TBS 2-67 Cruisebook_Updated_7Jan23

John Burwell Wilkes
the roughrider, and I was picked to provide fire support protection,
which I actually had to provide once on the trip to foil an ambush
much to the captain’s appreciation. As a result, we became very
good friends, and on several occasions I enjoyed wonderful,
almost back in the Sates, type meals with him whenever I was able
to make it to Da Nang. I think he may have been instrumental in
getting MACV to stick with their original liaison selection and let
me go back home to the 27thMarines.
Later that summer, my battalion was sent back to Go Noi Island
to resume Operation Allenbrook. Intelligence sources were telling
us that the NVA division that had been kicked out of the island
after the Tet offensive was filtering back.
Several memorable occurrences highlighted my tenure in Go
Noi. At first, my time there was uneventful. The enemy only
seemed to be active at night. For lack of something better to do,
we concocted a tactic we called a “Killer Team.” I would go out at
nautical twilight with my radio operator and two riflemen and set
up for the night in a concealed position of observation where I
could launch artillery ambushes on moving enemy units –
needless to say, without giving away our position.
Most nights yielded no action, but one night, before reaching our
planned observation post, we were almost stumbled upon by an
estimated squad­size enemy unit. We were camouflaged and
hiding in the darkness of the bushes as they trudged within feet of
us. Our level of fear was debilitating. I actually wondered if they
might be able to hear my heart beat, because I thought I could. I
turned off the radio to make sure noises coming from it wouldn’t
give us away. If we had been compromised, there was no doubt we
would have come up shooting, but all we had was my pistol and
the two M­16s. I don’t remember my radio operator even carrying
a weapon other than a big knife. We would have tried to kill them
all as quickly as possible, but there were too many of them to
reasonably think we would be successful before they would be
able to “waste” us.
Thankfully they proceeded in single file right on by us and
headed down the hill to the river. I watched them with my
binoculars, and initiated a fire mission as soon as they were far
enough away to allow me to whisper into the radio’s microphone.
I saw them pull a large wooden boat out of a thicket along the
bank of the river. My fire mission was delayed awaiting clearance
for unknown reasons. The VC all got in the boat and started
paddling up river. I kept moving my target location as they got
closer to the bend in the river which would cause me to lose sight
of them. Somewhere along the effort I had asked for VT fuses
(Variable Time, which would cause airbursts 20 feet above the
boat if they were on target). The fire mission was finally cleared
after the boat had rounded the bend and disappeared from sight. I
again moved the target location on a guess where they might be,
and the mission was finally fired. Apparently I had guessed right.
Several minutes later the boat came floating back around the bend
much lower in the water as if sinking. We could see motionless
arms draped over the gunwales before the boat disappeared
downstream heading for the ocean. We had experienced all the
excitement we could handle and stayed put until dawn before
making our way back to the company. Again I realized that I was
one lucky son of a bitch.
One day the company commander asked me to call a fire mission
on an automatic weapons position with which I immediately
A‐60