The Blackhorse fights back at Suoi Cat

The weather in Long Khanh Province, Vietnam, was hot and humid on the morning of 21 May 1967. Long before dawn, the cavalry scouts of 1st Platoon, Kilo Troop, 3rd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (the Blackhorse), were awake and preparing their tracks to roll from Gia Ray rock quarry.

Accompanying the platoon was Mike-34, an M48A3 Patton tank from Company M, 3rd Squadron’s heavy armored force. The armored cavalry troops in the Blackhorse had given up their tanks before deploying to Vietnam. So tank platoons from Mike Company were often attached with the scouts, which was the case that day.

Kilo Troop had been detached since 11 May to secure and protect the engineering work at the quarry. Also, the troop’s three cavalry platoons took turns running supply convoys back and forth to Blackhorse Base Camp near Long Giao. That was the job assigned to 1st Platoon that day; road clearance and convoy escort. They would take a supply truck and jeep to base camp and back. Running on blacktop and packed dirt roads, the round trip was about sixty kilometers – five or six hours, give or take. It was pretty standard fare for the cavalry.

1st Platoon drove the route just after first light to make sure it was clear. Finding nothing unusual, they returned to the gravel quarry to pick up the wheeled vehicles. Heading out at about 0800, they began their run heading west along Route 1. The scouts were mounted in seven M113 Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicles (ACAV), each with a crew of five troopers. Mike-34 had a crew of four tankers.

Another day in Vietnam

Staff Sgt. Homer Pittman (platoon sergeant) led the advance guard in Kilo-10, followed by Kilo-11. 600 meters behind was Mike-34, than another ACAV (Kilo-16 with platoon leader 1st Lt. Michael Boyd), the troop supply truck (Kilo-4), an engineer jeep followed by four more ACAVs (Kilo-14, -13, -17, and -18). In total, the main body stretched out for 600 meters.

Route 1 was the scene of many Viet Cong ambushes against US and ARVN convoys. Although technically a highway, it was more like a broken-down country road. The enemy took advantage of the poor road condition to bury land mines and booby trapped bombs in the roadway. Units often cleared the route, only to be ambushed hours later on return trips.

The platoon couldn’t know that the Viet Cong were planning for months to attack a US or ARVN armored convoy on Route 1 near the village of Suoi Cat. In fact, an entire VC battalion was devoted to this single objective. As the US tracks rolled on their escort mission, the VC lay waiting in ambush, kill zone stretching for over a kilometer.

Ambush! Ambush! Ambush!

At about 0850, the enemy unleashed hell on the platoon. 57mm and 75mm recoilless rockets slammed into Kilo-10 in the advance guard, setting off internal ammunition stores. Not long after, the gas tank exploded in a fireball. Soon, ammunition was cooking off aboard the ACAV.

Fortunately, Staff Sgt. Pittman got off the radio call, “Ambush!, Ambush!, Ambush!” before bailing out of his burning track. He jumped onto the following ACAV – Kilo-11 – and headed back through the maelstrom to where the main body was fighting for survival. There, he rallied the embattled cavalrymen.

Sgt. Alfred Lee was a track commander on Kilo-17, second from the end of the column. His track was hit in the opening barrage, but his crew stayed aboard, laying down a wall of machine gun fire. He was severely wounded by a RPG hit to his TC shield, and the ACAV erupted into flames. At least four more enemy antitank rounds hit the burning track within seconds.

Remaining at his position, Sgt. Lee ordered his crew to bail out and find cover. The track was burning fiercely, but he kept up the fire with his .50 caliber machine gun. Also aboard Kilo-17 was side gunner Spc. 4 Larry Williamson. As the track caught fire, he was seriously wounded by an RPG hit through the hull armor. Williamson refused to leave his position, laying down heavy fire with his M60 machine gun.

The flames engulfed Kilo-17, but the crew kept fighting. As Spc. 4 Williamson ran through a box of ammunition, he was hit a second time, mortally wounding him. Finally, another RPG penetrated into the driver’s compartment, killing both Sgt. Lee and his driver, Spc. 4 Dwight E. Timberlake.

