Steady stand at LZ Bird: a savage assault by North Vietnamese Army regulars was stopped by the combined efforts of artillerymen and infantrymen at LZ Bird in Binh Dinh Province on Dec. 27, 1966

VFW Magazine, August, 2004 by Al Hemingway

Staff Sgt. Delbert Jennings did not feel good. His stomach pains had gotten worse, and he had trouble sleeping. Besides his illness, he was worried. His undermanned weapons platoon was assigned to defend the northern sector of the perimeter at LZ (Landing Zone) Bird. It was a large area to defend for a mere 22 soldiers, some of whom were new replacements and had seen no action.

LZ Bird was one of several forward artillery bases that provided support for the 1st Air Cavalry Division in the Kim Son Valley. Many felt Bird was located in an exposed area--"a freak of geography fashioned by the vagaries of a meandering river," according to one description. From the air, it resembled a T-bone steak. It was 250 meters in length and about 80 meters wide and was bordered on the south and west by the Kim Son River.

A dozen howitzer positions spotted the LZ. The 155mm guns of C Btry., 6th Bn., 16th Artillery, were situated at the northern perimeter, and at the southern tip were the 105mm cannons of B Btry., 2nd Bn., 19th Artillery. Interspersed among the gun positions were infantrymen from C Co., 1st Bn., 12th Inf. Regt., 1st Air Cav Div.

'Like Sitting Ducks'

Just before Christmas 1966, both sides called a truce to hostilities. However, at 1 a.m. on Dec. 27, the unmistakable sound of incoming mortar rounds were heard. The chattering of enemy heavy machine guns and 57mm recoilless rifles cracked in the night air. Soon, soldiers from the 22nd North Vietnamese Army (NVA) Regiment had successfully breached the perimeter.

"The moon was out and between the rain clouds ... and you could see hundreds of NVA, most in single file, coming at us," wrote Spc. 4 John McGinn, Jr. "I was on the northeast side. I felt like we were sitting ducks."

Spc. 4 Gary Peasley and Spc. 4 Donald Woods began raking the NVA attackers with M-60 machine gun fire. They stood their ground, enabling Jennings and Staff Sgt. Colmar Johnson to muster a group of GIs to re-establish a secondary perimeter.

As the two NCOs were rallying the troops in their sector, 1st Lt. John Piper and 1st Lt. Charles Campanella emerged from their tent to see 40 to 50 NVA soldiers breaching the southeast corner of the perimeter. Both officers began to withdraw to the gun parapets to defend them. They made it safely to the FDC (Fire Direction Center) and were joined by battery commander Capt. Leonard Shlenker, Jr., 1st Lt. Michael Livengood, 1st Lt. John Reike, Staff Sgt. Carroll Crain and radio operator Spc. 4 Clint Houston.

"Some of the NVA jumped over the trench going to another gun position," Houston recalled. "Lt. Livengood fired his M-79 as they jumped over. I fired at one NVA coming up the trench yelling at me. I know two of my tracer rounds hit him."

Courage Saves Lives

As Shlenker's group was leapfrogging toward No. 1 gun pit, Jennings and Johnson's men were fighting for their lives. Jennings killed about a dozen NVA and then another three who were attempting to destroy one of the 155mm howitzers.

Jennings' Medal of Honor citation reads: "Observing that some of the defenders were unaware of an enemy force to their rear, he raced through a fire-swept area to warn the men, turn their fire on the enemy, and lead them into the secondary perimeter.

"He personally led a group of volunteers well beyond friendly lines to an area where eight seriously wounded men lay. Braving enemy sniper fire and ignoring the presence of booby traps in the area, they recovered the eight men."

Meanwhile, at the gunpit, desperate measures were necessary. "I would look to the rear, then move up, and rest my back on Livengood's boots," Houston said. "This ditch was only about 2 1/2 to 3 feet deep. Then Lt. Reike got hit in the throat and the bullet traveled down to his stomach.

"We tried to stop the bleeding as best we could, but the NVA were swarming all around us. We gave him a .45 pistol and told him we would try to keep them off of him as we went for more help."

As Reike lay dying, Spc. 4 Charles Tournage arrived on the scene. The young medic had been all over the battlefield, helping wounded soldiers. He was completely naked. When the opening shots were fired, he had no time to get dressed.

After giving first aid to Reike, Tournage raced to find additional medical supplies. In his search, he narrowly escaped death. In the darkness, a charging NVA mistook him for a fellow soldier. "As the Viet swerved off on an oblique, Tournage had time to get off one M-79 round that, armed in just the right split-second, hit the target in the middle of the back and tore the North Vietnamese apart," military historian S.L.A. Marshall wrote in his book Bird: The Christmastide Battle.

Combat was intense, especially when confined to isolated pockets. "We fired our M-60 machine gun for three to five minutes ... using 800-900 rounds of ammo before we were overrun," McGinn explained. "We played dead. It was no use in trying to fight off any more of them. They kicked me and went through my pockets and took my billfold and watch. I lay there praying, waiting to be shot in the head."