Situation:
1969– Southeastern Laos
Ambush and killing of five Special Forces U.S. Army personnel on mountain ridge by the VietCong. Bodies not recovered, site of attack in question.
1979 – Laotian farmer comes across the bodies on the ridge with his herd of cows. One of his cows is blown up by either a piece of unexploded ordnance or mine. The bodies are thought to be bad luck and are avoided by the locals.
37 years later…..the exact location of the site remains in question.
Yesterday I was asked by the RT-1 Team Leader, Captain George Eyster whether I would be willing to be a part of an investigative mission into the jungle along with himself, Sergeant Baldeagle and a Lao official. He explained that they were in search of “Site 1522” which had eluded many teams in the past due to it’s location at high altitude on a steep ridge, and that a full team insertion had not been possible because there was not a good landing zone for a helicopter. He explained that they wanted to jump in off a helo, hike through the jungle to the ridge, identify the site, cut a landing zone on the ridge, and get extracted. There was a significant risk of a casualty with the helicopter drop off and possible UXO in the area, so they needed a medic along, and someone who was fit and could carry the chainsaw and hike for quite some distance in thick brush. I readily agreed.
We awoke this morning to howling winds and chilly temperatures. It was so cold I had to break out my sweatshirt and thought it amazing that just two days ago I had been sweltering hot and wishing I could take my shirt off. There was talk of whether the cloud cover was too low and the winds too strong to fly the helicopters today. We prepared for the mission regardless and decided to see if the skies would clear. I made sure to pack enough food and water to spend the night if we got stuck out there. For medical supplies, I packed a tourniquet, IV fluids, blood clotting agents, and battle dressings.
These were the basics needed for treating any large blast injury or trauma in the field. We were each issued walkie-talkies so that we would have good communication ability on the mountain. Captain Eyster would carry the map and GPS unit, his Ranger bag, rope and a machete, Sergeant Baldeagle would carry the EOD metal detector, his Ranger bag, and a hatchet, and I would carry my medical bag, a machete, and the chainsaw. We waited patiently, and by 0830 we were airborne with Andy the pilot and two Lao officials. We headed eastward into the mountains climbing to near 4000 feet through the dense clouds of the morning. Halfway there we spotted the larger Russian MI-17 helicopter heading the opposite direction back to Base Camp. They had been turned around due to thunderstorms and bad weather. We decided to press on and finally reached the designated mountain range. Captain Eyster was determined to get a good orientation of the ridge from the air and attempt to correlate the GPS coordinates and his map locations. I snapped some photographs for later comparison with the others. Andy the Pilot took us all over the mountain airspace and we identified possible drop off sites. We found an area of tall grass in a valley, two mountain peaks away from the designated ridgeline, and that’s what we decided to go for. We then went back to the local village to prepare for our jump. The plan was that Andy would hover 5-6 feet above the ground and we would jump out one by one, throwing our bags and equipment before us, and unfortunately (so we thought at the time) we had to take a Lao official with us. We all did a radio check and decided on a primary rendezvous point at a spot below the ridge where we cut the landing zone, and a backup rendezvous point as the top of the ridgeline. Andy would be at the primary at 1300 and the secondary at 1315 if we failed to show at the first. We reached the drop zone, and Andy began his hover. As we opened the door, the adrenaline rush hit, the rotor blades were spinning overhead, the intense wind from the rotor wash, blades of grass swirling every which way below us. We jumped out one after the other including the Lao official (in his nice shirt and dress shoes). I hit the ground and rolled, recovered and was able to snap a picture of the exiting helicopter from below. Everyone had made the jump safely, and now Captain Eyster led the way with his machete as we tried to cut our way toward the tree line through this massive grass which was twice as tall as any of us.
