WNC: " War in Vietnam Declared! by U.S Congress! "

XVIII ABC ARTY -- Ft. Bragg's sprawling reservation was the scene last week for the first battery firing of four newly delivered Self-Propelled (8") Howitzers.

Battery A, 7th Battalion, 15th Field Artillery was selected to fire the new guns because of the results of a battery test conducted by the 54th Artillery Group. During these exercises Battery A was found to be "Best by test". [photo]

When the 7th Battalion, commanded by Lt. Col. Donald D. Bridenbaugh moves out next week, Battery A will be center battery, an honor that falls by tradition to the best performing battery in a battalion.

Battery A was well prepared for their new guns as they had been training for some weeks to ease the transition from towed to self-propelled weapons. Upon receipt of the Howitzers an accelerated program of training was commenced that climaxed with a practice ATT.

The commanding officer, Battery A, Capt. Robert D. Hammond, has expressed his satisfaction with both the guns and the performance of the men in his unit. When asked how the new Howitzers were an improvement over the old towed weapons Capt. Hammond said that because of the lighter weight the new guns are more mobile and more readilly aircraft transported. The total weight of the new Howitzers is less than that of the tractor alone on the old towed weapons.

ALLONS-- "Let's Go." That is the motto men of the 15th Artillery have lived for, fought for, died for though the years. Now, we are in Viet Nam, presently the ultimate proving ground for freedom and tyranny. Here, we have been given the opportunity to carry on in the finest tradition of the 15th Artillery. Ours is the opportunity to keep alive the spirit embodied in our motto - "Let's Go."

That spirit might well be captured by these words, “With confidence ‘Let’s Go’ to face the unknown and unexpected; with strength, ‘Let’s Go’ to destroy all those who fight against freedom; with wisdom, ‘Let’s Go’ to insure a permanent victory and a lasting peace for the forces of freedom.” Let Us Go.

By 1LT William P. Williams

The Battalion Newspaper

This is the first battalion newspaper published since our arrival in Viet Nam.We deemed it particularly appropriate to print such a paper, mainly, for two reasons;

(1) It will serve as an agent for greater unity. (2) It will serve to record permanently the combat experience of men of the 7th Battalion, 15th Artillery.

In Viet Nam the distance between batteries has made it more difficult to relate personally to each other the events in which we share common interests. The battalion newspaper will serve as a means of communicating these events to all the members of the battalion team, thus binding us more solidly together.

The newspaper will also serve as a record of’ the exploits and deeds of the men of the 7th Battalion, 15th Artillery as we write another chapter in our battalion’s history.

C Battery Fires First Round In RVN

Captain Hans C, Dollhausen, battery commander for C Battery, 7th Battalion, 15th Artillery, nervously looked at his watch. It was exactly 1430 hours on that hot afternoon of 16 July 1967.

Suddenly, the gunner announced, “Set;” the assistant gunner announced, “Ready” SFC Guerney Whiteside, section chief., reported, “Number two, ready to fire.” 1LT George M. Rapport, C Battery Executive Officer, commanded, “Fire” With that command, PFC William L. Fox pulled the lanyard, blasting the battalion’s first round far into Charlie. territory.

Thus it was that C Battery began writing a new page in the history of the battalion,

SGM Bevis Gets Last Laugh

All the 1ST Sergeants laughed at SGM Bevis when he began construction of his mongoose trap One of the 1ST Sergeants kidded him and asked if he wasn’t getting enough chow in the mess hail without eating poor ri1ongeese

Two- months later, a. weather beaten old box was discovered by a 1ST Sergeants Thinking the box was a booby trap, he called, the Phu Cat EOD team, who immediately arrived sirens screening and dust flying as the team quickly clamored from the vehicle, There must have been a Texan on the team, for he immediate threw a lasso around the ominous structure, The thing just lay there innocently inside the lasso Some thing that strange looking must be dangerous, they all reasoned. It was a rectangular box. This same 1ST Sergeant (I requested he permit me to use his name in this article, He retorted, “You had bloody well better not use my name, Lieutenant. I’ll sue for libel.” and. all EOD team members, except one, moved three hundred meters away, behind the Howard. Johnson Mess Hall. Placing a ten pound time bomb twenty five meters from the object, the last member of the EOD team ran to cover with the other team members and the 1ST Sergeant. Five minutes later a deafening explosion threw pieces of the structure for over a half mile – well, unfortunately, all the pieces except one, which conked the Phantom 1ST Sergeant on the head, Dizzily picking up the missile, he, blinking his eyes, read the following inscription engraved on the piece of wood: “To Whom It May Concern: Please do not disturb, This is a mongoose trap.’ SGM Bevis.”?
LT William P. Williams -
Interested in writing for this newspaper? Contact LT Williams.

