Paccerelli George - LRRP Company Command: The Cavs LRP/Rangers in Vietnam, 1968-1969

Table of Contents

By late afternoon, time was working against the five Lurps. There was no way the team could cross the river and survive, nor could it hold out until a quick-reaction force arrived. The gunships on station estimated the enemy numbers to be in the hundreds, which likely meant a full battalion or possibly a regiment. There was no way for the division to quickly move in an equivalent-size force to take them on. The division could hammer the area with gunships, artillery fire, and tac air, but the Lurps would have to get themselves out of the trap they were in. Extraction in place was impossible. Their only chance was to run, to escape and evade to an alternate site.

McConnell listened as Bitticks told the gunships to fire at everything outside the smoke grenade he was preparing to throw out. The team would make a dash for the nearest pickup zone through the billowing cloud of smoke. Dropping his heavy rucksacks and getting his people to their feet, the team leader pulled the pin on a smoke grenade and threw it in the direction they wanted to go.

Go! he yelled, running at the rising cloud, firing his rifle as he ran. The gunships were already attacking the surrounding jungle as Bitticks, Moline, McConnell, Geiger, and Fatzinger sprinted right up the middle, breaking open a hole in the enemys defenses....

By Kregg P. J. Jorgenson

ACCEPTABLE LOSS: An Infantry Soldiers Perspective*
BEAUCOUP DINKY DAU
MIA RESCUE: LRRPs in Cambodia*
LRRP COMPANY COMMAND: The Cavs LRP/Rangers in Vietnam, 19681969 *

*Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group

For our families and loved ones, whom we often forgot while we were out adventuring

Dragons have been long used in Asian myth to symbolize the primordial fear man has towards the unknown, but it is not the flames he fears the most in the dark, only the unexpected brush against talons and the sound of a dragons whisper...

HENRY KEITH JORGENSON Poet/Author, 19171993

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Academics say that memory is a poor historian; they prefer formal chronology over recollections of incidents filtered by time and emotion. However, Im not an academic, and I like my history in more human terms, my heroes a little weathered and rough around the edges, defined not only by their chronology but by their times, situations, hopes, fears, joys, and frustrations as well. And that is how I approached this book.

Besides the chronology reconstructed from records, interviews, newsletters, personal correspondence, and official after-action reports of Company E (LRP) and later Company H (Ranger), I am deeply indebted to the following former 1st Cavalry Divisions LRRPs, LRP/Rangers, and Apache Troop, 1st of the 9th Cav, veterans for sharing their personal accounts, and for their comments, phone calls, and assistance. Specifically, I want to thank Robert McKenzie, William Hand, Walter James Spanky Seymour, Craig Leerburg, Michael Echterling, Bruce Judkins, Michael Gooding, Calvin Renfro, Douglas Parkinson, Dan Roberts, Guy McConnell Jr., Dr. Michael Brennan, Frank Duggan, the late James F. McIntyre, Rick Arden, Robert Gill, Robert Edward Beal, R. B. Alexander, Col. James W. Booth, U.S. Army (Ret.), and the late Kit Beatton, an Apache Troop pilot whose courage time and again proved crucial to those who stood against the dragon.

Special recognition and thanks go to Col. George Paccerelli, U.S. Army (Ret.), who quite literally provided me with an invaluable library of Company E (LRP) and Company H (Ranger) materials, their order of battle, detailed information (including personal notes and letters), and his commanders insight that formed the foundation of this book. He was remarkably generous with his time and resources.

Saying that, let me also say that George Paccerelli was determined to take a low profile on this project and urged me instead to focus the story on the men of the company who, he said, deserved any real credit and recognition for the companys success. They were the heart and soul of the unit. I just had the good fortune to be able to command them.

It was my decision to push Paccerelli into the forefront of the account in order to better tell this story. As you read this book, you will see why.

Thanks also have to go to Gary Linderer, my agent and, more important, my friend, who quite literally helped make it all possible. Finally, to my wife, Katherine, for allowing me the time needed to complete this project.

For the sake of reading ease, I have used the term Lurp rather than LRRP or LRP in describing long-range patrols and long-range reconnaissance patrols.

KREGG P. J. JORGENSON

CHAPTER ONE

On October 18, 1968, Capt. George Paccerelli was selected to take over the 1st Air Cavalry Divisions long-range patrol company. He had been handpicked for the job because of his impressive military credentials and because an experienced captain was sorely needed in the position. George Paccerelli was experienced, and his personnel file reflected his skill and ability.

He was well read, spoke several languages, and was working on his first masters degree. He was a husband and father and, best of allat least to the decision makershe was a professional soldier. Paccerelli had fifteen years of military experience, ten of which had been as an enlisted man. He was Airborne, Ranger, Special Forces, and Jungle School qualified, and had already served two difficult combat tours of duty. He had earned a uniform full of awards, tabs, and medals in battles in Laos, Cambodia, and the Central Highlands of South Vietnam long before he arrived in country for his third tour of duty.

So when G-2, the division-level intelligence arm of the Cav, requested the names of officers qualified to command Company E, 52d Infantry (LRP), at Camp Evans, Lt. Col. Addison D. Davis, the battalion commander of the 2d of the 7th Cav, submitted Paccerellis name. After all the interviews had been conducted and the selection made, Davis was the first to let Paccerelli know of the outcome.

Congratulations! Davis announced with a broad grin. Youre the lucky bastard!

Until that moment, George Paccerelli had been the battalions acting S-2, intelligence officer, and he was well suited to run the shop. No one appreciated the intelligence officers slot more than someone who had had to rely on tactical information in combat. The thirty-two-year-old mustang (former enlisted man) officer had been temporarily filling the slot until a company-command position opened up in one of the battalions infantry line units, which is where he really wanted to be. Paccerelli was next in line for a combat command and looking forward to it. However, division headquarters had other ideas. Echo Company (LRP) would get priority, not that it really mattered to Paccerelli. In fact, he was genuinely pleased with the idea and saw it as a plum. The concept of small five- to six-man Lurp teams working behind the lines was one of the best ways he knew to beat the Viet Cong and their North Vietnamese commanders at their own game of guerrilla warfare, and with the immense helicopter gunship support the Cav had to offer, he was looking forward to taking command of the air mobile long-range patrol company. There wasnt a veteran Special Forces soldier who didnt subscribe to the logic of Sun-tzu, the ancient Chinese warrior/philosopher, If you cause opponents to be unaware of the place and time of battle, you will achieve victory.

In the war that preceded the U.S. effort in Indochina, the French had belatedly discovered that commando units working behind the lines could effectively deal with the Viet Minh. The Groupement des Commandos Mixtes Aeroportes , better known by their initials, GCMA, were remarkably successful, but deployed too late in the war to turn the tide of their ultimate defeat. Yet, after Dien Bien Phu had fallen and French control over the region slipped into the hands of Communist general Vo Nguyen Giap in 1954, the GCMA commandos managed to fight on effectively for several more years. The little wars of the guerrilla fighter were very often effective.