Fordham Veteran's Writing Project - Starlight

Starlight – Bernie Seiler,br />
It was predicted to be a rare night with no moon, no visible stars due to heavy cloud cover, and no discernible ambient light in this remote part of Tay Ninh Province. The depth of the anticipated darkness made armor units such as ours extremely vulnerable to attack by sappers. Sappers were highly trained operatives from commando units of the North Vietnamese Army or the local Viet Cong. Their individual cells usually included four soldiers, but it was not unusual to have as many as twenty or thirty included in an operation. Having their bodies covered with charcoal dust and grease, wearing only black loin cloths, they were nearly invisible in the dark. Their mission was to penetrate perimeters and then assassinate, destroy and terrorize who/whatever was possible. They typically carried AK 47 rifles, and bags of explosives tied around their waists, as they slipped inside a perimeter. The recent Tet Offensive had produced several sapper attacks in the area, only serving to heighten their reputation as fearsome fighters. The sapper units would take hours to slowly inch toward a target under the cover of darkness, watching and listening for any sign of detection. If successful, near dusk they would slip inside the perimeter to wreck their havoc and then slip back out, carrying any of their own dead.

Earlier in the day, our troop commander met with the four platoon leaders of F Troop to discuss how to protect ourselves that night. There was intelligence confirming that we might be subjected to a sapper attack and he was understandably tense as the four of us gathered around him. We reviewed how the perimeter would be organized in its usual defensive circle. Each vehicle was to have above ground anti-personnel Claymore mines set up in front of them, creating a blast zone out from the perimeter. Taking turns for the entire night, troopers were to stand watch for two-hour periods, during which the primary M60 machine gun on each vehicle was manned. There was to be a total blackout with no flashlights, no cigarettes, no talking, no sounds.

The troop commander then introduced us to a new piece of equipment that had been coptered in earlier that day…the high-tech Starlight Scope. It looked like a stubby, thick telescope and one was to be mounted on each vehicle. Using the smallest source of light available such as moonlight, starlight and any sky glow, it intensified the light source within the Scope and would make a sapper visible for up to maybe 200 yards. With no time to spare, we returned to our individual platoons to explain the urgent plans for the night and what to do with this unfamiliar Starlight technology.

During the night, I took the second watch shift for our track, taking over from the previous trooper at midnight. It was totally dark as I climbed and felt my way into position behind the machine gun. As I listened, I could hear only the sound of crickets, buzzing mosquitos and frogs looking for mates in nearby rice paddies. On edge as I found the on switch for the Starlight Scope, I powered it up. It made a small hum as it warmed and after a moment or two, it revealed in surprising detail the landscape in front of me, viewed as a greenish glow. I scanned the horizon, noticing the tall grasses in our clearing, the tree line off in the distance, the earthen mounds at the edge of a rice paddy and what appeared to be tree stumps dotting the field in front of me. The intensity of the night watch was exhausting as I listened for unusual sounds, and any hint of light or movement. I hunched down uncomfortably looking into the Starlight’s rubber eye piece, feeling the jungle’s heat and humidity while not for a moment taking my eye off the landscape.

At about 01:00 I was starting to cramp up a bit, shifting my position. My eyes were very tired from this non-stop looking into the green glow of the Scope. Although I couldn’t exactly pinpoint why, I suddenly had a sense that there was movement directly in front of the vehicle next to me, but, I couldn’t be sure. In an instant, I was fully alert, intently listening, and scouring the scene provided by the Starlight. After about fifteen minutes of suspense, I was startled to clearly see one of the “tree stumps” stand up. A sapper! My first reaction was to alert the trooper next to me that someone was in front of him at about twenty yards. I got no reaction. I tried the alert again, later learning the soldier on watch had been drinking and was sound asleep. With no reaction coming, I triggered the Claymore mines in front of my vehicle, quickly spreading the realization that the predicted sapper attack had started. The explosion created a flash of light into darkness in front of me, and the enclosed ball bearings of the Claymores spread out like huge shotgun blasts. Without knowing the scope or the direction of the attack, fear quickly escalated as all other tracks triggered their Claymore mines, with tanks blasting their main guns, personnel carriers firing their machine guns and other troopers taking positions between the vehicles with their M16 rifles blazing into the dark.

After some very loud and intense minutes, we were radioed to hold our fire. A Cobra attack helicopter had arrived on the scene and since I was the only one that had identified a sapper’s location, I was told to fire my machine gun towards that location and to keep firing. With flares illuminating the sky, the tracer bullets from my gun pointed towards the direction of the sapper. The pilot repeatedly strafed the area with his rapid-fire cannons.

We were very fortunate that night. Had sappers gone undetected by the Starlight Scope, they would likely have breached our perimeter and killed or injured many. There was no way of knowing how many sappers may have been approaching the perimeter, but if all the tree stumps in the field in front of my location stood up, we could have been facing at least ten sappers. We did find the body of the likely sapper that had been discovered. He was very slight in build and looked like a young teenager. One brave American died, as well. He was a terrific 1st Sargent, the kind of “lifer” whose wisdom and experience we all depended upon. He was one of the first troopers to grab his rifle and take a position next to my track. Recovering from the strain of the night’s events, I gave thanks and prayed for the repose of the two dead soldiers and for their family’s protection. Although I later received accolades for detecting the sappers and avoiding a catastrophe, there was no doubt the hero of that awful night had been the Starlight.