This is a pic of the CH-46 that would fly me into Hell, or as the mundane world called it...FB Argonne, along the border with Laos. We are being picked up at FB Alpine. The original intel was that the LZ at FB Argonne was 'cold' (meaning no opposition). The first chopper in, a UH-1 (Huey), with a contingent of Recon and Engineers, made their landing on the Upper LZ, where they were immediately engaged by the NVA force holding Argonne. The chopper was incapacitated, and it's occupants, some wounded, found themselves under intense small arms fire, eventually they were evaced by a hovering chopper. This caused us to have to land on the Lower LZ and assault the hill from the bottom up. Turns out the NVA had dug themselves into the previously abandoned FB and were ready for us. 3rd platoon (I was in 1st Plt, not yet Facman) was the first to land and suffered many casualties this day.
This is the view, taken several days after our initial assault, from the Lower LZ looking up towards the crest. The downed Huey is out of sight, as the contours hide our view of the Upper LZ. You can see the colored panel used to designate the Lower LZ at center right. My fighting position for the next 2 weeks, is just visible at center left. For the first week, all inbound choppers brought down 82mm mortar fire from positions in Laos, causing only a few birds to actually make it onto the LZ during that time, most would abort the landings as we reported to them that we were taking incoming on the LZ. It got so bad they even tried dropping parachutes with resupply for us...but all 3 attempts were failures, and we watched the parachutes descend into the jungle, far beyond our reach. Eventually airstrikes were called in on the resupply chutes to deny the NVA use of our supplies. By the end of the first week on Argonne, we were running short on chow, ammo and medical supplies. Needless to say, with my hole being this close to the LZ, whenever a bird would try and come in, the LZ was what they targeted, and we had to dodge a lot of shrapnel down there. I was not always successful, and I took some shrapnel in my left arm/hand while jumping into my hole during one barrage. I was not alone, as there were many Purple Hearts awarded for the occupiers of FB Argonne.