The Lao official trailed nimbly, obviously comfortable in his native land. It was slow going and after about 45 minutes of hacking and stumbling we finally made it to the trees where things opened up a bit. We had forgotten to wear gloves, and suffered dearly from all of the thorns and sharp grass which tore up our hands. Once we reached the tree line I made all of the guys stop and hydrate and I took out some of my Kerlex gauze and wrapped one of my fingers which had a pretty deep slice in it and was bleeding profusely. A little tourniquet action and things were all good. We pressed on for about another kilometer cutting across the mountain slope, and then stopped so Captain Eyster could take a GPS reading. We had made ok time and were about 500 meters down the mountain from the supposed site location, and about 200 meters up from the prospective landing zone that we were going to cut. Captain Eyster made the decision to abandon our proposed LZ and instead head for the site and the ridgeline. It would be too steep and too far from the site to the have the LZ in the previously proposed location. We turned uphill and I soon found myself leading the way through the brush, with my chainsaw in tow. It was hard going and very steep and the lack of fitness began to show in some members of our group. I pressed on and tried to cut the best route through the jungle. As I made my way uphill I was practicing good circumspection looking all around for any sign of manmade material, ordnance, or mines. Unfortunately Captain Eyster informed us, we had lost all of our satellite contacts on the GPS machine due to the dense foliage overhead so we were using our compass and approximating how far we had gone. It took us about an hour until we reached the top of the ridge. We stopped to hydrate and catch our breath. The trees were thicker than ever, and our hopes of cutting an LZ up here were dashed. We had reached quite an elevation and now were consumed by the clouds, and as we rested and felt our sweaty brows, we actually realized how cold it was. We were 3 freezing U.S. Gorillas in the Mist, and a Lao official. We had to keep moving. Captain Eyster consulted the map as the GPS still was not picking up a signal, and we decided to walk along the ridgeline to an even higher altitude to try and find a GPS signal. Sergeant Baldeagle led the way, and as the brush and foliage got even denser, I could sense his frustration and I too found myself getting frustrated and wondering how the hell we were going to get out of this mess. I put my hood up and told myself to keep going. We continued through the thorny brush, vines and triple canopy rainforest.
After what seemed like an eternity I heard Captain Eyster yell, “I have one satellite reading on the GPS!” We walked a little further. “Two satellites, Three!” He could now triangulate our position, and as luck would have it we were almost dead-on with our rudimentary navigation. We were about 20 meters from the site coordinates and had emerged into a clearing on the ridge which we finally decided would have to do as our helicopter landing zone. Luckily, our radios also functioned at our current location and we were able to contact Andy the Pilot and inform him of our change of plans and request some more time for the clearing of the landing zone. It was going to take some serious manpower as there were only three of us armed with just a hatchet, a machete, and a chainsaw. Luckily the Lao official was keen on helping us as well, and he whipped out his custom made machete. We set to work immediately without time to spare. Baldeagle began falling the large trees with the chainsaw as Captain Easter and I cleared smaller brush and bamboo. The Lao official (still in his collared shirt and dress shoes and looking largely unscathed) began falling trees with his machete like he was Paul Bunyan. We were relieved to have him along. Cutting a makeshift landing zone took quite some time, and an amazing amount of energy. The ground was not very level, and there were tree stumps, and huge pine trees to contend with. We prayed that Andy would be able to set the helicopter down in this site. Otherwise we would be spending the night, or would have to hike back down through the brush to the distant river bed. As it got further and further into the afternoon, the landing zone came into being and we decided to give Andy a radio call and give it a shot. Andy was on his way, and we prepared for the extraction. He maneuvered onto the site perfectly avoiding the trees, we loaded our bags and our filthy selves into the helicopter and prayed we would make it out of the dense foliage safely. Andy made the sign of the cross, and lifted off and before we knew it we were airborne and out of that hell zone of a jungle. Mission accomplished! We had correlated the GPS coordinates and location of the site, cut an LZ near the site on the ridgeline, and made it out of their safely. After some cleaning up and licking of our wounds back at base camp, we were ready for some beers, and some rest. There was much more work to be done yet in finding our fallen comrades from 1969.
