Vietnam War Timeline

59
4 August 1970
Bravo 2/35th
Submitted by: Jim "Doc" Hall

On the morning of Aug 4, 1970 B Co was CA\'d out of one field location to a new A/O just out of effective support range from FSB Powder. 1st Platoon along with the CP and Mortars established and provided security for a small hipshoot. 2nd and 3rd platoons moved into ambush locations within fire support range of the mortars.

The hipshoot was located on the middle of a 3 hill set. These hills had the appearance of steps with the first being about 100 ft higher and 300 yards away from the 2nd and the 2nd being about 100 ft higher and 300 yards away from the 3rd. The 1st (taller) hill was heavily wooded while the other two had grassy summits. The areas between all hills had a fairly heavy scrub brush cover about 8 to 12 feet high.

We spent the day digging fighting pits. Sand bags, as I remember, were at a premium. Each fighting pit had perhaps two layers of sandbags surrounding. The mortars and CP may of had a bit more. Sleeping postions were above ground next to the pits with no sand bags for cover.

With the small amount of work required to complete this simple set-up finished most of us were standing around watching some jets in a bombing run in a distant valley. At about 1600 we received a sudden burst of sniper fire (30 -40 rounds) from the taller hill. The mortar platoon peppered the hill but a sweep sent out found no evidence that it was effective.

Day 2 (Aug 5) was hot and dull. Each of our squads took short sweeps around the area outside the perimeter and found nothing. At about 1500 sniper fire (15 -20 rounds) again erupted from the taller hill. Once more there were no injuries on the hipshoot and despite mortar platoons best effort a sweep of the hill found no evidence that the sniper was quieted.

Day 3 (Aug 6) was again hot and miserable (weren\'t they all?). Now we were anticipating our late afternoon sniper break. (In some sense we even looked forward to it.)At about 1400 sniper fire again surprised us by coming a bit earlier than expected. This time one of the mortar guys was slightly injured and later dusted off. The mortar platoon was zeroed in on the tall hill and quickly got out surppressing fire but again a sweep turned up nothing.

Day 4 (Aug 7) dawned with almost gleeful anticipation of our daily contest. We were prepared to ambush our little friend. A squad was prepared to sneak out about noon. But again our friend was a step in front. At about 1030 he sprayed our hilltop from the taller hill. Again no one was hurt and again we went through our routines of mortars and sweeps with no results. The balance of the morning and afternoon then found us back in our dull routines. The ambush was cancelled for that day after we failed to set up before the sniper struck. Just before 1800 our little adversary showed us his independence by giving us one last burst from that tall hill. No hipshoot injuries and no success from the mortar fire or sweep ended this day.

On Day 5 (Aug 8) we prepared to shut down the hipshoot. We kept a wary eye on the taller hill as birds came in to backhaul our mortar platoon out. As the birds were lifting off our friend again showed his creative side by spraying the hilltop one last time. Only this time the shots came from the smaller hill.

The birds reported more fire as they flew away. A quick sweep of the lower hill turned up nothing. We quickly reversed and humped off the hipshoot and up the taller hill on our way to our next assignment. In an ironic moment our point element stumbled over an area covered with spent casings at the top of the taller hill. We didn\'t bother to try and surprise our little friend though as we were off to another destination. To tell the truth by then most of us would probably of bought him a beer in appreciation of all the excitement he provided.

Just as a note. I can\'t speak from experience as I wasn\'t with them but Daily Journals show that 2nd and 3rd platoons had just about the same experience as we did over those days with multiple sniper incidents.