Early in the afternoon my radio suddenly came alive with the frantic voice of an FO screaming "Bombs 28 this is (his call sign)! Fire Mission, Over"! I immediately knew from his voice that he was in contact. I cranked up the volume on my radio speaker so the other members of my team could hear, and I replied with his call sign followed by "this is Bombs 28, send it, over"!
The excited FO explained that he had a battalion sized or even bigger force of NVA regulars "in the open". Furthermore, they had trucks and maybe tanks and anti-aircraft artillery with them. He gave me the target coordinates and his firing instructions, and I said "roger", his call sign and repeated the information. Meanwhile the chartman was plotting the coordinates on the firing chart as another team member got on the radio and land lines to Division Artillery and MACV to get target clearance. Our Bravo Battery, located at FSB Birmingham, was on my frequency and they would be firing the mission. I asked Bravo if they had monitored and I got a "roger". My job was to coordinate the mission and double check Bravo's firing data. I would calculate the data manually on an instrument that looked a lot like a slide-rule, while another team member would run the target info through a specially designed computer. An acronym for the computer was FADAC but we called it "Freddie". Freddie and its operator were always faster and more accurate than me and my "stick" but I had to keep up my skills just in case the computer went down.
The chartman called out the range to the target and the deflection. With that the computer and I began a race to calculate the rest of the data that were necessary to accurately get the rounds out to the target. Gary Mullins in Bravo's FDC soon came on the radio and gave me his calculations; range, deflection, elevation, powder charge, type of shell(HE), type of fuse and time of flight. I looked over to my computer man and he nodded and said "data checks". Our clearance guy shouted "clear to fire" and gave me the authority's initials. I then said to Mullins "data checks, over" and he gave me a "roger". In less serious missions Gary would sometimes give me a "roger; Roger" , but not today.
Bravo's FDC would now send the firing data out to their gun bunnies. Pretty soon I heard Gary's voice say "Shot Over". Before I could reply I heard the FO give us "Shot Out". The first rounds were on their way. Less than three minutes had elapsed since I had heard the words "Fire Mission, Over".
Our battalion Fire Direction Officer (FDO) was working on getting our Charlie battery involved in the mission. Charlie Battery was located on FSB Bastogne. The gooks, according our charts, were in the vicinity of the abandoned FSB Blaze on the eastern rim of the A Shau Valley. There were batteries of 155mm and 8 inch howitzers, and a battery of 175mm guns on my frequency monitoring all the action and they asked if they could join the party. I checked with our FDO and then the FO and they both agreed. I told the big guns to get to work through their own channels, and to follow their own proper procedures while giving them customary precautions.
As the FO began to make adjustments to our fire, I looked up and a "Full Bird", the Division Arty Commander no less, came charging into our bunker. He was wearing a steel pot and flak jacket and carried his sidearm. He had intended to fly out to the action but for some reason no chopper was available to him at the moment. So, he got as close as he could to the action. That was me and my radio.
The FO informs us that he has lost sight of the NVA as they entered into tall grass or the thick jungle, but he was convinced that all the hell we were raising was doing some damage. The Bird is told that a chopper is ready for him and off he goes to do battle with the enemy. Good riddance. We continue the mission as the FO makes further firing adjustments. We were still working over the area when at 1600 hours, the night shift came in to relieve us. I turned the radio over to my counterpart but hung around until the mission was over.
We seldom got any feedback on how effectively we had fired our missions. Such was the case with the Gooks in the Open. But whatever the body count was you could double it because the grunts would probably claim that they got em and so would the red legs. That's the way it worked. End of Mission, Over.
Roger Ables
HHB 1/321 Arty