After finding a posting made by the Niece of my old friend & team mate
KC on the Virtual Wall I contacted his family. This was a little over a
year ago & I had just discovered the possibilities available through the
internet to reach out to old buddies from Vietnam. His family received
me with great warmth & requested any info I might have as to the
circumstances surrounding Kevin Crowe's death. They had been given NO
information regarding Kevin's death other that that he had died serving
his country. This is a copy of an email I sent to the family of KC
Crowe.
~~~
I've been thinking about writing this letter all week and I've decided
the best way to try to help you & your family really understand the
situation we were in when Kevin died is to give you background
information about the military actions leading up to his death.
Kevin & I were based out of LZ Sally, but our area of operation was
around the city of Hue, in the northern part of South Vietnam. We
patrolled the rice paddies, the coastal plain and we made a number of
trips into the A Shau Valley. This means that we lived in the field.
Food, resupply, and mail was brought out to us. We very rarely saw the
base camp.
During the 9 months prior to "Operation Lamar Plain", in which Kevin was
killed, only 2 other people were killed in D company during hostile
action. This changed as of May 21, 1969.
Around May 15, 1969 Kevin & I along with the rest of Co. D were high in
the mountains near the A Shau Valley. The company received orders to
stand down & prepare for extraction the next morning. Rumors ran
rampant. Maybe the war was over, maybe we were going home!
The following morning we were flown, by helicopter, out of the mountains
to what I believe was camp Evans. When we got there ALL of the
1/501/101 airborne were there. (This was a lot of soldiers.) This is
when we found out what was happening. A "tactical emergency" was
declared for a Marine Unit & an Army Unit down in Tam Ky, about 100
miles south of Hue. This means that the area was in imminent danger of
being over run by Units of the North Vietnamese Army. We were
immediately flown, by plane, to the airport at Tam Ky. From there we
were taken, by helicopter, to an area west of Firebase Professional. We
then disbursed in company strength (Co. D was about 140 men at that
time, 2nd platoon (Kevin & my platoon) was about 35 men.). For the next
5 days we patrolled the area, had very little contact with the enemy, &
had no casualties in our company. On the morning of May 21, 1969,
elements of D company were involved in a fire fight and 1st & 2nd
platoon of Co D were moved up to engage the enemy. The company took
heavy casualties, but by the end of the day the second platoon was
reduced to about 9 men including Kevin & myself. Our platoon lost all
it's commissioned & noncommissioned officers that day. I was put in
charge of the remainder of the platoon, which was no bigger than a
squad. From this point on we had contact with the enemy every day. This
was the 1st time we had encountered well trained & equipped enemy troops
rather than VC.
About June 2, 1969 we were in a helicopter combat assault on/or around
hill #376. There had been a savage battle on hill #376 the day before &
we were brought in to give relief. After securing the LZ (landing
zone), company D moved out, west, on a ridge line. The area was
infested with enemy bunkers and
spider holes and we were taking constant sniper fire.
On June 4, 1969, 1st platoon & the remnants of 2nd platoon were ambushed
in a small clearing in a saddle on the ridge line. We were pinned down
for about 5 hours, taking heavy machine gun & mortar fire from a
concealed bunker. One of the guys from 1st platoon was able to work his
way around to the right of the bunker & fire a rocket into it allowing
us to pull back. Two men were killed, one was a new guy that had just
been brought in by helicopter that morning. No one even knew his name.
We were only able to retrieve one of the bodies.
On the morning of June 5, 1969, I received a briefing from a Lt. He
told me he was taking 4 of my people to retrieve the body from the day
before while I was to take my machine gun team & set up to cover the
area around the bunker where we had been ambushed the day before. The
rest of the company was going to sweep the area behind & to the right of
the bunker. This was the 1st time I EVER questioned an order since I had
been in the Army.
"We never leave anyone behind" was an American policy, but we in the
101st made it a priority. We were told we might die, but we would never
be left behind. Most of us agreed with this policy & found it very
comforting in theory but in reality once a body is out of sight for any
length of time the enemy will use this policy against you. They either
booby trap the body, or set up an ambush around the fallen soldier.
I questioned the Lt. as to how he intended to retrieve the body. He
basically told me he was going to walk out with 5 men (4 of them mine)
and pick up & carry the body back. In a heated discussion I had many
other suggestions. (a grappling hook could have been brought in by
helicopter in 15-20 min., bamboo poles to check the body, crawl out &
tie wire to the leg & pull him out etc.) The Lt. kept responding to me
that there was no time, we had to move now. He then gave me a direct
order to get my people together. At this point I hated this man, I
thought he was a fool, I didn't know what to do. In retrospect, the Lt.
had probably had a similar discussion with the Captain of our Co. He was
going out with these men to retrieve the body & I know he was scared to
death. He was just following orders as we all did. I relayed the orders
to the 8 remaining men of 2nd platoon, who also did not like this, but
they followed orders.
The ambush site from the day before was located in a small clearing that
had been cleared for farming, but not farmed for perhaps as long as 20
years. It was terraced & the jungle was reclaiming it. I moved the
machine gun team to within 20 feet of the bunker. Due to the terracing
we were about 5 feet above the bunker. We could see a short distance in
front & behind the bunker but because of the overgrowth we could not see
the clearing itself from the machine gun's position. After setting up
the machine gun team I took the Lt.'s radioman with me down to the
entrance of the clearing, where I could coordinate machine gun fire to
cover the recovery team if they needed it. I was less than 20 feet from
Kevin & the rest of the recovery team. They reached the body & were
bending over to pick it up when there was an explosion & sniper shots
were fired at the radioman & myself. Kevin & 3 other men on the
retrieval team died instantly. The other 3 men that died with Kevin
were two men from 2nd platoon. One named Ayres, who was from Georgia. (I
forget his 1st name) One named Ruddle from Pennsylvania who was called
"The Old Man" because he was 23 years old. He had a wife and a baby
girl. (I forget his 1st name too) One was from the 1st platoon & I
never knew his name. He was the soldier who had saved us the day before
by knocking out the bunker. The Lt. survived without injury. The other
man from 2nd platoon named Early, was from Alabama. He survived, but
his nose was blown off up to the bone. We immediately recovered the
bodies.
Kevin died instantly, I was looking right at him when the bomb went off.
There was controversy as to whether the body was booby trapped (the bomb
is under the body & when the body is moved it goes off) or a command
detonation devise was used (a bomb is positioned near the body & a
lookout hides & sets off the bomb when the most personnel possible are
in proximity of the
bomb). I am sure it was command detonated. Beside other things, they
had not yet touched the body when the bomb exploded. This means that the
other precautions I thought we should have taken probably would not have
helped.
In August when we went back up to LZ Sally a memorial service was held
for Kevin & the others that fell in this operation. Each man's name was
read during this service.
I hope this has been some help to you & your family. I don't know if I
told too much or too little. I don't know if I helped or hurt. I only
knew Kevin in a war, as a soldier. I really liked him. He was
reliable. He was a good soldier.