By Rickey Robertson
It was two days before Christmas, December 23, 1967. The tiny band of paratroopers, members of the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP), were settled in on top of a hill known only as Hill 1153 in Bao Loc Province, Republic of Vietnam. Two LRRP teams had been inserted three days before in an attempt to locate Vietcong tax collectors that had been wreaking havoc along this section of Highway 1. The other LRRP team had made visual contact with the V.C. the day before and the brigade’s Tactical Operations Center had ordered both teams to return to their respective points of insertion. They were told that they would be extracted from the jungle the next day. Sgt. Peppy Wenglarz looked at his team leader, S/Sgt. Weems, and said, “If I had a bunch of people with guns chasing me, I’d head for the high ground.” S/Sgt Weems readily agreed and it was decided to keep everyone on guard until the danger had passed.
The moon shone brightly, and visual contact could be made at 25 meters or further. At 3:00 a.m. the sound of an object hitting the ground was heard by SP4 Mroch, who in turn alerted S/Sgt. Weems and the rest of the team. The small LRRP team would be no match for a large-size infantry unit. Slowly, a figure could be made out, it was a Vietcong soldier with an AK47 in his hand. On orders from S/Sgt. Weems, the team blew their Claymore mines, and the fight was on!!!!
The LRRP team had caught the enemy off guard and the element of surprise turned out to be the deciding factor. The enemy couldn’t figure out what they had run into or how many were there. In the initial contact, 4 or 5 VC had fallen. But how many were left? As Sgt. Wenglarz looked over the top of his combat boots, he could make out the figure of an enemy soldier less than 6 feet away. As he slowly reached for his M16, S/Sgt. Weems blew the remaining Claymore mines. The Vietcong returned fire so close to Sgt. Wenglarz that he could feel the heat from their tracer bullets as they passed near his face. Something hit Sgt. Wenglarz in the head, knocking him backwards to the ground. He realized he had been hit and immediately started calling, “Medic! Medic! I’m hit!” The team medic slid up to him and found that a piece of shrapnel had hit him on the head, leaving a small cut and a large goose egg size knot on his head.
During a short lull in the battle, the team found out that they had nowhere to go. All they could do was to try and hold out until daylight and hope that gunships could help get them out.
Once again, the enemy could be heard crawling up through the jungle towards the team. S/Sgt. Weems had the team throw a volley of grenades as the enemy rushed the positions. As more and more enemy attacked, S/Sgt Weems called in artillery to within 25 meters of the American position. The artillery unit commander stopped the barrage because it was so close to the team.
S/Sgt Weems told the artillery commander that the Vietcong were right on top of the team and to fire the mission right into the American positions. The artillery commander asked how close the enemy was, and S/Sgt. Weems advised him to hang on and he’d let him talk to one of the attacking VC!
About an hour before sunrise, the Americans realized that they were extremely low on ammunition and were almost out of grenades. The team then used their C4 explosive and made grenades out of them by placing spent M16 rounds with blasting caps inside as detonators. Suddenly, the VC set a large fire right in front of the team’s position in an attempt to flush them out. It looked like the team would not live to get off that hill. By the Grace of God, the helicopter gunships were almost to the team. The gunships came in low and began to fire their rockets and machine guns. On their second run, the Huey “slicks” came in and extracted the team. As they lifted off, the team could still see the gunships working out on the VC positions. When the team got back to their base camp, they found only Sgt. Wenglarz had been wounded. As they checked their ammo, they found that they had only 8 bullets left. No grenades, no white phosphorous, no C4, and no Claymore mines. The team had expended 3982 rounds of M16 rounds, 10 white phosphorous grenades, 50 fragmentation grenades, and 32 pounds of C4.
Enemy losses were estimated as “several hundred”. What courage the American fighting man has as he faces insurmountable odds on the field of battle. We thank our veterans for the service they have rendered to our country. And remember, 24 hours a day 365 days out of the year and even on holidays they are on duty guarding our nation. And this LRRP team lived to enjoy Christmas 1967!