Camp Holloway Discussion Forum Archive 03 - 03/01/01 to 12/31/03

April 3, 1969

For the third day in a row four of our ships are assigned to 1st Brigade. Because of the withdrawal of the 1/8th the resupply area has a lot less traffic. We are assigned to resupply LZ Swinger and LZ Cider. The Red Fox is still running the supply area so things are expected to run smoothly.

The first sortie of the day is for LZ Swinger. Even though enemy fire has dropped during the past two days everyone continues to wear their flak vests and helmets. Anyone caught without them will receive an Article 15. You can walk around naked but you had better have your vest and helmet on. Besides the normal supplies of food, water, and ammo replacements are also part of the sortie.

Since the enemy attack at LZ D-Handle things have been pretty quiet in the southern part of the valley. The units from the 1/22 will be doing BDA and some RIF but the brass feels that most of the enemy has crossed back into Cambodia. At mid-morning that theory goes right out the window.

C/1/22 had moved from their night location at YA 821795. They were operating southwest of LZA Cider. The second platoon which was working the point position made contact. This is the same area which B-52 had worked for several days. This unknown size force was determined to hold their ground. The two other platoons of C/1/22 moved to reinforce the second platoon. We stand-by as the units link up and withdraw from the contact area. It is unclear if this was an ambush or another bunker complex. We are called to pull the wounded.

Once on station we are directed to the landing zone. There are several bomb craters which we can use. We load six of the wounded and head for LZ Mary Lou. Many familar faces come out to bring the wounded into the aid station. We have made this trip many times during the past month. We return and the remaining wounded have already been evacuated. We return to resupply.

No sooner have we started to resupply LZ Cider then B/1/22 makes contact. For an enemy which was suppose to be gone it seems that he is still willing to fight for the valley. The contact is broken after a brief fire fight. Bravo has one slightly wounded scout which will remain with the company. They pull back to their night location and artillery is employed.

As darkness approaches we complete the resupply of the firebases. Random ground fire was reported by some of the ships but no damage was done. The enemy contact today resulted in 1 NVA killed. C/1/22 suffered 1 KIA and 14 WIA. B/1/22 suffered 1 WIA. We returned to find more of the flight crews gone. We will be again assigned to the 1st Brigade tomorrow.