Working With Tanks, The Good and the Bad

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by Dave "Doc" Holladay

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Bravo Co. 1/501 Fall 1968 I Core, Coastal Plains, not far from the ocean. East of Hwy. 1 and West of Co-Co Beach Sea Bee Camp. For some reason, for a couple of weeks, there were about 3 tanks sent out to patrol with us. I am sure A, C and D companies had them also to work with. They moved with us every day and set a star shaped perimeter each night. The problem was, they were so loud that we could not sneak up on anything, even a mile away. As we moved over the family dikes in the area, the tanks broke them down so badly that I felt we made more enemies with the local farmers than we ever did good to win them over to our side. We tried to ride on them ,but they were too hot and dusty; and I had never ridden a steel bull let alone a real bull! Every night when we set up a night defensive position and had hot canteen water and junky C's, we could hear the tank men playing music and opening cold drinks inside those monsters of destruction. All of us grunts were considered 2nd class to them. Every night, just like clock work, we were fired upon by V.C. Some of the AK-47 rounds would bounce off the tanks and come flying back all around us. So, not only did the bullets come from outside, some zinged off the tanks. The tank men acted like it was no big deal. They knew we were set up around them, so the chance of a RPG round was slim.

One day, we moved within sight of the South China Sea with those big lumbering hulks. Our platoon moved up to the edge of a steep drop that went down to the sea. The tanks stopped short, so they would not fall off. There was a lone hooch down below, and a V.C. started shooting up at us. We all dropped down on the ground below the sand dune ridge, to be out of the fire zone of this crazy V.C.. I guess the Lt. or CO., got on the radio with the tankers, and I could hear the conversation well. One of the tanks moved up, so the gunner could see the hooch below. They dropped the turret down and took aim on the hooch. We were like "wow", a front row seat to a mega explosion on a house. Most of us had never seen a tank blow a building up. That was one of my dreams in life, to see a hooch get creamed by a tank. It didn't get any better! We could hear the turret move, and see the barrel drop down to line up. I was standing just to the left side of the tank and slightly back , about a half tank length from the muzzle. "Shot Out", I could see the round go down and as if in slow motion, just miss the top of the building and the shell went into the edge of the sea and explode. How Cool! I could hear grumbling from the tank gunner. The barrel came down just a little and the 2nd round came out. The walls of the hooch just blew out and the roof just dropped straight down on the floor. That was about as much fun to watch as a Cobra Gunship light the area up in front of us . I think all of us grunts were actually glad the tanks went off to pester another company of men. That was just the wrong place to have tanks for help. Besides, I was afraid one of those big steel cans would step on my toes!