Read Online Abandoned in Hell : The Fight for Vietnam's Firebase Kate (9780698144262) by Joseph L. (FRW) Marvin; Galloway William; Wolf Albracht - Free Book Online Page B
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assignment to six months, Pentagon planners ensured that few American soldiers would fight our difficult war under an experienced and capable commander. This is not to say that there were no good unit commanders, or that even the best and most experienced officers donât make mistakes. But when the average unit commander has three monthsâ job experience, his troops suffer for it, and some will die.
Captain Klaus Adam had eight years on active duty when he arrived in Vietnam. He had attended nine Army schools, and graduated with distinction from eight. He had commanded a Sergeant Missile battery in peacetime Germany. But he had no experience whatsoever with field artillery, so his first combat assignment was as assistant operations officer of the 52nd Artillery Group, a headquarters for several field artillery battalions under IFFV Artillery. âI was basically the night duty officer,â he explains. Six months after arriving in Vietnam, in August 1969, he took command of Charlie Battery, 1/92 Artillery.
In late September he flew into Kate for a look-see. âI met the CIDG force commander [Special Forces Captain Lucian Barham],â recalls Adam. âI surveyed the defensive positions and made sure that my guys were adequately defended, because artillerymen canât fire their guns and take care of themselves at the same time. You either shoot or you duck; you canât do both. At the time, I still had the stupid idea that they were out there to support the Mike Force and the South Vietnamese forces that were supposedly out there; artillery is never told the plan of action for the ground forces. There was no need to brief us, because all the ground forces need do is call for fire. It didnât matter
why
they called it in; we just sent the fire where and when they wanted it. So, my assumption was that there were combat teamsout there doing sweeps, and patrols, and going after the bad guys, and we were there to support them.â
In fact, there were almost no US or ARVN forces in the area at all. Adam was later told by an IFFV Artillery colonel that his men had been positioned as bait, designed to lure the North Vietnamese across the border, where they could be destroyed.
Nobody on Kate was ever told about that.
After looking around for some twenty minutes and finding nothing to complain about, Adam got back in his chopper and flewaway.
Â
When you heard your country calling, Illinois, Illinois,
Where the shot and shell were falling, Illinois, Illinois,
When the Southern host withdrew,Â
Pitting Gray against the Blue, There were none more brave than
   you, Illinois, Illinois,Â
There were none more brave than you, Illinois.
âIllinois State Song
THREE
Rock Island, Illinois
T he first train to link Chicago with the Mississippi River arrived at the sleepy river town of Rock Island, Illinois, in February 1854 on the tracks of the just-completed Chicago & Rock Island Railroad. Building across the riverâs largest isle to save construction costs, the rail company thrust two bridges over to what is now Davenport, Iowa, opening Chicagoâs slaughterhouses, grain mills, and rail network to the farmers of the Great Plains. Rock Island boomed. In 1880 the US Army opened the Rock Island Arsenal, today the nationâs largest federal armaments manufacturer, and the Quad CitiesâRock Island and neighbors Moline, Illinois, and Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowaâbecame a manufacturing center. (Even after East Moline was incorporated in 1903, these five tough river towns with closely connected economies remained known as the Quad Cities.) Dominated by the United Auto Workers, they were a union bastion whose blue-collar members swore allegiance to FDR and the New Deal and could be counted on to vote Democratic in every election.
I was born in Rock Island in August 1948, the third of five children ofsecond-generation German American farmers. I am certain that my father,
Captain Klaus Adam had eight years on active duty when he arrived in Vietnam. He had attended nine Army schools, and graduated with distinction from eight. He had commanded a Sergeant Missile battery in peacetime Germany. But he had no experience whatsoever with field artillery, so his first combat assignment was as assistant operations officer of the 52nd Artillery Group, a headquarters for several field artillery battalions under IFFV Artillery. âI was basically the night duty officer,â he explains. Six months after arriving in Vietnam, in August 1969, he took command of Charlie Battery, 1/92 Artillery.
In late September he flew into Kate for a look-see. âI met the CIDG force commander [Special Forces Captain Lucian Barham],â recalls Adam. âI surveyed the defensive positions and made sure that my guys were adequately defended, because artillerymen canât fire their guns and take care of themselves at the same time. You either shoot or you duck; you canât do both. At the time, I still had the stupid idea that they were out there to support the Mike Force and the South Vietnamese forces that were supposedly out there; artillery is never told the plan of action for the ground forces. There was no need to brief us, because all the ground forces need do is call for fire. It didnât matter
why
they called it in; we just sent the fire where and when they wanted it. So, my assumption was that there were combat teamsout there doing sweeps, and patrols, and going after the bad guys, and we were there to support them.â
In fact, there were almost no US or ARVN forces in the area at all. Adam was later told by an IFFV Artillery colonel that his men had been positioned as bait, designed to lure the North Vietnamese across the border, where they could be destroyed.
Nobody on Kate was ever told about that.
After looking around for some twenty minutes and finding nothing to complain about, Adam got back in his chopper and flewaway.
Â
When you heard your country calling, Illinois, Illinois,
Where the shot and shell were falling, Illinois, Illinois,
When the Southern host withdrew,Â
Pitting Gray against the Blue, There were none more brave than
   you, Illinois, Illinois,Â
There were none more brave than you, Illinois.
âIllinois State Song
THREE
Rock Island, Illinois
T he first train to link Chicago with the Mississippi River arrived at the sleepy river town of Rock Island, Illinois, in February 1854 on the tracks of the just-completed Chicago & Rock Island Railroad. Building across the riverâs largest isle to save construction costs, the rail company thrust two bridges over to what is now Davenport, Iowa, opening Chicagoâs slaughterhouses, grain mills, and rail network to the farmers of the Great Plains. Rock Island boomed. In 1880 the US Army opened the Rock Island Arsenal, today the nationâs largest federal armaments manufacturer, and the Quad CitiesâRock Island and neighbors Moline, Illinois, and Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowaâbecame a manufacturing center. (Even after East Moline was incorporated in 1903, these five tough river towns with closely connected economies remained known as the Quad Cities.) Dominated by the United Auto Workers, they were a union bastion whose blue-collar members swore allegiance to FDR and the New Deal and could be counted on to vote Democratic in every election.
I was born in Rock Island in August 1948, the third of five children ofsecond-generation German American farmers. I am certain that my father,
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