that thumping noise again. Sure enough, they were going to pluck us off the top of the hill! First, though, they dropped some water in a huge rubber container, the type they usually drop to troops on long operations. But it bounced and then slid down the mountainside. Then the Hueys came, many of them. I got on one and slid across the floor when the pilot banked. I looked down and there was a green canteen. It looked new. I shook it and realized it was full. I didn’t even ask the gunner or anyone else, I just chugged down that water! As we headed back to the firebase, I tried to make sense out of the last three days. But I was a little lightheaded and the chopper was so noisy that I just laid my head back on some ammo boxes and closed my eyes. Like my friend Cleo says, “It ain’t nothing but a thing.”

Love, Dante