Our celebration did not last long. While the NVA infantry regiments had taken a beating, the NVA 40th Artillery Regiment kept up its assault on Dak To and Ben Het. Since they had moved in close to the camps to fire their weapons, they were not subject to the B-52 strikes. On the evening of May 28, at 1728, the night’s first 122 mm rocket landed at Dak To. That was quickly followed by eleven more. One of those rockets hit the command bunker of the 15th Light Equipment Company of the 299th CBE Battalion. As luck would have it, a group of thirty men had gathered in the bunker for the nightly briefing as the Ready Reaction Force for the perimeter defense. The rocket landed behind the blast shield and directly in the opening to the bunker. The result was nine dead and nineteen wounded. Included in the dead was the Company Commander, 1st LT Koch, the Company First Sergeant, a Staff Sergeant, and the Company clerk.
Two days later, on May 30, a helicopter carrying the 299th CEB Commander, LTC Howard, landed in the compound. More than a few were shocked also to see Four-star General Creighton Abrams, MACV Commanding General, step out of the helicopter with his entourage. The general had come to congratulate the ARVN for their defense of Dak To and he was shocked that only Americans were at the base. That afternoon the Avengers once again saved the ARVN’s bacon by killing numerous NVA that were assaulting their position.
It was clear at this point that the NVA had carefully planned their operation and constructed field fortifications that would draw the ARVN into bloody ground battles. It became obvious that Col. Lien, Commander of the 24th STZ, had no intent of going head to head with the NVA in the field. He used his maneuver battalions to locate and fix the NVA positions. He then called upon American air power, artillery, and helicopter gunships to destroy the enemy. During June, the NVA changed tactics and again concentrated on isolating Ben Het and destroying it through attrition. The NVA put considerable resources into blocking Route 14 between Kontum and Cahn Tan, and Route 512 between Cahn Tan, Dak To, and Ben Het.
During the first week of June, Col. Lien ordered the 3rd Battalion of the 47th ARVN Infantry Regiment, and the 4th Battalion of the Mike Strike Force back into the field. This time they would sweep the area along Route 512 between Dak To and Ben Het in an attempt to dislodge the NVA blocking and ambushing units along the road. The total units available to Col. Lien now totaled 15,600 men.
On June 4, the NVA mortar and recoilless rifle shelling again took its toll. Two artillerymen of Battery A of the 1st/92nd Artillery were killed at Dak To. FSB 6 was also hit with 75 mm recoilless rifle rounds.
Throughout the Battle of Dak To, the men of the 299th CEB courageously defended the compound and airfield. In addition, the unit fearlessly ventured outside the compound to continue their mission as engineers. Their job was to maintain Route 512, i.e., clear mines, repair bridges, fill in bomb craters, and clear obstructions constructed by the NVA.
June 7 did not start well, and it would end even worse. It would be a day both I and the men of the 299th CEB would not forget. At 0100 in the morning, the NVA began a barrage of small arms fire, machine-gun fire, fifty-nine rounds of mortar, and fifteen rounds of B-40 RPG’s. Five engineers were wounded in the ensuing fight. In spite of the danger, at 0700, D Company of the 299th left the compound to conduct mine sweeping of Route 512 west toward Ben Het.
About an hour later the NVA struck. The sharp crack of AK 47s and the whoosh of a B-40 RPG erupted from the foliage lining the road. Two engineers fell dead. Several others fell, withering in pain. The others dove off the road seeking cover. The small ARVN squad that was to provide security for the mine sweepers turned and ran away. Those that were still able returned fire with their M-14 rifles. The call for help came back to Dak To. A Quick Reaction Force quickly assembled. Two Dusters, two five-ton trucks full of men, and a dump truck mounted with 50-caliber machine-guns headed out of the gate. When they arrived at the ambush site, the NVA continued to put up a fight. Several more engineer were wounded. I sent a helicopter to the site to retrieve the wounded, but it was shot up, and had to depart, struggling to make it back to Dak To before crashing. I was inspecting the helicopter when the QRF returned to the DakTo airfield. I saw the wounded as they were carried on stretchers to the Aid Station. One black soldier had a bullet hole in his chest and he appeared to be dead. Others were clearly in pain and shock. Engineers ran to the Aid Station to check on their friends. I saw one leave with tears running down his face as he came running out of the aid station sobbing. A few minutes later I saw a medic come out of aid station with blood on his hands and clothes. His face showed extreme anguish. In a tone of deep frustration and pain he exclaimed, “He was shot in the neck. He was bleeding badly. I stuck my fingers into the mangled flesh of his neck to find the bleeding artery. I COULDN’T FIND IT! He bled to dead as I watched”. It was difficult to see such suffering. The engineers that gathered were all extremely upset by the ARVN failure to help protect their Americans buddies and friends. The strain of continuous combat, daily shellfire, and growing casualties could clearly be seen on the faces and the reactions of these men.
Col. Lien increased the pressure on the NVA by committing the 1st and 3rd Battalions of his 53rd Infantry Regiment. Two more Cavalry Squadrons where brought forward to begin clearing Route 512.
Two days later, on June 9th, A Battery of the 1st/92nd, at Dak To, again took casualties. Nine men were wounded when a 75 mm recoilless rifle round hit in the gun pit during a fire mission.
