Keith - Fire base illingworth: an epic true story of remarkable courage against staggering odds

The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the authors copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.

This book is dedicated to all the valiant warriors who fought at FSB Illingworth on April 1, 1970. Their courageous examples of what American warriors can do under the direst of circumstances should be celebrated for all time.

I also want to dedicate this book to my son, Pierce. It is my fervent hope that he will never have to be in a position to face what the men at Illingworth confronted; but, if fate should decree otherwise, I hope that he will remember the stories of these men and, in his turn, serve his country with honor and courage.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

The Vietnam War continues to provide interesting and relevant material to authors, like Phil Keith, who have that rare ability to discover and describe exceedingly poignant, little-known circumstances that blend together to highlight the fortitude, heroism, and sacrifices of the American soldier. Another factor that helps make Vietnam such a fertile ground for masterful narrators like Phil can be traced to the fact that this conflict differed significantly in scope and purpose from one year to the next, and from one region of the country to another. No two situations were alike.

The involvement of the United States military in Vietnam grew steadily, beginning with a modest advisory effort starting in the late 1950s. That small start grew until by 1965 our total force expanded to more than a half a million service members on the ground in country. While some detachments continued to train the South Vietnamese Army, the primary mission morphed into one of carrying the heaviest burden of the fighting against the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army. It is in this environment, in April 1970, which Phil Keith the author of this book zeroes in on actions that involved three company-sized units, totaling less than three hundred soldiers.

Mr. Keith had already written two successful fictional novels when friend and well-known author Tom Clavin urged him to try his hand at nonfiction. When Phil asked Tom what he should write about he received this advice, Write what you know. Youre a Vietnam Veteran, write about Vietnam. There are many stories about Vietnam that still need to be told. Youll figure it out and youll know it when you see it. As luck would have it, two days later, Phil read a story in the New York Times about Alpha Troop, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. According to the article, President Obama was about to award the Presidential Unit Citation to this intrepid band of troopers for a rescue operation they had conducted almost forty years prior in Vietnam. What had they done to deserve this honorand why were they being recognized so belatedly? Phil knew immediately that this was a story he should tell.

The result was the publishing of his highly successful and widely acclaimed 2012 book, Blackhorse Riders . The narrative details the heroic efforts of Alpha Troop, accompanied by A Company of the 2/8, as these men forced their way through the jungle to come to the aid of another company that had become entrapped by an entire North Vietnamese regiment. This action occurred on March 26, 1970, yet it took another four decades for the whole story to emerge and for these brave warriors to finally receive the accolades they deserved.

While researching Blackhorse Riders, it came to Phils attention that just a few days later, in the early hours of April 1, 1970, at an isolated jungle outpost called Fire Base Illingworth, many of the very same soldiers became involved in an even more intense action. Equally significant was that the opposition turned out to be the very same enemy regiment they had tangled with five days prior.

* * *

Phil Keith has been thorough and persistent: By locating dozens of surviving individuals who were there, and directly involved in the fighting, this chronological tale superbly describes the challenges faced on an almost daily basis by American units serving in Vietnam at that time. Of special note is that Phil was able to locate and obtain the views of the former NVA regimental commander whose unit attacked Fire Base Illingworth. These observations by a former enemy commander are rare indeed and add significantly to the tale.

The strength and appeal of Phil Keiths work lies in the number of firsthand accounts that he has acquired through his painstaking research. These individuals cover the complete chain of command. The interviews attest to the immense sacrifices made by our citizen soldiers at a time when the nation was deeply divided over our involvement in Vietnam. The hardships endured by these men far away from home became their routine. No one went to Vietnam to become a hero, but Phil Keith has masterfully captured the essence of what it takes to be one in this superb recitation of men doing their duty. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the true nature of what the U.S. Army faced during some of the toughest days of American involvement in Vietnam.

Major General Michael J. Conrad, U.S. Army (Ret.)

General Conrad, as a Lieutenant Colonel in April 1970, was Commanding Officer of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, and in command of Fire Base Illingworth at the time of the events described in this book.

AUTHORS NOTE

This book picks up where my previous book on Vietnam, Blackhorse Riders, ends, but it is not a sequel in the traditional sense. Fire Base Illingworth is about a completely different set of circumstances in an entirely new setting. What makes it seem similar is that some of the same soldiers who were directly involved in Blackhorse Riders are once again at the heart of this story.

In Blackhorse Riders we learned about the men of Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry, and their escapades during late 1969 and early 1970. At the beginning of this time frame, these soldiers were known as Lucky Charlie by their battalion mates. Through nothing more than the luck of the draw, Charlie Company seemed to get the easiest marches, the least combative patrols, and all the breaks. Then, on Valentines Day 1970, all that changed. The odds caught up with Charlie Company with a vengeance. By the end of the following six weeks, Charlie was vastly understrength and had gone through considerable tribulation. The January rosters had turned over nearly 100 percent, and most of the turmoil had been due to combat casualties. Back at the Replacement Center, where new men were still pouring off the transports from America, Charlie Company was given the unwelcome sobriquet of the Company of the Living Dead and had become an outfit you wanted to avoid getting orders to if at all possible.

On March 20, the company was assigned to conduct another grueling patrol in War Zone C, near the Cambodian border. The men were tasked with sniffing out enemy infiltration routes and uncovering supply bases. Eighty-seven soldiers started out on that patrol. Because there were insufficient officers available, some sergeants were pressed into service as platoon leaders. Many of the men were newbies, raw replacements, soldiers shoving off on their first combat assignments.

On March 26, after two days of picking up incontrovertible evidence of nearby enemy activity, Charlie Company made contact with the NVA (North Vietnamese Army). They had, as it turned out, walked straight into a cleverly laid trap. It really wasnt their fault: They had been told to press on despite the ominous signs, and the NVA, masters at this kind of warfare, knew Charlie was in the area. The NVA determined that if the Americans kept moving in their current direction they would eventually come across the well-hidden NVA compoundit was simply too big to miss. Given the high probability of discovery, the NVA decided to stack the deck in their favor: They began laying down clever but irresistible markers that would pull the Americans along in the direction the enemy wanted them to go. The path that the NVA laid out was straight into the maw of a storage complex guarded by dozens of stoutly built bunkers. Every bunker was positioned to give the NVA interlocking fields of fire using an array of machine guns, AK-47 rifles, and RPGs. Their aim was to swallow up this entire companykill them all if they could, but if not, take the survivors prisoner. That way, their secret jungle location would remain just that.