Sid !! Sid !! Look at this !!

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.25thida.com/TLN/tln6-03.htm

A "Tropic Lightning News" from Feb. 8, 1971 with a quote by you !!

( the whole article is above.. he has added quite a few new ones too ... )

Delta Redlegs Lower the Boom On Three Enemy

The Redlegs of Delta Battery, 1st Battalion 8th Field Artillery were credited with three VC killed when they fired support for a recon patrol January 8th.
The action took place about 5 clicks northwest of Delta Battery?s location, Fire Support Base Beverely.
The skirmish was initiated when a recon patrol of the 1st Battalion 27th Infantry (Wolfhounds) rounded a curve in the trail they were walking on and came face to face with a group of eight VC walking down the trail. The patrol immediately opened up on the VC with their M-16 ?s and M-79?s. Within minutes they had radioed in their location and asked for artillery support. Delta Battery 1st of the 8th responded and dropped a total of 40 HE 105 howitzer rounds in on the enemies location.
Captain Sidney G. Herndon, 1/8 liason officer explained, ?The artillery rounds started a fire and the recon patrol was not able to search the area until the following morning. When they did recon the area they found no trace of the VC. But a few days later C Company 1/27 uncovered a grave in almost the same location that the recon patrol had ran into the VC. The grave contained three bodies, and Delta Battery was given credit for all three kills.?
Delta Battery, commanded by Captain John Mitchell, was formerly Bravo Battery 2d Battalion 77th Artillery. However, they were transferred to the Automatic Eighth when the 2/77th pulled out of Vietnam.
On January 16 Bravo Battery had a busy night firing 449 rounds for a contact mission and having to unload chinooks that flew in ammo to them.
In other recent activity within the Battalion, Alfa Battery, at fire Support Base Custer in the Sparrow Valley region, had a brush fire that resulted in contact with the enemy. The fire, started by parachute flares, threatened to burn a grove of banana trees. To prevent the destruction of the banana tress, six men were sent out to extinguish the fire. To get to the fire they had to cross a small ravine. In the ravine the men came into contact with an estimated ten to twelve VC. They engaged the VC with their M-16?s and made a hasty retreat to the berm.

[PHO127]

Don't remember this particular one, and certainly don't remember anyone from a newspaper asking me about it. From Christmas to around the 20th of Jan when we pulled out of the field we were in contact almost every day. I am pretty sure this was in the area of Nui Soc Lu mountain near Xuan Loc, I think the bad guys retreated into some heavy bamboo and I fired a battery of flares with a 100m HOB into the bamboo to start a fire then some WP and HE. If you look at the casualty list I think you will find we took pretty hard hits from the 10th or 11th to the 16th and 17th. FSB Beverly was named after LTC Johnstons Wife. On the day we left we fired 27 rounds into Nui Soc Lu and pulled the 27th casing. We had it engraved as the last round fired in combat in support of the 1st wolfhounds from FSB Beverly SVN and gave it to LTC Johnstons wife. Later, when LTC Johnston was a general his wife, Beverly, used to refer to any of us who served with him in VN as her boys. To this day the casing is on their mantel in San Antonio, Tx.

[PHO127]

This was refered to as our vagabond time. When the 25th stood down they left one brigade in VN for several more months. The 1/27th provided base camp security for Cu Chi while everone else packed up and left. B battery 2/77th Arty was our DS battery but the 2/77th stood down. For about 2 months B Battery was attached to the 1/27th Wolfhounds then later made D battery 1/8th Arty when we rejoined the brigade. The 1/27 then operated south of Xuan Loc along Hiway 1 and QL 15 down almost to Vung Tau from sometime in early December of 70 to Late Jan of 71. After that I went to Khe Sahn and the Wolfhound went to Camp Frenzell Jones at Long Bihn for Stand down.

FYI: D battery 1/8th (the automatic 8th) (formerly B 2/77) once fired 700+ rounds of artillery in about 20 minutes in defence of the small firebase we were at from a hoard of rats massing for attack in the garbage dump.

When in Cu Chi for the stand down two tubes fired 30 rounds of beehive, killer Jr and WPKJ and accounted for (in part) over 200 KIA.