SAVING TONG LE CHON

I was attached to the 3rd Brigade of the 1st US Infantry Division (Big Red One) at Lai Khe, Vietnam. The night of August 6/7 1967, I was pulling alert at Quan Loi - a forward operating base of the 3rd Brigade.

Around midnight I was scrambled to assist a Special Forces camp, Tong Le Chon, approximately 20-30 minutes away from Quan Loi. I had an assistant ALO in the back seat and the O-1 had two flares and four smoke rockets. I immediately ordered fighters at 30-minute intervals and directed them to a holding pattern off the Bien Hoa Tacan.

The first fighters reported before I had reached Tong Le Chon, so I briefed them on run in headings, altitude and pattern, bailout area and so on while en route. As I approached, the camp was visible by the fires around the outer perimeter. Since the flare ship hadn't arrived, I dropped down to 500 feet and released one flare to light up on the ground. The NVA were already attempting to breach the outer perimeter on the south side of the camp. I expended the first flight fighters using the flare as a mark. I dropped a second flare at a higher altitude to light up the battlefield and used a smoke rocket to mark the target and directed the next flight of fighters.

When the first flight began delivering ordnance, the NVA opened up with six AA units located to the west of the camp. I had them located from the tracers and advised all flights of their positions.

The flare ship was on station after the second flight, but they kept drifting away from the battle area. I had to get on their case to stay over the action. (I got called on the carpet at Bien Hoa the next day, as the colonel flying the flare ship didn't like my lack of diplomacy).

After the frontal assault on the camp subsided, I swung the fighters around to a north/south direction west of the camp and wiped out the six AA positions. They also attacked a dependants' village that had been vacated and was being used by NVA snipers and mortar crews. I don't know how many flights of fighters we put in, or how long we were over the target, but our fuel was low when we were relieved by a FAC from the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division.

The next day a body count around the perimeter revealed about 160 enemies Killed By Air (KBA), how many were carried away before then remains unknown. The FACs who were there at dawn did spot stragglers carrying away bodies.