Last night the Military Channel had an hour on the US vs. NVA tank battle at the Ben Het Special Forces camp near the Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos border on March 3, 1969. It was like watching old home movies, footage of Ben Het, Dak To, QL 14 through the mountains. Ben Het had been getting pounded for days and the entire area was really hot. We were in there a lot, and it was never quiet. Our pal Shifty had been killed in an assault on LZ Swinger (about 15 kilometers from Ben Het) a couple of days before, and the 4th Infantry Division had started Operation Wayne Gray into the area.

We (834) took a round in our tail rotor just before dusk on the 3rd, got the ship back to Pleiku, where I went to a night of bunker guard and Ron Carey was told he would be crewing my repaired ship in the morning. While that was going on, the tank battle started at Ben Het and about 20 kilometers away from there at LZ Brace, A Co, 3d Bn, 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th ID, was being ambushed and decimated by an NVA regiment.

I was asleep after being up all night on the Camp Holloway perimeter when a platoon Sgt ran into the 1st Flight hooch, woke my sorry ass up and told me to head for the flight line, find a gunner, and jump into the crew chief's spot on a 2nd Flight slick that was running up and headed for a Tac-E (tactical emergency) extraction in the Plei Trap Valley. I grabbed an armload of weapons, headed for the flight line, and along the way magically transformed Mike "Shakey" Curran, aircraft electrician extraordinaire, into a Huey slick door gunner.

Listening to the radio net on the way to the Plei Trap from Pleiku, we learned that the survivors of A/3/8 were on the run, chased by NVA, being led by a 4ID LOH to a single ship LZ further down the mountain. There was no artillery support because 4ID management had inserted the company outside of the Division's artillery coverage.

I do not remember having gun cover, they were busy all over the Plei Trap. Our ship took the first load of grunts out of the hoverhole the LOH had found. Tight hole, hillside, could not land, I had to pull them up and in on my side. Most of them, there was nothing to grab onto. Almost all in shock, some crying, no gear, few weapons, many were almost naked, some even barefoot. Because of the fuel we had burned getting directly there from Pleiku, we got 13 grunts out on our first load. Usually lucky to lift 5 loaded grunts, and we got 13 out of a hoverhole in one lift.

I recall taking them only as far as the nearest FB then going back out for more. While we helped get the rest out, they sorted out the medical situation at the FB, and by the time we needed to head back to Kontum for fuel (Polei Kleng had also been hit the night before), they had a load of WIAs ready to go to the med pad at MaryLou in Kontum.

It was two weeks before the last of the survivors of A/3/8 found their way back to other US positions in the Plei Trap area. 4ID LRRPs actually went out and found some of them. 4th Division management tried to Court Martial the only surviving officer who was at LZ Brace. When word of that got out, the rest of the survivors got their gear and headed for the CG's HQ office at Camp Enari. Like magic, the Lieutenant received a Distinguished Service Cross instead of a Court Martial, and the 4th ID avoided a firefight inside their perimeter.

All of that triggered by one TV show...