Night Attack at Dau Tieng Airstrip - Mar 67
Article published in the Army Reporter on or about 1 April 1967 about the 1 March 1967 Mortar Attack at Dau Tieng
Centaurs involved: Charles "Tony" Robertson, Frank Delvy (Deceased) and SGT Robert E. Price
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
CU CHI (25th INF-IO)
Captain Charles A. Robinson, helicopter pilot in the 25th Infantry Division, dug his face into the soft dirt of the bunker and waited.
He squirmed as red ants began to crawl inside his fatigues, biting him as they moved. Once more, from outside, came the deadly whooshing sound, then the explosion.
The Viet Cong were making a night attack on the Dau Tieng airstrip, the base of Troop D, 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry.
The first round from the VC barrage had landed on the edge of the trees, just beyond two tents where the helicopter crews were sleeping. Fragments had made a ripping sound against the canvas.
The second round had exploded less than 100 meters away, on the far side of two paired gunships. The VC gunners had a bracket with the tents and the helicopters in the middle.
The next mortar round failed to split the bracket. Pilots and crews sprang from the bunker, ran to the two aircraft, and began to pull a pre-flight inspection for damage, ignoring the rounds which continued to fall close by.
Seven minutes after the first round had landed, the two choppers were airborne, searching for their targets.
Team leader,CPT Francis X."Frank" Delvy, spearheaded the attac; his weapons systems spitting rockets and solid tracer from the pylon-mounted machineguns. Hot on his tail was Robinson’s ship, which blasted the area with rockets and 40mm grenades.
The gunship pilots had more to worry about than mortars. The VC were executing coordinated ground attacks on several isolated outposts outside the perimeter of the camp.
Heavy enemy fire ripped into an armored column on its way to reinforce the outposts.
As the pilots swooped in low to lay fire into the enemy positions, the VC turned their automatic weapons skyward. “Every now and then I’d hear a crack,” recalled door gunner SGT Robert E. Price. Each door gunner fired some 5000 rounds that night.
Four hours later, it was over.
The armed helicopters of Troop D, based here, provided nighttime counter-mortar standby teams for both Cu Chi and Dau Tieng base camps on a regular schedule. They share this duty with the 25th Aviation Battalion and the 116th Hornets Aviation Company.