Friday, June 2, 1972
Report Few Nva Left In An Loc
By Spec. 4 Allen Schaefer
LAI KHE, Vietnam --Less than a company of North Vietnamese Army troops remain in the northern sector of An Loc, but most of them are solidly entrenched in basement bunkers, according to an American adviser who was flown out of the provincial capital Wednesday.Capt. Harold Moffett, 29, deputy senior adviser to the 3rd South Vietnamese Ranger Group, who spent 53 days in An Loc, estimated there were less than 50 NVA soldiers left in the city.He said ground action and artillery fire in the last four days have been extremely light.One of four advisers lifted out by helicopter, Moffett, a native of Haughton, La., said Communist soldiers fled their bunkers when AC130 Spectre gunships fired on their positions. He said the American attack plane was the single most effective weapon used at An Loc.Living in a bunker and existing on a diet of rice and canned meat, Moffett came close to death when a 122mm rocket penetrated the wall of his shelter and exploded. He was saved because he was against the right wall at the right time.Moffett said the NVA has been leaving casualties behind and that Ranger patrols have discovered an increasing number of enemy bodies. He also said the Rangers were spurred on by the knowledge that the 21st Div., is pushing up from the south on Highway 13.Although the U.S. Air Force was able to resupply An Loc with ammunition and food stuffs after repeated experimentation with different types of drops, no replacements for the Ranger element were brought in, Moffett said.Maj. Kenneth A. Ingram, 33, of Huntsville, Ala., a fire support coordinator for the 5th Div., who spent 31 days in the embattled city, also agreed that the Spectre was the most valuable weapon in the Air Force"s arsenal."There is nothing the NVA could do when the Spectre was overhead except crawl into a hole and hope that it didn't hit them," he said.Ingram, who was responsible for coordinating American and South Vietnamese air power, said that for the last five days An Loc has been averaging about 500 Communist rounds of indirect fire, and that the shellings had reached a low point of about 300.The night of May 11, when the Reds launched a major attack, Ingram said, his bunker took several direct hits, but a roof of poured concrete and sandbags sustained the impacts."An Loc as I left it today was the most incredible site you could pose to your imagination. Nothing is preserved. Everything there is rubble. The stench of garbage and death pervades the air. Every vehicle in the city is totally devastated," he said.Another Ranger adviser brought out of An Loc, Spec. 7 James A. Takota, said the North Vietnamese are barely holding onto their positions in the city."I think we got them beat," said the 41-year-old career soldier from Hawaii.The other adviser, Sgt. 1.C. Jesse L. Yeartha, 37, from Silver City, N.M., served with the South Vietnamese Ranger element that occupied the northern most sector of An Loc."Report Few NVA Left in An Loc", by Spec. 4 Allen Schaefer, published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes, Friday, June 2, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.