Korean Marine Brigade FAC
submitted by: Alva Leon Matheson
Our area of operations was basically bounded by Quang Ngai City and Chu Lai Marine Air Base from north to south, and the South China Sea to the coastal highlands from east to west. My Lai was in the east central part of our area. The Batagan Peninsula was located about a mile east of My Lai.
The area generally consisted of rice paddies with thatched roof villages. Highway One ran through the west central side of the area. There were lots of fighting trenches, fighting holes, tunnels and remnants of several old French forts. The Batagan Peninsula was about a mile square. It was black rock and very rugged looking but passable on foot without too much vertical development.
Yogi, Don and I were F-101B pilots who were recent veterans of the F-100 course at Luke. I was not a happy FAC.
When I reported in I was given my predecessor’s plastic covered map. It had lots of dried blood around the frayed edges. I was told to, “... not fly too low like he had.” As I recall, the bad guys had set a trap by propping a body against a tree. My predecessor took the bait.
On rotation, we lived in an Army compound in Quang Ngai City two weeks and then spent a week with the Koreans in the field. One bright sunny afternoon early in the tour, the field phone rang in my room.
“Get airborne and relieve Don.”
Hurriedly airborne, I found Don had troops in contact at My Lai. He was almost out of fuel and quickly gave me the frequencies. It turned out that a company of Korean Marines on patrol was being overrun. I contacted the First ANGLECO U.S. Marine on the FM frequency. He said “we are being overrun. Put the bombs in on top of us. I’m destroying my radio.”
I had a Black Ace flight of two Marine F-4s, each with two 1,000 or 2,000 pound bombs. I could see smoke and troops on the ground but didn’t know where the good guys were. I elected to mark a bald, red clay hill near by. The F-4s dropped on my smoke. I had no one to talk to on the ground. I could see troops in Korean uniforms but some of them did not have boots. I elected to not drop any more ordnance.
In the end, about 100 tough Korean Marines with artillery and air support got overrun at My Lai.
Two days later a dirt-covered Sergeant Campbell, US Marine Corps, found me. He said “Thanks for saving my ass. When the bombs went in it gave me a chance to get out of there.”
I was involved in several subsequent operations in and near My Lai. We always saw stiff resistance and many casualties. I can remember hearing over the radio, rounds hitting a troop transport helicopter. I can remember a medevac helicopter with the pilot dead and the co-pilot trying to fly out with the control column shot in
halfI. had my only “near short round” near My Lai. A Black Ace F-4 dropped two, 250 pound snake eyes on the wrong smoke. The troops got splattered with rice paddy mud. Black Ace got sent home. I followed up with a phone call to the Operations Officer. Someone else answered. Eventually, the pilot became the ex-Operations Officer.
Twice the North Vietnamese tried to land trawlers with big loads of weapons on the Batagan Peninsula. The trawlers were about 150 to 200 feet long. Both attempts involved chases by U.S. Navy destroyers and gunboats.
Its crew blew up the first trawler on the shore. The Koreans captured the second one, when the self-destruct charge failed to detonate. I was air- borne all night on that one. Talk about seeing spots in front of your eyes. I received the Navy Achievement Medal for that effort. I later received the Navy Commendation Medal for work as a test pilot with VX-5 at China Lake. Those medals and my A-7E carrier qualification make it fun to play “one up” on Navy jocks.
I checked out in the O-2 in mid-1967 at Binh Thuy. When I returned to Quang Ngai I learned that Don Stevens was in for the Air Force Cross. Steve Pless, Major, U.S. Marine Corps was in for the Medal of Honor.
An Army cargo helicopter had developed mechanical problems while flying north up the coast. The pilot landed on the beach near My Lai to correct the problem. The troops were out of the helicopter working on it when they came under mortar and machine gun fire. The pilot took off, leaving the troops on the beach. Steve Pless heard the radio calls and made a “John Wayne assault and landing” with his Huey gun ship. He was able to get some of the troops off the beach. Don Stevens spent the rest of the day and part of the night trying to get the rest of them out in deteriorating weather.
Editors note: A complete description of Major Pless’ rescue of those troops from the beach near My Lai can be viewed at http://www.valorremembered.org/SWP_StmtPless.htm . Don Stevens description of his day in support of Major Pless can be viewed at the same web site. A synopsis of these actions can be found by clicking on Don Stevens.
Finally, Gard Brewer arrived to be my replacement. On another bright sunny afternoon I was “scrambled” from my room. The Tactical Air Control Party base had lost contact with Gard. I located Gard’s O-2 in a pile on the west side of My Lai. I don’t know if his body was ever recovered. I know his name is on “the Wall”.
My Lai was not a friendly place and neither were the people who lived there.