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In August of ‘69, I also sealed the past away in a sea trunk with I call my time capsule today.
All my items from 1st recon and the marine corps except for my photos, they’re collecting dust in photo albums on a shelf or two and a couple of them in my office at work. And a few medals in a case in a closet at home. The balance of the war is in this large sea trunk from the ‘30s. It’s the kind that opens up into a suite of furniture like an armoire and a chest of drawers. So I’m looking forward to opening it with the key I misplaced. But for the time I’ll be patient not to break the lock to open it. I’m thinking to myself I’m an antique dealer and this trunk is an artifact from the ‘30s. I’ll call it my time capsule for now. Forty years now it seem like yesterday for me. Each day brings back some thing new for me. I have been looking frantically for that trunk key with no luck. And I can recall that day I arrived in Nam as a replacement for one of those brave men of Hill 200. And now forty years to the day I stumbled across their story on the web as told by Doug Wolfe of team Blue Spruce. He calls his story “Thoughts of that Day”.
Here is Doug’s story of Hill 200,
Thoughts of that Day
Today is a particularly dreary, rainy day. Lookout Mountain is socked in good. It is not unusual for it to be socked in. Hell they fought the Battle above the Clouds there during the Civil War. However, today it put me in mind of another dreary, socked in ridge I was on for around 2 hours on 3 June, 1968. Known only to me as Hill 200, it was a desolate, indefensible place that somebody in the 1st Mardiv G3 shop picked off the map to insert my platoon on as an observation post & radio relay.200 was a high hump on a triple canopy ridge line running northeast to southwest. One could observe a small section of a river to the south if one looked closely and the hill wasn’t socked in as it was when I was there. Other than that, all you could observe was a lot of triple canopied high ground that surrounded the hill for approximate 320 of the 360 degrees of view. For those less trained in the fine art of surveillance than myself. You couldn’t see shit and the place was a defender’s nightmare. On 29 May, 1968 team Cayenne 3rd Platoon Bravo Company. 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Rein) led by S/Sgt. Phil Hampton inserted on hill 200 to conduct a 6 day static OP mission & act as a radio relay for teams operating in the far reaches of the battalion comm. net. Hampton’s team was composed of his normal people operating with Cayenne, HM3 Earl Lerch, and the remainder of the platoon minus an 8 man patrol being conducted on Charlie Ridge by Team Blue Spruce, the other team in the Platoon. His patrol numbered 15 14 Marines & 1 Navy Corpsman. (HM3 Lerch)They were inserted by CH46 helicopters after fixed wing had prepped the zone and basically blown the jungle off the ridge line for about 100 meters along the spine of the ridge and about 75 meters of the sides of the finger. They immediately set to work digging 2 man positions, setting fields of fire, putting out their claymores, & laying a pitiful single strand of concertina wire on their perimeter. Only God and Phil Hampton know why a request for extraction from this position was not submitted. Maybe one was, but the 1st Recon Unit Diary shows no such request. From the insertion thru the day of the 2nd of June, the patrol was uneventful, other than 1 sighting called in on a sampan traveling upriver. The SALUTE report cited 2 male occupants dressed in black Pj’s. No packs or weapons were observed and no request for fire was submitted. The afternoon of 2 June marked a turn for the worse in the weather. The rain came and the accompanying fog started to sock the team in. the team set in for a miserable night in the mountain jungle, but what the fuck, they were getting out in the morning. On the 30th of May Team Blue Spruce had returned to Camp Reasoned from our patrol. We were debriefed, cleaned our weapons and gear, and proceeded to see who could get the drunkest on 3.2 beers. The next few days would be spent taking turns on guard duty on the battalion perimeter, going to freedom Hill PX, and getting briefed and trained up for our next mission. On the 2nd we were assigned the additional duty of acting as the Bravo Co. React team. We were briefed by our TL, Sgt. Jimmy Linn of our duties and advised that there would be no drinking. This fell on deaf ears partly because most of us were already drunk and partly because Shakey Linn was pulling on a Budweiser when he said it. Sometime around midnight we awakened by the Co. 1st Sgt. And Sgt. Linn and advised that Cayenne was in heavy contact, had reported heavy casualties, and had lost common with Grim Reaper. (The Battalion TAC calls sign) We were told to grab our shit and muster at the 3 shop for deployment to their pos. the C.O., 1st Sgt., Linn, & Doc Domino were taken in the 3 shop for briefing and the rest of us were waiting outside for word about our team in trouble. The word we were getting was that the NVA were all over the hill, Huey gunships were on station and providing cover fire, Spooky gunships were on station, but unable to work because of limited visibility due to the hill being socked in, and there was no contact with the team on the ground. We were beside ourselves and begging to be inserted immediately. We were told we would be going in as soon as a viable assessment of the situation on the ground could be made and visibility
