TBS 2-67 Cruisebook_Updated_7Jan23

John Burwell Wilkes
TOUR OF DUTY IN VIET NAM
After three months of Artillery School at Fort Sill, then six
months of Vietnamese language school in Washington, a torn knee
cartilage while playing on the Headquarters football team, and
subsequent surgery with five months of rehabilitation at Camp
Pendleton, I finally was ready to go to Viet Nam in the spring of
1968. At the old El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Southern
California, I boarded a Flying Tiger Boeing 707 for WESTPAC.
The flight terminated in Okinawa, and I spent several days
“processing” at Camp Butler on the Japanese island doing nothing
of any importance that I can remember, except for making “liberty
calls” every evening before I was able to secure a seat on another
chartered commercial airliner bound for Da Nang..
The night landing at Da Nang was my first war zone
melodramatic moment. We were ordered to don helmets and flack
jackets while all lights on the aircraft, including the cabin lights,
were extinguished due to the prevailing paranoia about potential
rocket attacks against the city, particularly aimed against the Da
Nang airport/US airbase.
The next day, as directed by my orders, I reported to the 1st
Marine Division, or rather to a First Sergeant of that command.
The orders said to report to the commanding general, but of
course, I was no Ollie North. My paramount concern was to
secure an assignment with an artillery unit. I was terrified that,
because of my State Department Vietnamese language training, I
might get assigned to an Interrogator/translator team. As it
happened, I had nothing to fear. I was assigned as a forward
observer to “F” Battery of 2nd Battalion 13th Marines. I thought I
had successfully concealed my language training from the division
“Top,” but, as I later discovered, I was completely wrong about
that. I also was told that my high class standing at the Fort Sill
Artillery School had saved the day for me in this regard.
My battery was based in the huge triangular compound of the
27th Marine regiment about 10 or 12 miles south and a little east
of Da Nang in a location near the ocean called “The Desert.” I was
immediately reassigned as the forward observer for “M” Company
3rd Battalion, 27th Marines. The Desert was a very hot place as
early summer arrived. The compound had plenty of generators so
electricity was easy to come by, but air conditioning was not an
infantry thing. I maintained a cot in the officers’ hooch of the
battery, as it was less uncomfortable than the infantry digs
although still not air conditioned.
My regiment had been deployed and involved with Operation
Allenbrook in an area about 15 more miles south called Go Noi
Island. The purpose of the operation was to stymie an NVA
division that had filtered in from the western mountains preparing
to attack Da Nang from the south. There had been fierce fighting
with heavy casualties on both sides. As I arrived, my battalion was
newly returned to its home base and licking its wounds. We were
only doing patrolling around the immediate area of the compound
for the first couple of weeks of my tour. I put a lot of sweaty miles
under my belt but saw very little combat. I was beginning to think
there wasn’t much to this over hyped war.
I had been told many times not to wear rank insignia, because
VC snipers always watched for the officers. I thought the warning
A‐52