As part of our side of Tet days earlier in which there were not to be offensive operations on either side for 48 hours, D Troop Air was given the Area of Operation of the Mushroom and the Phil Hole, a very dangerous active crossing point of the upper Saigon River between 25th and 1st Div. 3/4 Cav S3 gave me the mission to insert Long Range Reconnaisance Patrols (LRRP) and make as many landings as possible with the Troops Aero Rifle Platoon. As a result I asked for a company size unit in the Div to be on a "one hour" standby for our backup as the whole Div was standing down.

After inserting a LRRP Team early afternoon where the river makes a mushroom meander as shape of a nuclear explosion, I called for an air strike in the woods north of the Landing Zone (LZ) and east of where our gun team killed 4 North Vietnamese Army (NVA) in the morning. We wanted to search these enemy for documents because they were in full uniform.

No air strike was allowed because we were not in contact at the present, so although we were at the max range for 155 Artillery we softened the woods adjacent to the LZ we had picked for the Rifle Plt landing. Unbeknown to us the woods was loaded with a company size element that the four we killed were on there way to its parent hook up.

The landing went without incident, but as soon as the lift was airborne about a half mile the LZ lit up with heavy fire and enemy fighters at close range. Casualties taken immediately and mixed up together, the Lt, Plt Leader was wounded in the stomach area and told us not to fire because of mixed up with NVA. We dropped supplies and circled till it was determined it wasn't going to get better, as it stood to get worse soon. I called the Commander and said we best call for the Unit on hour standby in Cui Chi. He agreed and called his operations to call Div to Order them airlifted asap.

We flew back to Cui Chi to refuel and rearm at same time and return, while the armored Inf BNs standby company began airlift to an LZ the opposite side of Hobo Woods. They took immediate casualties. The Inf BN Second Company came next and they took immediate casualties. The HQ CP and Commander Flew in as it turned dark and the air force provided flares the whole night. The Third Inf Company went infrared after dark.

The Aero Rifle Plt had finally got all 4 Squads into a large set of craters for cover and spent the rest of the night in a defensive position. As the Inf worked its way through the woods, our men in craters kept firing and fired tracers straight up up into air so all on ground could judge their way to their relief distance and location. The BN reached our men at 1:00 AM. While this battle went on our LRRP Team reported 75-100 enemy crossing on a road in front of them leading into our Area. With the light of Air Force flares every 30 seconds we spotted them on the road and gun teams from us and Div Lift Co killed or wounded most of them. We got the Aero Rifles rescued and flew back to Cui Chi by around 2:00AM. We were up in a few hours to retrieve our Aero Rifle Plt and our Dead. And to thank our standby relief Inf for the amazing fight and saving our men.

It was later found that the men we killed in the morning were members of the Reconnaissance Plt from the NVA, 272nd Regiment HQ, on their way from Tay Ninh via Cambodia to Saigon Area. Many of us flew 17 hours that day.

Not surprisingly, in retrospect, Tet on the NVA side hit right after this. And the Battle for US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam HQ and Tan Son Nhut Air Base and all of Vietnam US strategic Bases was next.

(To be continued)