Permitted about 0300 we received the word that S/Sgt. Hampton had came up on Grim Reaper’s push and requested emergency medivac for Doc Lerch & himself. A CH53 pilot with a lot more balls than brains landed and picked them up. It has never been made clear to me if Doc Lerch died on the medivac or shortly after landing at Charlie Med. We were advised that Hampton was seriously wounded and reported the rest of his team were dead or missing. We would be inserting as soon after daybreak as the safety of the choppers allowed. We boarded 2 CH46s just before dawn on the morning of the 3rd. The React team was composed of: Sgt. Jimmy Linn TL Cpl. James Southall ATL Cpl. J. Boland Primary radioHM3 Michael Domino Corpsman L/Cpl. Jerry Kecker M79PFC Delbert Enos Rear Point PFC Nelson Livingston Alt Radio PFC Doug Wolfe Point l/Cpl. Dave Morris M60& 2 Marines from 1st MarDiv graves regrestration who I didn’t know. I’m not sure, but believe Capn. Little, B Co. C.O. was co-coordinating the operation from the other CH46 in out flight. We sat down on the south end of the hill and I remember seeing Campanella and McAdams lying in their hole on that side of the hill. They had both been shot in the head. I could not get off the side to my security position soon enough. I could see to my right another fighting position with bodies, but could not tell who they were. I found out later they were Petey Wedemier & Patterson. If you were ever in a firefight with the NVA, you are aware that they didn’t normally leave brass piled up on the battlefield. This morning I was kneeled down in a virtual pile of AK brass. We were later told a force of approximate 30 overran the hill. Bullshit, I never saw a gook on my whole tour with over 3 mags of ammo and it was piled at least 30 to 40 yards up the whole side of the ridge. I think they were hit by at least a Sapper Co. and maybe more. Most of the claymore wires were still in position and had been cut. The claymores themselves were gone and no sign was evident that they had been blown. I was told by Phil Hampton months later that every position on the hill was hit by RPGs in the initial assault after we had been there about 15 minutes I heard a lot of excited shouting from the NE side of the hill. Jim Southall came to our side of the hill and said somebody off the side of the hill was whistling the Marine Corps Hamm and we might have survivors. PFCs Gorman, Mecedo, and L/Cpls Gonzales, Washburn, Ski (can’t remember his real name) and 1 other Marine who I have forgot his name were found in a streambed at the bottom of a cliff on that side of the hill. They had apparently been blown off the hill by the RPGs. I believe it saved their lives. All but Ski were injured to the extent they were sent home. The KIAs, along with HM3 Earl Lerch, who had been medivaced earlier, were L/Cpl. Terry Edgar, PFC Frank Huff, PFC Darrell Campanella, and PFC Gerald McAdams, PFC Peter Wedemier, & PFC Scott Patterson. I will never forget them. They are together on 60w & 61w of the Vietnam Memorial. We also recovered 1 NVA body. I have no idea why they left him. I went on several missions with Hampton after the Cayenne mission and found him to be a brave and competent leader. I never asked him about that mission several times he brought it up and I just listened that what Lookout Mountain being socked in this morning made me think of I hope the fuck it’s sunny & clear in the morning. Respectfully, Doug Wolfe
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Looking back on this that was the first time I heard the full story on Hill 200. On what happened to Cayenne that night on Hill 200. As a replacement the only thing I was told was a small part of the story. Like the hill was over run with NVA and the team wiped out. Thanks to this story I now know the full story.
You see I worked that hill on three or four different times on OP “observation post” on seven day missions. And each time the night rolled in. What happened to team Cayenne on that night of June 3rd, 1968 was on my mind and all my marine brothers on those missions on Hill 200. I guess it all in the timing or luck. My time on Hill 200 seemed somewhat normal. I can recall a couple incidents in March of '69 being up all night and calling in flares, artillery and two other incidents in '68 we call in napalm on one as a battalion size unit of NVA along the river moving in formatting.
Besides those I had two KIA off of that hill one with a sniper rifle and one with the 50 caliber machine gun. Yes I can recall Hill 200 as if it was yesterday. And Doug’s story brought back the times I worked with Blue Spruce. I can recall the nightmares and how hard it was to forget it all and move on. But thanks to a story or two, I guess your mind really doesn’t forget things like war. You might think it does, but your just fooling you self. Knowing Doug and Phil Hampton and working with Sgt. Jimmy Linn and Cpl. James Southall, I remember him as a Sgt. Not a Cpl. Maybe a promotion I worked with him from time to time. But I worked with so many marines I’m not really sure at this time of his rank. And Doug’s story brought back memories of all those brave men of 1st Recon. And recalling words like, Charlie Ridge, going out on patrols Boarding CH 46 helicopters, pulling down fields of fire, setting up claymore mines, putting out concertina wire, and yes the weather oh that weather what can t say but what a nightmare that can be. Socked in for days, miserable nights in the mountain jungle, with heavy contacts of enemy moving a round you all night, gunships providing cover fire, working on react teams what a nightmare and training up for mission. Thanks Doug your story brought it all back like a runaway freight train it back on my mind. But this time I’m writing it down as for the brave men KIA on Hill 200 or sent home. I never had the honor of meeting them personally.
Thinking back on this summer day I’m thinking I have been in worst scrapes than this one why not one of them missions with gun ships peppering hillsides with rockets and machine gun fire. NVA or VC launched frenzied attacks with A-K 47s or small arms fire or lobbing hand grenades why not one of there missions.
NVA, “The North Vietnamese Army” and also known as PAVN people’s Army of Vietnam.
VC, “Viet Cong” was a pejorative term meaning “communist” and was the accepted name for the armed forces of the National Liberation Front.
Why not one of there missions why not one of them why this mission, it seem to be playing on my mine a lot. It seems to be the one that is stuck in my mind but I went on so many that I don’t know now if I’ve just put them together in my mind. As I can recall the team seemed to be all in good sprits clowning around as usual as we waited for our ride that day.
It seemed to be a typical day, hot with a burning sun and to me that meant the mission would be a go. With in minutes we were all boarding CH46 helicopters and lifting off the LZ at base. I recall a Hoo-ya from this bunch of young Marines. I can recall being a little nervous. But this would have been normal for me. Most of our casualties come from being shot down in air by RPGs. A few that I can recall are Team Mayfly June 21st, 1969, team Rush Act November 18, 1970, I Read they store on June 3rd, 2008 on team Albrook shot down in air July 3rd, 1968 four day before my 1st day in Vietnam. I had the honor of working on teams named "Albrook" a time or two.
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