The Infusion
A glance toward my office will show you that lots of work is going on inside if the number of personnel standing in line on the outside is any gauge of work. Unfortunately, most people have very little concept of what really is going on inside as far as this infusion program is concerned, I’ll try to explain it.

As regulation require us to have no more than twenty per cent pf a unit rotating home during any month, we must make some changes if we are to comply with this guidance from higher headquarters. The method of selecting who moves and who stays is done as follows: Two rosters are made , by MOS, of all personnel scheduled to depart this unit in June, Our higher headquarters then chooses either roster and, in return gives us an equal number of personnel with the same MOS. The whole process will take about ninety days. after that, groups of from five to ten personnel will be infused.

To those personnel departing, I can speak for the battery commanders in saying, “Thanks for a job we1l done,” They did not want to lose you, but higher headquarters has selected the roster method of choosing personnel as the one most fair to all parties concerned.

To those personnel coming into the battalion “ We1come to the 7th Battalion, 15th -Artillery, the finest artillery battalion in Viet Nam,
WO Larry A. Jenkins
Bn Personnel Officer

MEDCAP Visit Big Success

At 1000 hours, 8 August 1967, the battalion OAP team, led by Dr, Joseph A Quash, the battalion surgeon, arrived in the hamlet of Von Son to treat the Vietnamese peop1e there. Accompanied by SFC Russell F Daigle, Dr Quash and his team made their way to the small dispensary, recently built by the people of the hamlet.

While the doctor and some of his assistants were preparing a room in which to treat patients, SFC Daigle and SP4 Torres were busy giving candy to some two hundred children and adults who were waiting outside the dispensary.

Beginning at 1100 hours, Dr Quash began treating the people, During the next three hours the MED CAP team treated a variety of ailments among seventy-five patients, half of. whom were chi1dren

All the children seemed to like the bak si.. However, it’s doubtful that LT Williams made any friends among the children for he, standing out side the dispensary to give candy to all the children who had received treatment, would give them only the tropical chocolate bars-better known now among all the children as “number ten bar,”

The hamlet chief, through an interpreter, told Dr, Quash that all the people wanted him to know that they’ appreciated what he had done for them

SSG William B Faircloth

The Raid

On 6 August at 0700 hours, B and C Batteries moved from their primary firing positions. Their mission was to conduct an artillery raid,

A casual observer standing along the road as the batteries pulled out would have never realized the amount of planning that had gone into the preparation for movement, the firing, and the safe return of the units.,

First, higher headquarters look at the big picture and decided a raid was necessary. The requirement then came through channels to our battalion operations center, where innumerable details were considered and planned for,

Survey teams, led by SSG Richard Shimpoch, attached to C Battery, and SSG William K Manasco attached to B Battery performed the very dangerous task of surveying the firing positions. The mission now lay in the hands of the batteries.

At approximately 0830 hour, the batteries, having traveled in Charlie’s direction for an hour and a half, suddenly pulled off the road and into position. LTC Robert B. Hankins, the battalion commander observing the course of events from the air, fired a registration mission for each battery. Then CPT Donald W Houston, B Battery Commander, and CPT Hans C Dollhausen, C Battery Commander, fired several missions before 1LT Raymond L Tingstrom, the battalion aerial observer took over. During the course of the day, suspected TC locations took heavy beatings as did other targets.

At l700 hours, the two batteries moved out as quickly as they moved in. With darkness approaching, the two batteries pulled back into their “old homes,” their primary positions, confident that the raid had been a big success.
FFC Ronald D Dean

New Battery- Commanders

At ceremonies held on 8 August and 14 August, A and Headquarters Batteries, respectively, welcomed new battery commanders, LTC Robert B. Hankins, the battalion commander, was on hand to present each battery commander the battery guidon and to charge each commander to carry on in the finest tradition of the 15th Artillery.

Captain Charles T. Schmitt assumed command of A Battery at 1300 hours, 8 August at LZ English, with the impressive 8” self-propelled M11O’s as a backdrop. Captain. Schmitt performed the duty of battalion motor officer before accepting his job. The departing battery commander, Captain James S. Shields had ably led the battery since 3 January 1967

At 1600 hours, 14 August, Captain Chalmers L. Fennel accepted Headquarters Battery guidon from LTC Robert B. Hankins. Thus Headquarters Battery received its new commanding officer Captain Fennell served as the intelligence officer for the battalion before taking over as Head quarters Battery Commander, The old battery commander, Captain Thomas D, Harvey, had commanded Headquarters Battery in an outstanding manner since 3 March 1967.
1LT W P, Williams

Artillery Unit Builds “Skyscraper”

The American Army in Viet Nan, more by accident than by design, demonstrates to the people of Viet Nan the American style of life. The insulated beer coolers that line the highways and the mass-produced shower shoes that many Vietnamese wear are strictly American in origin; so are the sheet-metal roofs that are beginning to replace thatch roofs in Phu Cat and elsewhere—any where the army discards sheet-metal. Even the outdoor latrines the GI’s construct in the boondocks are an example of sanitation which, it is to be hoped, the Vietnamese could pick up.

