Advisory Team 99 was in a remote compound near Duc Hoa and some twenty minutes flying time from Bien Hoa Airbase. We were a smallish group of some forty or fifty men assigned as Advisors to the 25th Vietnamese Infantry Division and far removed from the American forces. Whenever we sustained what might appear to become a ground attack, Bien Hoa Airbase was immediately alerted to dispatch Puff the Magic Dragon1 which was always on standby. Puff was a converted C-130 aircraft equipped with a number of high caliber machine guns providing a massive and hellacious wall of fire when deployed. Other aircraft configurations were also equipped with the Puff capability as the war dragged on.
It took about twenty and sometimes thirty minutes or more for Puff to arrive at our team's perimeter. Once it arrived, Puff would circle around us laying down a massive wall of firepower just outside our perimeter. It would make one, sometimes two passes around our perimeter before it disappeared back into the cover of night. The task was for us to secure our perimeter and survive long enough for Puff to arrive - a twenty-minute prayer. I got to witness Puff's enormous firepower three times during my time with Team 99. It was an awesome sight to witness!
Time-elapsed Pic - Puff Magic Dragon
pouring down firepower around perimeter
At one point, I was the only one in my sector of our perimeter while the other men were evacuating the wounded into our team's medical clinic where the team's doctor was busily performing miracles. We had only two medics and one doctor on the team, and they were working feverishly trying to tend to several dispersed casualties brought in from the perimeter. I was terrified but in control.
I could see enemy gunfire coming into our compound, and heard rounds or shrapnel ricocheting off a monument built just weeks prior to commemorate Vietnamese soldiers killed in battle. Our M2 Carbines were pitifully inadequate. While US military in Vietnam carried MI6's, Advisors carried M2 Carbines simply because the MI6's had not yet been issued to the Vietnamese army. As Advisors, we were required to carry what the Vietnamese army carried.
It was a horrific and frightening hell living through that particular night. We all singularly knew of casualties from the calls of "MEDIC !!!" and panicked orders shouted over the incoming fire and the thunder of exploding rockets and mortars - orders shouted to redirect our fire to a particular sector of the perimeter. After the first few minutes of the attack, adrenaline kicked in and the fear was replaced by a determination to stay calm and let the leaders direct the fight. Adrenaline is a very necessary component in working through threat and fear, but an elevated dose of adrenaline over an extended period of time adversely affects the brain which, I believe, causes rewiring of the brain and leads to PTSD.
I believe to a man we all had the confidence in our leaders to follow their lead. Most of them had previous combat in both Korean War and Vietnam experience. A handful of them even had World War II experience.
Fred, a fellow Advisor, kept a detailed journal about enemy attacks, Advisor casualties and all major events occurring in our Advisory Team 99. One of his journal entries better details a particular and harrowing night attack on our advisor compound. His excerpt is included in a story titled "Fred's Journal".
Several men died that night despite our team doctor's best efforts. Our band of fallen brothers is forever enshrined on the hallowed wall of the Vietnam Memorial. Many more would have died that dreadful night were it not for our friend and savior, Puff the Magic Dragon, who came out in the dark of night and without fanfare quickly disappeared back into the cover of darkness once the job was completed and the enemy repelled.
M2 Carbine with 300 yard effective range
M16 Rifle with nearly 900 yard effective range.
1 During the Vietnam War, C-47s served as designed and also as the first gunship-the AC-47 or "Puff the Magic Dragon," which was fitted with 7.62 mm miniguns. These weapons fired up to 6,000 rounds per minute and the aircraft carried 54,000 rounds.
©Copyright texan@atudemi.com - January 2022