While I have detailed many combat assaults, and major engagements, the Ghost Rider and Avenger helicopters reported to Dak To daily. All the units in the field needed support and resupply continuously. Without food, water, ammunitions and replacement equipment, they could not continue their mission. The terrain, the weather, and the enemy made these missions extremely dangerous. Acts of courage and heroism occurred daily, to the point where it became routine. It was anything but common-place. Too many acts of valor went unrecognized. Even inside the compound WO1 Wilson valiantly operated from Mobile 1 to launch aircraft on their missions while dodging incoming almost daily.
On June 13, the Avenger gunships responded to an urgent request for close-in fire support. The mission resulted in a reported 19 NVA KBA. But the battle to re-open the road to Ben Het continued. On June 16, I assigned a light-fire-team of Cobra gunships from the 361st Escort Company to a mission in support of a Vietnamese Cavalry Squadron that was working Route 512. During a close-in fire mission one of the cobras was shot down and both pilots were killed. The pilots were CWO Mark D. Clutfelter and WO1 Michael A. Mahowold. Due to intense enemy action in the area, and the failure of the ARVN to help, their bodies could not be recovered for several days.
There were two aspects to the South Vietnamese relief of Ben Het. One was to get supplies to the Special Forces Camp at Ben Het by road convoy. The second was to clear North Vietnamese forces from the surrounding hills. Evidently, Col. Lien did not use all his forces for the relief of Ben Het, diverting many of them to holding open lines of communication between Kontum and Dak To, and mopping up other points in his area of operation.
In mid-June the South Vietnamese succeeded in getting a road convoy into Ben Het. But for more than a week after that, NVA ambushes and mines prevented further success. ARVN officers admitted to losing 27 vehicles. The road to Ben Het was littered with the carcasses of burnt-out trucks and armored vehicles.
On June 21, a combat assault occurred to place an ARVN Battalion on the ground 3 miles Southeast of Ben Het. Eight Ghost Rider slicks and two Avenger gunships inserted over 800 troops of the 4th Mike Strike Force Battalion. The NVA challenged the operation with heavy small-arms fire and mortars. Ground fire damaged two aircraft, but the crews escaped injury.
For the remainder of June, the men of the 299th CEB continued to take casualties. Nearly every day the base was hit by rockets and mortars; sappers probed the perimeter almost every night. The mine-sweep teams continually ran into ambushes. Company D’s team was particularly hard hit again on June 23, east of Ben Het, near FSB 13. Again, the ARVN security force fled as soon as the firing started. A QRF was sent from Dak To, but it too was ambushed. A second QRF and air support by the Avenger gunships, had to be called in before the enemy broke contact and pulled out. Three engineers died and twenty-one were wounded.
This was not a good day for the artillery batteries either. A Battery, at Dak To, took a direct hit from a 75 mm recoilless rifle that landed in its powder magazine. The resultant explosion destroyed 350 cannisters of white bag powder, and five men were wounded. Later the same day four more artillerymen were wounded during a mortar barrage.
Another convoy reached Ben Het on June 24th. Again, the effort required a tough operation. The 1st Battalion of the ARVN 42nd Regiment provided the bulk of the convoy force and fought a half-day battle against ambushes just over half-way between Dak To and Ben Het. The ARVN admitted to five dead and fifteen wounded. They claimed to have killed 105 NVA. The NVA 40th Artillery Regiment responded by hitting Ben Het with 195 rounds of mortar and recoilless rifle fire.
To reinforce the road clearing operation, five Ghost Rider slicks and two Avenger guns inserted 1100 ARVN Rangers into an LZ nine miles west of Dak To on June 28th. Two slicks were damaged by small arms and mortars. One slick had 96 fragment holes from a mortar round that made a near direct hit. The combined forces of the four battalions recently inserted began working along both sides of Route 512 and Route 579 to Ben Het. Two more battalions cleared the area outside the perimeter. The next day, the NVA bombardment at Ben Het fell to just 53 rounds. Ten shells fell on July 1 when another convoy arrived at the camp. Not a single bullet was fired at the latest convoy.
On July 2, the battlefield fell silent as the NVA broke contact and moved, in mass, back across the border of Laos and into its sanctuary in Base Area 209. The current Battle for Dak To and Ben Het had ended. I left Dak To the following day and returned to Camp Holloway. My tour, as an Aviation Liaison Officer and as a Defender of Dak To, had ended. However, I, and the 66th NVA Infantry Regiment and the 40th Artillery Regiment, would meet again in September-October 1969 during the Battle for Bu Prang-Duc Lap-Bam Me Thout.
The ARVN claimed the victory, but it is clear that that would not have happened without the over-whelming support of American air power, artillery, engineer, and helicopter units. During the two-month period between May 1-June 30, 1969, artillery units fired more than 150,000 rounds, the Air Force flew 1100 sorties of Forward Air Control directed Tactical Air Strikes, 533 combat sky spots (Spooky and Shadow), and 142 B-52 strikes, totaling 18,000 tons of munitions.
Without the courage and bravery shown by the men of the 189th Assault Helicopter Company and the men of the 52nd Aviation Battalion the South Vietnamese would have lost Ben Het, Dak To and Kontum in 1969 rather than in 1975 when they were called upon to do the heavy lifting themselves.
Both the 1st of the 92nd Artillery Battalion and the 299th Combat Engineer Battalion were awarded the Valorous Unit Citation for their participation in the Battle of Dak To-Ben Het 1969.
My Company Commander recommended me for the Bronze Star Medal for my service at DakTo, but it was down-graded to the Army Commendation Medal. Few of the pilots and air crewmen of the 189th AHC received the recognition that they deserved.
189th AHC