Bearcat 1967
History of the
60th Infantry
Regiment
5th
Battalion, 60th Infantry Regiment Lineage
Fire Support Base Cudgel
Unit Citations
Fire Support Base Jaeger
Convoys
Battle of
Y Bridge
Operation
Coronado V
Binh Phuoc
Base Camp
Binh Chanh
Dong Tam
Fire Support Base Moore
Tan An
Xom Cau
Saigon
Fire Support Base Lambert
Battle at
Doi Ma Creek
Vietnam Revisited
THE BATTLES IN VIETNAM
"The worst fear of all is the fear of the unknown," said
Charlie Taylor, recalling how he felt before his company made its
fateful trip up the Rach Ba Rai in September 1967. "I got physically
ill the night before every operation, and this one was no exception."
Taylor, a lieutenant in
C Company
of the 5th. Battalion, 60th. Infantry Regiment - nicknamed the "Go
Devils" during World War II by the Germans - was part of the force
that moved against enemy positions on the Rach Ba Rai, a river in the
Mekong Delta, on September 15, 1967. The riverine action occurred just
north of a hairpin bend in the river called Snoopy's Nose, located
north of where the Rach Ba Rai converged with the Mekong River. The
American forces were led by Lt. Col. Mercer M. Doty, who had not only
C Company at his disposal but also
A and
B
companies, 3rd. Battalion.
Sergeant Tony Haug recalled the night before the Rach Ba Rai
mission as well. Haug, another member of
C Company, recalled: "I was nervous, and checked on my men to make
sure they were all right. I had a tendency to sleep when I
experienced that type of anxiety, and I remember thinking how
reassuring the drone of the engines and the diesel fumes were as I
drifted off. I had lots of confidence in the men, as I had
trained them in the States and taken them over myself. All in
all, I felt pretty safe the night before we lit out."
In general during that period, Taylor, Haug and the rest of
C Company seldom felt secure. The Rach Ba Rai encounter came
right on the heels of another enemy confrontation just a few days
earlier. During a three-day operation, the battalion had been
involved in an L-shaped ambush that had proved costly.
During the previous battle,
C Company had been trailing
A Company, which was abreast of
B Company. Taylor recalled the September 12 encounter as "a
hot firefight to say the least.
A Company lost a lot of people, and I earned my first Bronze
Star."
The
above is the first five paragraphs of the article "Mekong Delta Ambush
on the Rach Ba Rai" in the August 1999 issue.
The above was printed with the permission of
VIETNAM Magazine.
