The Sun Sets On Vietnam; The Firebase War, Revised Edition: The Firebase War Revised Edition

By Robert B. Haseman

Leaving his college deferment behind, this son of a WWII veteran enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1967 to take part in the Vietnam War. He was sent to Officer Candidate School, became a 2nd Lieutenant and in 1969 led an infantry platoon in combat when he was 21. In late 1969, President Nixon began withdrawing troops creating doubt about the successful outcome of the war and when the author returned home he realized that his Vietnam service was not respected. He put the war out of his mind, got married and began his career, but after retirement went back to write about his war experiences. Writing brought some closure but also compelled him to join some other Marines in 2019 to return to a mountaintop in western Quang tri Province to revisit the old FSB Russell. In so doing he learned some things he had repressed or never knew and gained a truer understanding of the emotional cost of the war.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Nov 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781716546037

Book preview

THE

SUN SETS ON

VIETNAM

THE FIREBASE WAR

REVISED EDITION

ROBERT B. HASEMAN

Copyright © 2016 Robert B. Haseman.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-7165-4604-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7165-4603-7 (e)

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Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 08/05/2020

Dedicated to the unheralded infantrymen

who fought and died in Vietnam

1

AN INFANTRYMAN’S

MEMOIR

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On September 21st, 2019, I returned to Fire Support Base Russell in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam. I joined three old Marines, two of our sons, one’s wife, our guides and a local TV reporter to make the difficult climb to the old firebase. We were drawn back to Russell to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the accidental explosion that occurred there in 1969 and to honor the dead and wounded including a Marine named Jimmy Jackson. After the explosion Jackson was thought to have been wounded and medevac’d out but he never arrived at the military hospital and his disappearance has been a mystery ever since. In January of 2019, the Department of Defense changed their analysis of this incident and conceded that he was most likely left behind on Russell, buried in a collapsed bunker.

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Bob Haseman’s

return to Russell

Fifty years ago I was a platoon commander on Russell when the firebase was slated to be destroyed and abandoned. On the morning of September 21, 1969 we watched the engineers finish placing C-4 explosives inside each bunker and fashion a spider web of detonation cord connecting every charge. We were sitting on a bomb ready to blow and after the Marines were evacuated the engineers intended to set off the explosion. Just before 1300 hours the captain ordered my Platoon to board the first helicopter that landed. The other Marines were to board helicopters that circled above the base, leaving the engineers to complete the demolition. But it didn’t work out as planned; after we lifted away from the LZ a fire started and the hill began to explode prematurely.

This experience is my most poignant memory of my time in Vietnam when I led 2nd platoon, Lima Co. in 1969. My infantry company was part of 3rd Battalion 4th Marines, 3rd Marine Division which was in the III Marine Expeditionary Force. The 3rd Marine Division was comprised of three infantry regiments: the 3rd, the 4th, and the 9th. A Marine division contained between 10,000 and 15,000 troops, though less than half were in infantry regiments. The other units in the division supported the infantry. The infantry regiments of 3rd Division contained about 2000 Marines. Regiments were composed of three infantry battalions each containing about 700 Marines. The battalions included three infantry companies composed of three platoons counting the attached personnel from the weapons platoon.

The department of Defense (DOD) database reports that 2,100,000 men and women served in Vietnam between 1964 and 1973. They represented only eight percent of the 26,000,000 Americans who were eligible for military service. Most potential draftees were given exemptions for being college students, fathers, clergy, teachers, engineers or conscientious objectors. Of those who served in Vietnam, 58,152 were killed and 153,303 were wounded. The burden of combat fell on the non-college-bound young men in infantry related specialties. The Marine Corps had nearly twice the per capita casualty rate of the other branches of service with one in four being killed or wounded. But that didn’t count the number of servicemen and women who later committed suicide, or suffered guilt and depression after they returned home.

The platoon I commanded contained about 40 Marines actually in the field. There were others who were injured or unable to serve, but they were in the rear area, not in the bush. As a second lieutenant, I held the lowest officer rank but the highest rank in the platoon. The company commander, who was usually a captain, was my boss. Second lieutenants ranked above all warrant officers and enlisted personnel. In the field, my platoon always included at least one sergeant usually of staff sergeant rank, to assist in command. The rest of my platoon was made up of corporals, lance corporals, privates first class (PFC), and privates. Each platoon was further subdivided into three squads of about 12 Marines broken down into three fire teams consisting of 4 Marines. Corporals usually led squads, and lance corporals led fire teams.

There were nine ranks for enlisted personnel, five for warrant officers and 10 for commissioned officers. Officers usually commanded units of enlisted personnel, or piloted fixed wing planes or helicopters. Warrant officers occupied the five ranks below commissioned officers but above the enlisted ranks. They often flew helicopters and had usually started out as enlisted Marines. I have arranged the ranks below, starting with the lowest private to the highest general.

Enlisted Ranks

Private E-1, Private First Class E-2, Lance Corporal E-3, Corporal E-4, Sergeant E-5, Staff Sergeant E-6, Gunnery Sergeant E-7, Master Sergeant or First Sergeant E-8, and Master Gunnery Sergeant, Sergeant Major, or Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps E-9.

Warrant Officer Ranks

Warrant Officer W-1 through W-5

Commissioned Officer Ranks

Second Lieutenant O-1, First Lieutenant O-2, Captain O-3, Major O-4, Lieutenant Colonel O-5, Colonel O-6, Brigadier General O-7, Major General O-8, Lieutenant General O-9, General O-10.

In war, military organizations are sometimes combined in inconsistent ways to complete a specific mission.

Note: This listing of ranks applies to the Marine Corps. Other service branches use different titles for some of the ranks. For example, a Navy Captain O-6 is a Colonel in the Marine Corps. A Marine E-3 is a Lance Corporal while an Army E-3 is a Private First Class. The easiest way to compare ranks between service branches is to determine the E or O number, as in E-5 or O-8. An E-3 in the navy has the same rank as an E-3 in the Marine Corps.

2

HELLO VIETNAM

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It surprised me to see the many fresh graves in the Vietnamese cemetery we passed by after leaving the rear area at Dong Ha. There were too many for a village as small as the one we’d just driven through. From our jeep, I looked at each Vietnamese peasant with suspicion, but as we drove west we lost contact with civilians and were alone as we bumped along the dirt road they called Route 9, headed toward our