At Gia Vuc in 1966,
A-103 team got involved in an internal fire-fight resulting in casualties
and a complete
changeover of the team.
In mid May 1966, Cpt James Spencer's team, minus its XO,
was swapped
with Cpt Stephen M Perry's team from Minh Long
"A" camp.
Thanks to Jim McNamara A-103 XO and
Senior RTO Charlie Weeks
(both in the camp at the time) we are able to give you
the straight and skinny on what really happen!
A lot of you who served at Gia Vuc
after May 66 heard all types of rumours
on what did happen
that night!
For example:
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The
"shoot-out" story as heard by Cpt
Virgil R. Carter at Gia Vuc
in 1967
"Way
I heard it was that the SF AND LLDB got into a firefight
over the death of a SF team member, rumored to have had
a contract put out on him by the LLDB demolition
Sergeant. The sergeant was still there when I was
there and was pointed out to me by other team members. They were many stories, and I was unable to
ever separate fact from fiction--though I spent little
time dwelling on it."
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Well
I am glad to say that in 2008, we can set the story right!
E-mail from then 1st Lt Jim
McNamara, A-103, GIA-VUC, 1966
Ref
the 'shoot-out' - on May 1st 1966
I
was assigned as the XO of A-103, Jan 66 - Jun 66.
I was the XO that 'stayed behind' following the
shoot-out.
What
started the whole incident was a Mayday party in one of
the nearby villages. Tom Cooper, our CA/PsyOps
sergeant was also at the party - he was invited since he
had been working with many of the local villagers on
Civic Action (CA) projects. Another person, who
was also attending the party, was apparently one of the
covert VC in the area. He tried to grab Tom's
pistol, and was going to shoot him/Tom. Tom and
the 'bad guy' struggled over/with the pistol, and a
round was somehow fired. The round went the length
of the table, and hit one of the other Montagnards who
was attending the party - he was shot through the
head, but was not killed. He, the wounded man, was
also the brother of one of our CIDG company
commanders. The brother was also at the same
party, sitting at the other end of the table. When
he saw his brother get shot throught the head, he pulled
out his .45 pistol, and proceeded to drill several
rounds through the roof of the room where the party was
being held. A pretty big fist fight began. Tom
escaped, and made it back to our camp. The wounded
man's brother - one of our CIDG company commanders -
was mad as hell, and also returned to our camp, and
started to organize his rifle company; and wanted
to shoot us/Americans up.
Jim
Spencer (team CO) and Seth Stevens (team sgt) were on
the opposite side of the camp/compound from our
teamhouse. They had gone over to try and
calm down the CIDG. However, due to the Mayday
parties, many of the CIDG were pretty drunk on rice
wine, and, as I said previously, the wounded
Montagnard - who had gotten shot in town, was
the brother of one of the CIDG company commanders; and
he was mad as hell. That's when Seth
Stevens, who was still on the other side of the
compound, hollared at us to stay in the teamhouse, and
to stay out of sight. The company commander was
mad as hell, and got his company together. We
could hear the commotion - as more hollaring began, and
the noise grew and moved down the west side of our camp
perimeter. We couldn't see what was happening from
the teamhouse. There was a large building that
blocked our view of the west perimeter - and that's
where the loud noises and hollaring were coming from.
Shortly
afterwards the CIDG began to firing their carbines
and machine guns from around the west side/firing
bunkers of our camp perimeter, firing at
us/Americans, into our team house.
Most
of the team, including me, about six of us, were in the
teamhouse during the shooting.
One
of the commo man was in the commo bunker, which was
underground, a few yards west of our teamhouse. We
had a berm around 'most' of the teamhouse; about 3'
high. The machinegun fire that was coming into the
teamhouse - from several positions within the camp - was
about 3' above the floor - due to the berm. So, as
long as you didn't rise above a prone position, we
'thought' we were OK. However, one of the CIDG
shooters, (he must have had an M2 carbine on full auto)
moved down a trench, right next to the teamhouse, and
fired a long burst thru the one gap in the berm. I
remember seeing the rounds 'stitch' the floor - almost
like a
Hollywood
movie - except that the rounds were hitting only about 2
feet away from me. That was when Tom Cooper, who
was about two feet away from me (we were both of course,
lying flat on the floor), was hit in the upper thigh,
and then the slug went into his groin. Al
Castiano, our Sr. Medic, treated Tom, and put a
field dressing and tourniquet on the wounds.