It took one battery of the 7/15 Artillery to set an example, of an American style skyscraper. Not that it was planned that way, but that is how it turned out. This camp began as an ordinary hillside. First cane the elevator-- a road straight to the top of the hill. Then, bulldozers leveled sections of the hill, The final effect was terraces, corresponding to floors. The various sections moved into exactly the right places, just as they would have in an office building, there is an observation deck, armed with pay telescopes. Here, it is a guard post built of sandbags and armed with a machine gun; but the principle is the same. The top is for the view, Just below the observation tower come the big, luxurious offices in a skyscraper. In that position is the most outstanding structure in the camp, a giant bunker housing FDC, the heart of an artillery unit. In the States, it is true, a wooden floor in a cool office, an ice chest, and a water cooler could hardly constitute luxury. For the cliff-dwellers of the 7/15th Arty, it will have to do until the real thing comes along.

LTC Robert B Hankins, the battalion’ s commanding officer, and Major Barnes and Major Sterling occupy the penthouse apartments on the next level down. Below them, one finds the ranking NCO’s. Somehow, the company grade officers sleep a bit closer to the mess hail than NCO’s. The mess hail and its dining tents are in prominent positions on the middle level, as are the medic’s tent and the message center. The orderly room, logically, is near the bottom of the hill, in the position of an information desk in the lobby. Finally, the motor pool makes a basement parking area. It has proven to be a line way to set up camp on a hill. The only worry we have now is whether the FDC bunker will stay on top of the hill when the monsoon rains come.
PFC Arthur W, Hyatt

Vietnamese Dolls Surprise GI’s

When the 7/15th Artillery arrived in Viet Nan, the first thing the men did after sandbagging their tents was send souvenirs home. Clothes and jewelry were high on the list, but the most popular single item was that beautiful Vietnamese doll that the PX seems always to stock. She stands about eighteen inches high. Her black hair is long or short, as her purchaser desires. The native costume is of bright red, green, blue, or gold silk, split along the sides from the waist down. The trousers underneath are always white. Her face is pleasant, as plastic faces go; and the rest is proportioned exactly right to catch a soldier eye.
The unit has been in-country long enough now to learn of the reaction to its gifts, At Headquarters Battery, there is a growing suspicion the number one item was a number ten idea.
For family men, the whole thing is turning into an expensive business. In one typical case, SSG Avery Morrison, the battery mess Sergeant, sent two of the dolls home. One for each of his children and that would be the end of it; or so he thought. However, Mrs Morrison thinks they are “just darling; she wants one for herself. Three of the neighbors (so far), all of whom have children, have seen them and liked them. “Wouldn’t it be nice dear, to give,. Then there are a couple of nieces with birthdays on the way And although his wife has not said anything about it yet, Sergeant Morrison claims, to know what she will want to pass out for Christmas presents,

There are others who made the mistake of sending the dolls to their girls back home. Generally, the girls’ reactions were in the same line. The most outstanding reply ran: “I had no idea the girls in Viet Nam looked like that! I always thought they were supposed to be, well, sort of skinny, And now that I think of it, how did you have time to shop around for thing like that? You wrote that you spend all your time shoveling dirt into sack and if you think that I going to keep that thing on the TV set to re remind me during commercials of the good tines you might be having without me, you better think again. And if they have such beautiful clothes in Viet Nam then maybe on your next shopping trip you could find some to fit me, That would show you really are thinking of me after all.. The PFC who received that one does not wish to be identified, He says he will have trouble enough patching things up with his girl without comments from the rest of the battery.
Vietnamese- foot lockers may not lock because the hasps fall off, Thatched roofs in the native villages may leak. The back of a mirror bought in the market may once have been a beer can. In those dolls, the Vietnamese seem to have one product that is entirely t well-built.

PFC Arthur W. Myatt

A Fighting Man’s Prayer

Let us pray that strength and courage abundant be given to all who fight for a world of reason and understanding; that the good that is in every mans heart may day by day be magnified; that men will come to see more clearly not that which divides them but that which unites then; that each battle may bring us closer to a final victory not for nation over nation but of man over his own evils and weaknesses; that the true spirit of the United States, its joys, its beauty, its hope, and, above all, its abiding faith, may live among us; that the blessing of peace be ours—the peace to build and grow, to live in harmony and sympathy with others, and to plan for the futures of our families.

Contributed by Sgt Stephen Stultz