Vietnam ground forces Vets: Question about Indirect Fires Support.

When I got to Germany my first TC was a ex-Marine artillery man who transferred to the Army. Due was batshit crazy. Anytime we’d do a live fire his hands would tremble and he’s chain smoke his Winstons.

quote:

---

William Marshall

---

Straight out of Hearts & Minds documentary.

You would swear that it's from Good Morning Vietnam, but it's his interview in the documentary.

quote:

---

Probably because he'd seen some shite.

---

And done some things, man.

quote:

---

I'm particularly interested in how the USMC fared in this area

---

My uncle was a combat Marine (Charlie 1/7) in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. From what he told me, it saved his @$$ more than once.

My dad was in charge of a fire base for the Big Red one near Thunder Road 1969. He talks more about it now than then. My appreciation is that they did a good job of firing upon the coordinates provided, but that the fire was ineffective due to the tunnels/caves. He said they learned later in that most of the ambushes were hit and run (back into the tunnels/caves) as the VC had figured out about how long it took a patrol to call in fire coordinates , have the howitzers directed , and fired. He had a handful of close encounters at the fire base. He said he actually felt pretty safe on Thunder Rd. He felt less safe before they got there when they were closer to the Mei Kong.

quote:

---

in how Indirect Fires managed when called on to support mobile operations.

---

The battle of Ia Drang showed the successes of Air-Mobile Artillery especially when integrated with the helicopter gunships which at the time were organized as Aerial Rocket Artillery. And this was really the first attempt at implementing these concepts.

The Army made a big mistake in creating the Aviation Branch, worse than the Army Air Corps becoming the Air Force.

LINK

ETA: Not a Vietnam Vet, but spent a lot of time researching these subjects at the Fort Sill Library many years ago.

quote:

---

If our front spotter had his stuff together, could be pretty effective, but nothing like the close air support when it got a little hairy. The AC-130 was a deadly site to witness.

---

I'd love to see Spooky in action, but never want to be in a situation where I'd have the opportunity.