I
think the only reason the firing stopped, was that the
CIDG company fired up just about all of their ammo -
that's a helluva lot of carbine and machinegun ammo.
Luckily, no grenades were thrown at us. There were
only six of us, we couldn't have stopped them. If
they'd come over the wall/berm we could have nailed a
few, but there was a whole company of them; there's no
way we could have held out. Other than the
machineguns, no other crew served weapons were fired at
us.
While
still in the team house, I remember some aircraft flying
overhead. I don't know who was in the aircraft.
I'm pretty sure that no ground fire was directed towards
the aircraft. I can't remember whether any fixed
wing aircraft or fast movers were flying over our camp.
After
the shooting stopped, a medivac chopper came in, and we loaded
Tom Cooper and the wounded Montagnard on board; and Jim
Spencer had me accompany them. I remember I only
had a t-shirt on; no other shirt. The med evac
chopper flew to the American hospital at Chu Lai with
the doors open, and I thought I'd freeze my ass off
during the flight.
Al
Castiano received a flesh wound in the arm, during the
shoot-out. The round lodged just under the skin. Al
'treated' himself at our camp; removed the round
himself, and was not medevac'd.
After
the shoot-out, the roof of the/our teamhouse looked like
a sieve. What a sight! Fortunately, since it was
May, the monsoon season was over, and we had time
to get up on the roof, and plug up all of the damn holes
from carbines and machine guns.
The
wounded man (he worked for our team as a civilian
employee - he was not a CIDG), who was shot thru
head, surprisingly appeared for awhile to be recovering,
however his condition worsened, and he passed away about
a week or ten days after the shooting.
I'd
returned returned to Gia Vuc from Chu Lai. I
have to admit, that when I learned that he had died
that I was wondering/worried, that we'd have another
shoot-out. Fortunately, there were no problems or
further shootings. Ironically, the wounded
Montagnard worked side-by-side on CA projects with our
teammate, Sgt. Tom Cooper. They worked very close
to each other, and were very good, close friends.
I knew him too - and I was the one that paid him each
month; all of us on the team knew him; but he was
closest to Tom
Following
the shootout, I went on several more patrols/combat
operations with CIDG from the same company that had been
firing at us. But there were no problems.
The rice wine and the initial shooting combined to cause
one helluva shooting. After the shooting was over,
I think that even the CIDG company commander found out
what had really happened, and that the VC guy had tried
to kill Tom Cooper, and that Cooper was trying to get
his pistol away from the VC - and that the fired round
was accidental, and was not intentionally fired at his
brother. The CIDG company commander kept his
company.
Notes
from Jim
Around
1998 I again met Jim Spencer at Ft Bragg. He, Seth
Stevens and I had very good chats - and. of course,
would mention the shootout; but we wouldn't talk a lot
about it. I did ask Jim Spencer how it was that
the whole team except me, was re-located to Minh Long,
following the shoot-out. Jim told me that the
decision was made in order to maintain at least some
sort of continuity from the 'old' team to/with the 'new'
team from Minh Long. Minh Long was east of
us; just down the valley; towards BaTo.
E-mail from then
Senior Commo NCO Charlie Weeks
, A-103, GIA-VUC, 1966
Ref the 'shoot-out' - on May
1st 1966
Sgt Helms was on its own in the Commo bunker.
When the firing started Sgt Helms got on the Radio
calling DaNang for help and two B-57B fast movers flying
off the coast of DaNang heard the call and came
into the valley and flow over the camp. As the
fast movers circled the valley the shooting began to
slow and finally stopped. A little later the Med
Evac choppers arrived and took Cooper, with you along
to Chu Lai. During the shooting I was
laying on the floor in your room looking at the other
side of the team house to insure no one open fire from
that side. (Boy the grenades and ammo on your book
shelf) I was scared that a bullet would hit one of the
grenades and I would get the shrapnel from the
explosion. Yes, the team house was hit with lots
of small arms rounds and we all were lucky to get out
alive. Yes, Castiano was a very good medic and I
think only he and Qualls were wounded?. The blond hair
young medic Jennings was also a very good medic.