During the battle, 1st Lt. Boyd was giving orders to his ACAV driver on the intercom. His antennas had been shot out, making radio transmissions nearly impossible to send or receive. Boyd accidentally toggled his tanker helmet switch to transmit over the radio as he desperately told his driver where to go.

Somehow, the command post at Gia Ray picked up Boyd’s transmission. The noise of battle was very loud in the background, and this was the only radio traffic received from 1st Platoon. The rest of Kilo Troop raced from the rock quarry at high speed toward their embattled platoon.

Enemy fire erupted from both sides of the road all the way down the column. The VC hit the tracks with RPGs, recoilless rifle fire, grenades, heavy machine guns, and rifles. Mortar explosions raked up and down the road as the scouts and tankers fought for their lives.

The Viet Cong fire lanced into the Blackhorse vehicles with murderous intensity. Mike-34 was a diesel-powered tank, but the ACAVs, jeep, and truck were a gasoline-powered. As heavy rounds found their mark in gas tanks, the explosions fireballed into the sky. Troopers tried to return fire and bail out before it was too late.

Willy Peter and beehive rounds

Mike-34 – the most powerful vehicle in the column – served as a magnet for the VC fire. Multiple antitank rockets punched through the big tank’s turret armor; at least fourteen. Not included in the count were the dozens of rounds that hit the tank, but failed to penetrate the armor.

These hits knocked out the primary and back-up gun sights, the .50 caliber machine gun, radios, and many other critical systems. The loader was mortally wounded, and the gunner, Pfc Kerry Nelson, was temporarily blinded from an explosion. The driver was severely wounded. But by some miracle, the engine still ran, even though the tank was stuck in a roadside ditch. And so, the crew determined to make the enemy pay.

Realizing that the main gun system still worked, tank commander Staff Sgt. David Wright called for Nelson to load for him. The two began to methodically pound the attacking VC troops with 90mm fire. Unable to see, Nelson felt for whatever round he could grab next. Wright was shooting from his TC cupola with his head sticking out the hatch. The entire time, enemy antitank rockets burned through the turret armor, slicing across the crew compartment.

Somehow, Wright and and the sightless Nelson survived the onslaught. They fired a mix of 90mm white phosphorous (Willy Peter) and canister rounds (beehive) as fast as Nelson could load. At one point, Staff Sgt. Wright was hit in the leg by a shell fragment. He reached down, yanked out the smoking hunk of metal and went back to work.

When the main gun went down for a moment, Wright drew his .45 caliber pistol and kept up the fire. While Wright was fixing the gun system, Pfc Nelson climbed off the tank. As Wright shouted directions, the blinded trooper threw hand grenades at the attacking VC. Then Nelson climbed back aboard and resumed feeding the 90mm gun.

1st Platoon was taking an incredible beating. Within a quarter hour, the battle had devolved into many individual fights for survival while troopers reacted as best they could. Staff Sgt. Pittman took charge of six scouts, rallying them for a last stand with some dismounted M60 machine guns. He ran back and forth through heavy fire to the burning ACAVs, retrieving ammunition and hand grenades. At times, he threw grenades like baseballs at the VC.

Spc. 4 Jimmy Force was 1st Platoon’s medic, manning a side gun aboard Kilo-17. He laid down fire with his M60, then began treating wounded crewmen on his ACAV. Force was treating Sgt. Lee when an RPG round exploded, blowing him him off the burning track. He ran up and down the column, giving aid to to his battle buddies. Armed with an M16 rifle, the Doc kept up a steady beat of suppressing fire. He treated every one of the platoon’s wounded. Through his skillful care and determined courage, Doc Force saved many lives.

After fifteen more minutes that must have seemed a lifetime to the platoon’s troopers, two Huey gunships from the Air Cavalry Troop (Thunderhorse), flew in to the rescue. As the chopper crews laid down a hail of machine gun and rocket fire on the VC, the rest of Kilo Troop arrived, tipping the battle toward the Blackhorse. Air Force close air support also joined the fight.

