Bravo Troop vindicated

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32567, 29 March 1971, Page 15

Bravo Troop vindicated

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright)

YELLOW BRICK ROAD (Vietnam), March 28.

The men of Bravo Troop, who last week refused an order to advance down a highway near the Laotian border, will be sent back to their parent unit “with their heads up and flag flying,”

“They fought as any American outfit should, commented Lieutenant-Col-onel Robert Osborne, commander of the Third Squadron, sth Cavalry, describing the armoured company’s return to battle with his men in the last few days. The Third Squadron took over Bravo Troop after its 53 members had refused to move out to retrieve some damaged equipment, saying they would be risking an ambush. No disciplinary action was taken against the men, but the troop’s commander was relieved for making what was described as “an error in tactics.” The troop was given a new commander and attached to the Third Squadron.

Colonel Osborne said that the troop would return in a few days to the First Squadron of the Ist Cavalry, America! Division.

The fighting began when a dozen men from Bravo Troop dismounted from their tanks and armoured carriers to sween a valley just off

the Yellow Brick Road—a trail cut by the cavalry through the jungle-covered mountains from Khe Sanh to “Emerald City,” the squadron’s forward support base, to the north-west.

The Bravo patrol was hit, suffered casualties and fell back, unable to recover its dead and wounded. Reinforcements were moved up, and the men went back into tiie draw near a dry stream bed, and were thrown back again, two more men being killed.

On Thursday, he said, Bravo Troop was involved in one of the heaviest engagements faced by the Americans since the beginning of the westward drive that paved the way for the South Vietnamese campaign in Laos. Six men from the troop and reinforcing elements of the Third Squadron were killed, and five were wounded.

Colonel Osborne said that during the early stages of the fighting, a North Vietnamese soldier threw a handgrenade which landed at the feet of one of his lieutenants. A man from the Bravo Troop quickly picked it up and hurled it back, but the grenade exploded in the air and the trooper was killed. They fought their way in for a third time, trying to recover the bodies of their colleagues and found a missing lieutenant, wounded in the leg and unable to walk. “They began to take the lieutenant out on a litter,” Colonel Osborne said, "but came under fire again. So they threw the litter away and took turns carrying the

lieutenant up the side of the mountain to safety.” On Friday, Brigadier-Gen-eral John Hill, commanding officer, Ist Brigade, sth Mechanised Division, flew from Khe Sanh to “Emerald City” to pin medals on a doien of the men who had taken part in the action; but when he got there, they were already back in the draw, trying to recover the dead they had left behind, and the awards ceremony had to be postponed. Captain Adolph Borysco, Bravo’s new commander, praised the unit "I have seldom seen a troop which had higher morale than this,” he said. “I couldn’t ask for better men—they are willing to go into a fight anywhere, any place, any time.”