A-103
- May 1st 1966
(rotated to Minh Long after the incident)
In
touch 
To
be contacted 
Deceased
If you are able to contact any of the missing Team
members,
please ask them to get in touch with the Gia
Vuc website
A-103
- June 1st 1966
(Original Ming Long team which rotated to Gia Vuc after
the incident)
In
touch To
be contacted Deceased
if you can help us with the
missing names or ranks, please get in touch.
Gia
Vuc website
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Additional
e-mails received in 2003
from Col (Ret) Stephen M. Perry (A-103 CO Mai 66-Dec
66), CSM (Ret) David Klehn, (Commo SSG A-113 April
65-November 65) and Azar C Team Da Nang
(Cpt S.M. Perry was leading
the A-team which swapped with Cpt J.J. Spencer at Gia Vuc.)
"I was doing site preparation for the camp to be
built at Minh Long. Truesdale informed me of a camp uprising
at gia Vuc. (Maj John Truesdale was the B det
commander at Quang Ngai city) In the late
afternoon it was decided that a team swap would be done. Cpt
Bill Parker, B det S-3 and I would go into Gia Vuc on an
otter. We did at dusk. I remember we hadn't a clue where to
go and walked right into the camp and into the first metal
sided building we saw. In fact, we walked into a meeting of
the CIDG and suspected VC camp infiltrators, we beat a hasty
retreat after getting some looks that confirmed we were in
the wrong place. Jim Spenser, A-103 cdr, finally met us and
we went into a well shot up team house. LLDB was holed up in
their team house. we spent a
tense evening with Spenser and heard the story.
Spenser, and subsequently other camp personnel, told me that
a SF Sgt (I can't
remember the name- maybe Cooper) had been on a drinking
spree at on of the CIDG
Combat recon platoons grass houses off camp. some benches
were out and rice wine
flowing . The Sgt had a 357 in a holster and the yards were
crowded around and
behind him on the bench. I believe other USSF were there
also. I was told the
Sgt felt somebody trying to pull his weapon from behind and
he drew the weapon
and it discharged killing the CIDG behind him immediately.
the USSF quickly
after the incident raced back to the team house and later on
came under fire
from the CIDG. I heard the USSF who shot the CIDG was
slightly wounded. What made
the situation worse was the person killed was the brother of
a tribe leader. (we
had Hre and Cua in camp). The story of accidental shooting
apparently was the
official version. I didn't hear about any confrontation
leading to the shooting
or quick draw contest. I can attest to the lethal rice wine
they had up there.
The decision had been made before I went to Gia Vuc with the
B det S-3 that my
team would flip with Spenser's except for the XO and a few
others. I left XO
Buman, a Radio opr and Mike Stearns, demo at Minh Long- (FYI
Mike Stearns was
KIA at Minh Long the day he was to meet us in DaNang to
rotate back Mar 67. Mike
volunteered on a reaction force on his last day at Minh
Long.. I know other USSF
camp members refused to go out and Mike stepped up).
I did learn a few things about Gia Vuc from Ne....u and
"Cowboy' the interpreters, and the French-Yard combat
platoon leader. The camp had a significant number
of VC infiltrators".
Col
(Ret) Stephen M. Perry (A-103 CO Mai 66-Dec 66)
The chain of events is
also confirmed by a Azar who was in the C team Commo Room in
Da Nang on that day!
"One of the SF guys was in a local village and one
CIDG tried to take his pistol away from him. During the
confrontation, the CIDG was shot and killed. The SF team
holed up in the teamhouse and the CIDG wanted to kill them
all. The LLDB was trying to diffuse the situation.
Some shots were fired at the Teamhouse, but the SF were told
not to fire back. The Mike Force was alerted to possibly go
in and air support was put on standby. It was pretty tense
situation for a while. Both the USSF and the LLDB sent flash
messages alerting the C Team of the situation. The USSF Team
was rotated out and sent to another camp. They went directly
to that camp and did not rotate through Da Nang."
Information obtained thanks to CSM Dave Klehn.
(SSG, A-113, Gia Vuc April 1965-November 1965) and Azar C
Team Da Nang.
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Steve Sherman the
archivist for
the Special Forces and Special Operations Associations
Need your help! |
