Albracht William - Abandoned in hell: the fight for Vietnams Fire Base Kate

By Joseph L. Galloway

I n war, each day brings thousands of decisionssome good, some bad, some deadly for those who must carry out the orders that flow from such decisions. This book is about a deadly decision taken in the fall of 1969 to create a small artillery firebase in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam and dangle that post as bait for thousands of North Vietnamese Army regulars just two miles away behind the Cambodian border.

At this point in the Vietnam War, President Richard Nixon desperately wanted a big battle that would force the South Vietnamese Army to prove that it could fight and that it would fight. He wanted a success to show that his strategy of handing over the war to the South VietnameseVietnamizationwas working. Nixons intent trickled down to the Pentagon, and from there to the US headquarters in Saigon, and thence to subordinate headquarters.

Thus was born Firebase Kate, one of three such bases created around Bu Prang Special Forces Camp deep in the Central Highlands. No part of this grand strategy was communicated to the handful of Americans and a larger handful of Montagnard tribal mercenaries who would occupy a makeshift hilltop fortress urgently constructed with shovels and sweat and sandbags out of the hard red clay of a grassy knob overlooked by higher surrounding mountains. Not for nothing did the arriving Americans immediately think of Dien Bien Phu and a similar French mistake in 1954. Nor did anyone bother to tell these men or their commander, Special Forces Captain Bill Albracht, that the dense triple-canopy jungle that ran back into nearby Cambodia was absolutely crawling with thousands of enemy troops who would soon be coming for them.

Huge US helicopters lifted in two 155 mm artillery pieces and one 105 mm howitzer, along with 27 American artillerymen to serve the big guns. Other helicopters lifted in 156 Montagnard soldiers of the so-called Civilian Irregular Defense Groupa collection of lightly armed tribal militiasto provide security for Firebase Kate. The closest road was five miles away. All their supplies, including drinking water, would have to be delivered by helicopter.

Among the North Vietnamese troops sheltering across the Cambodian border, waiting for the signal to attack, was the 66th NVA Regiment, well-known as the outfit that started the American war by attacking the 1st Cavalry Division battalions in the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965. Bled white with hundreds dead and wounded there, it came back to lead the Battle of Hill 875/Dak To against American airborne troops in 1967. The 66th fought again in the siege of Khe Sanh in 1968. Now, in the fall of 1969, it had been reinforced and refitted, and was ready to get back in action killing Americans.

That Firebase Kate survived an all-out North Vietnamese attack for five days and nights is little short of a miracle, given that the enemy opened up with heavy artillery from its Cambodian sanctuary and brought in 37 mm anti-aircraft weapons and plenty of .51-caliber heavy machine guns to make helicopter support a true nightmare. Mortars and B-40 rockets rained fire on the base. One by one, the firebases own artillery pieces were knocked out.

Between the endless artillery and mortar barrages came human waves with hundreds of attackers. The Montagnard troops, reinforced here and there by a handful of the bravest artillerymen, fired off tens of thousands of rifle and machine-gun rounds every single day.

What kept the troops at Kate alive were brave helicopter crews bringing in ammo and water, Air Force fast movers delivering napalm and bombs from F-4 Phantoms and F-100 Super Sabres during daylight hours, and Air Force C-47 Spooky gunships that came out after dark to pour 6,000 rounds of minigun fire a minute onto the surrounding hills and the swarms of attacking enemy troops.