The price of war

In thirty minutes, it was all over. Of the forty-five Soldiers in the convoy, sixteen lay dead. Among the many awards for heroism earned that day, Staff Sgt. Pittman, an indomitable leader, earned a hard-won Distinguished Service Cross. Sgt. Lee and Spc. 4 Williamson each earned the posthumous Silver Star. Staff Sgt. Wright and Pfc Nelson, and Spc. 4 Force received the Silver Star.

One of the dead, Staff Sgt. Walter Simpson, track commander of Kilo-18, was never recovered from the battlefield. He likely was completely incinerated by the horrific fires that wracked his doomed ACAV. Like all the Blackhorse troopers who fell that day, he died with his boots on. SSG Simpson numbers among the 512 U.S. Army Soldiers still missing from the Vietnam War (as of 11 May 2020).

1st Platoon killed an unknown number of VC troops. Every ACAV was immobilized or destroyed, gasoline fires raging as on-board ammo detonated. After the firefight, at least ten hits were counted on every ACAV. But the cavalry troopers won the day and the enemy was forced to break contact, leaving many dead on the battlefield.

A thorough investigation of the ambush revealed many shortcomings. Command and control was lacking. The troop commander and platoon leader did not coordinate for supporting arms. The platoon sergeant was positioned too far forward in the column. But the Blackhorse had only been in-country since October 1966 and the learning curve was steep. There was one critical lesson that underscored everything: there was no such thing as a routine mission in Vietnam.

As a historian, I believe three factors saved the day at Suoi Cat. First, the troop command post was paying attention to the radio net and the commander launched the reaction force immediately after sensing trouble with 1st Platoon. Second, Staff Sgt. Pittman and his troopers kept fighting against desperate odds, and refused to quit. Finally, (and most importantly) the crew of Mike-34, although grievously wounded, dominated the VC ambushers with a barrage of 90mm fire.

The Viet Cong ambushers that day outnumbered the Blackhorse platoon by an incalculable factor. With excellent planning, thorough preparation, and nearly perfect execution, the enemy should have won at Suoi Cat. From a purely technical stand point, the VC did win. They destroyed or disabled every vehicle in the column. But the cavalry carried the day. It may have seemed a pyrrhic victory to 1st Platoon, with so many wounded or dead troopers. But they remained on the battlefield until the end and the enemy did not.

In the larger scheme of things, 21 May 1967 at Suoi Cat was just a small battle in a big war. The Blackhorse went on to fight and win during much larger campaigns in Vietnam. But 1st Platoon and the crew of Mike-34 achieved something that should never be forgotten. Those cavalrymen entered the breech that long ago day and stood firm against overwhelming odds. The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment after action review summed up their performance on that bloody stretch of road:

The ambush in itself was thoroughly planned and devastatingly executed by the VC. Against a single cavalry platoon, unsupported by either air, artillery, or friendly ground forces, the result was a foregone conclusion. That as many men survived as did is a tribute to the courage and initiative of the individual American soldier.

Allons forever,

Mark Flowers
Echo Troop, 2nd Squadron
11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
1985-89

Notes

1: For a full official account of the battle at Suoi Cat, download the PDF of the 11th ACR operational report for the period 1 May-31 July 1967. The AAR for this action begins on page 33.

2: The map titled “Expanding U.S. Operations 1967” is extracted from map 8 of Mounted Combat in Vietnam, pages 92-93, by Gen Donn Starry, Center of Military History, 1978.

3: Blackhorse veteran Don Snedeker has written an outstanding book on the regiment’s service in Vietnam from 1966-72. It’s called The Blackhorse in Vietnam, Casemate Publishers, 2020, and is available from all major booksellers. The Suoi Cat ambush is described in great detail between pages 49-56.

4. The battle at Suoi Cat is mentioned briefly in the seminal work Mounted Combat in Vietnam, page 108, Gen Starry made a scathing assessment of the battle. He did not specifically write that the Viet Cong won, but rather implied it in his conclusions. He wrote that the escort mission was “not successful.”

5. I researched the above book, and cited AAR, award citations and other sources, in developing development of this article.