1st of the 2nd, The
Black Scarf Battalion
In April 1966, Sgt. Harry
Guenterberg watched Ltc Richard Prillaman tear a square of black cloth from a
table in a VC hut to make a sweat rag to go around his neck. That gave the commander an idea. American soldiers working in the tropic
climate of South Vietnam often wore green towels or cloths around their neck to
keep the flowing sweat under control.
Although the practice was “non-uniform” it was tolerated by
leaders. The village of Lo Go, that
Prillaman and his troops had just captured, harbored a large stash of black
cotton cloth, destine to be fabricated into black pajama Viet Cong uniforms. Ltc
Prillaman, commander of the 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry
Regiment, took the cloth and had it made into something useful, but
distinctive. The whole battalion would soon
sport uniform black neck scarves.
Someone suggested distinctive company embroidery
and developed a color scheme to go with it: HHC - yellow, Company A - red,
Company B - white, Company C - blue and Company D - green. So was born the Black Scarf Battalion. The battalion continued this tradition until
they re-deployed to the United States in 1970.
(From "2nd Infantry Regiment" by Larry Grzywinski, http://www.secinfreg.org/2nd%20Infantry%20Regiment%20for%20the%20web%20site(01162015).pdf)
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LTC Richard Prillaman. Prillaman went on to command an Armor Division during the 1980s.
He retired as a LT General. Photo courtesy Stanley Richards. |
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1/2 Infantry, Black Scarf soldiers clean thier equipment after an operation.
Photo courtesy John Johnston |
A Treasure Re-Found
Thirty one years ago I was new 2nd lieutenant getting ready
to ship out to the First Infantry Division.
The "Big Red One" had a storied
history from WWI, WWII and Vietnam.
I
was very proud to have been assigned to that famous division.
Greg McMahon and Curtis Quickle, my best home town buddies, took me out for a last fling in
Little Rock before I departed for Fort Riley, Kansas. At one of our stops, I ran into a gentleman
who sported a First Infantry Division pin on his cowboy hat. Next to the division pin was a unit crest for
the 1/2 Infantry - the battalion in the First Division where I
was to be assigned!
I hailed him of course, and we struck up a great
conversation. John Johnston had seen
combat with the 1/2 Infantry in Vietnam.
I got his address and we corresponded for several months after that. I felt truly humble, and privileged when he
gave to me the Black Scarf that he wore in Vietnam and photos of himself taken
in country.
I treasured those artifacts, but during one of my many
military moves they were lost - or so I though.
I mourned the loss of those items
for many years, until they recently resurfaced when I found them tucked away in
a long forgotten box.
This is the story of John Johnston and the Black Scarf
Battalion at the Battle of Bong Trang, one of the fiercest battles of the
Vietnam War.
"C Company
weren't culls on 25 August, 1966. C
Company and B Company were wiped out that day."
At
the peak of the Vietnam monsoon season, the 1st Brigade of the 1st Infantry
Division began a routine road clearing operation. Operation Amarillo, as it was called, was
intended to remove mines and IEDs along several roads in Binh Long and Binh
Duong Provinces. Most of the clearing
would occur along Highway 16 between Phuoc Vinh, the brigade base camp, south
to Di An, the division headquarters. The
first two days were uneventful. On the
night of August 24th, Capt William Mullen sent out a fifteen man patrol from C
Company, 1/2 Infantry. They were to stay
over overnight and listen for potential movement of enemy forces.
The
next day dawned clear, a respite from the monsoons. The patrol soon walked into the middle of a North Vietnamese base camp, that until that time had remained undetected. As the patrol realized their mistake, they
sent out an urgent call for help. Within
minutes half were dead and the survivors were fighting from abandoned NVA
bunkers. Five hundred men of the Phu Loi Battalion
of the NVA army were swarming to the attack.
Only artillery fire called in on their own position by the patrol kept
the enemy at bay.
Pvt. John Johnston
of Little Rock, Arkansas was a baby faced 18 year old rifleman in C
Company. He, along with the remainder of
C Company and a platoon of the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment (1/4 Cav)
loaded on one M48 tank and seven M113 armored personal carriers and sped to the
rescue. As the relief force neared a
large clearing in the NVA camp, the enemey ambushed C Company.
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Photo courtesy of John Johnston |
Lt James Holland,
on his first combat operation as a platoon leader remembered, "When
we were about 400 meters from them all hell broke loose. We deployed off the
cav vehicles and we all returned fire. Our fire suppressed the VC and my
company commander told me to take an A Cav and a tank, mount my platoon and go
get the squad. We pulled out of the perimeter and headed for our objective.
When we were about 400 hundred yards out the company and the vehicles we left
were hit hard. I was ordered to return. As we turned the tank threw a track.
Because it would have taken to long under those conditions to repair it we had
to leave it. After destroying it we headed back in to the fight." Lt Holland was wounded and three of his vehicle
commanders were killed immediately as mortar and heavy machine gun fire tore
through the column. Casualties mounted
as C Company engaged the Phu Loi Battalion.
As
the leader of Troop C's 2d Platoon, Sgt. Wilbur J. Barrow, reported,
"Every time we tried to get out, we were hit by mortars and hand
grenades." As the commanders fell, Barrow continued, "privates were
taking command of the tracks and calling
me to ask for help. My answer to them was to pick up their wounded and
take salt pills and drink water, and pray, pray, pray! There was no help for
anyone.”
"We were in
their base camp and they wanted in and we didn't let them."
The fight turned
into a close quarters slug fest. Only
artillery support saved Mullen's force from being overrun. Mullen remembered later: "Until 2nd Lt
Bruce Robertson, our forward observer was evacuated, he called for artillery
fires on a continual bases, despite blood spurting from numerous wounds."
Casualties
continued to mount, and no one knew how long it would take for help to
arrive. Mullen recalled: "While
talking on the radio, I heard someone say, 'Charlie Six.' I looked up to see
Specialist Tommy Freese, the only man in his platoon who was not a
casualty. As bullets few all around,
Tommy stood in the open with a 60mm mortar on one shoulder and a sack of
ammunition on the other. 'Sir' he said.
'The fourth platoon is ready.
Where do you want me to shoot?' "
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From: Combat Operation: Stemming the Tide - May 1965 - October 1966.
John M. Carland, Office of the Chief of Military History, Govt Printing Office |
Pvt John Johnston
paints a vivid picture of the fight. "It was a bad day that burned
in my mind. 24 hrs of fear despair and
anger. We shifted around all day, trench
to trench. I used lots of grenades. There was a continuous roar. Gunpowder and the smell of soured blood. Powder burns on my arms from buddies
weapons. Hot rifle shells going down my
collar. Hot. I don't know how we survived."
Now C Company and
the cavalry needed to be rescued. The
remainder of 1/2 Infantry was committed immediately and raced to the
fight. Soon, the Brigade commander had
all of his battalions moving to the NVA base camp. 1/16 Infantry, 1/26 Infantry, 2/28 Infantry
and the remainder of 1/4 Cavalry were moving to the sound of the guns in a
hasty attack.
Help was coming,
but could Charlie Company hold out?
Next time: Part two http://erasgone.blogspot.com/2012/11/with-black-scarves-at-bong-trang-part-2.html