CapnJim's Vietnam Stuff...Nam 68 Game 9 AAR Postlude - Page 32 - 23 Sep 25)

[flatpack]

Keep up the great work.

[Hoagie]

Looking forward to the next AAR! Happy to hear your players want to finish the year!

[mikedemana]

Hope your brother has fun with the guys! Good luck in the game.

Mike Demana

[CapnJim]

Thanks fellas.  And fear not, the campaign, as events would have it, will indeed go on!   

But first, we must tell the tale of this past Friday's Nam '68 Tour of Duty game (Campaign Game 9, for those of you who have lost track).

We did indeed play.  As usual, Dave (3rd Squad), Gene (1st Squad and the attached M60), and Ted (Platoon HQ and their organic M60) played the Americans.  Mark, our guest player up for his annual visit from Florida, played the VC and the civilians.  I acted as an impartial (more or less) GM/Umpire.

3rd Platoon's mission was to continue patrolling up the Quim Bi Road, along a river, searching for VC supply stashes and fighters.  In this sector, the river was shallower and relatively fordable.

Let's take a look at 3rd Platoon's AO.  Here we are looking north (from the south, from where 3rd platoon would be approaching).  Note the pile of crates by the river - that's one of their search points.



Here we are looking south.  Note the other pile of crates - another search point.  Also note the craters.  As noted by Ted, it appears the USAF has already paid a visit here once...



SFC Daltry and the Platoon HQ came up on the American left, just west of the river.  He had PFC Jaymes and their organic M60 team in tow.  Note the old man fishing at the river.



CPL Alias brought 1st Squad and the attached M60 team (SP4 Mark was humping that pig) up the middle, just east of the river.



And, CPL Wyman brought 3rd Squad up on the American right, headed toward a relatively prominent hill to their front.



3rd Platoon was coming up more or less on line.  They didn't seem to be interested in taking any chances.  In fact, based in their recent experiences, CPL Alias tried to persuade SFC Daltry to take a "Shoot first, ask questions later" approach to any civilians they encountered.  SFC Daltry wasn't too sure about the wisdom of that approach.  Only time would tell which of those 2 NCOs were the wiser...

Here's a shot of that old man.  He seemed to be minding his own business, fishing along the riverbank.  Again, note the crates in the background.



And a bit further up river, the old man's grandson appeared to be fishing along the riverbank, as well.  Again, note the other crates in the background.  Was the proximity of the civilians to the crates a coincidence?  Or was there something more nefarious in play here?



The members of 3rd platoon approached their AO nervously and cautiously.  This is where our game begins.  I will post Part 1: The Old Man and the River soon.  But, to tide y'all over until then, here's a (very brief) snippet of the action:

CPL heard (and felt) the blast coming from his left.  He turned to see the smoke, and he thought he could see men down.  And he had turned just in time to see the old man by the river shredded by what sounded like a full magazine of 5.56 NATO rounds from somebody's Rifle, US, M16A1.  "G**dammit.  I told Daltry to shoot civilians on sight..."  He girded his loins, and ordered his men forward.  They still had work to do

[CapnJim]

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, the report of the actions of 3rd Platoon on 19 September.

Part 1: The Old Man and the River.

As 3rd Platoon came into their AO from the south, besides the surely innocent fisher-man and -boy, they spotted what looked like 3 VC near the far pile of crates.  One of them was leading a fully laden pack donkey.  Upon noticing the quantity of GIs heading their way, the decided to beat feet (and hooves).  One of them must have been on the VC track team - he moved on out at a brisk pace.



The GIs moved forward too, cautiously.  They maintained their rough line.  SP4 Mark and his A. Gunner moved a bit quicker, heading to a spot on a hill to set up their pig.  Apparently unbeknownst to our boys in green, the old man at the river was keeping a furtive eye on them.







Suddenly, the old man deftly turned about, produced an old Chinese hand grenade, and chucked it at the GIs.  It landed amidst the Platoon HQ and detonated, wounding (seriously) PFC Jaymes and Cong, and less seriously wounding "Doc" Mendar.  Maybe CPL Alias was right.  Maybe they should have just shot the old fart straightaway.  Oh well.  Live (hopefully) and learn (also hopefully).



Private Skowronski (PFC Jaymes' A. Gunner) turned and emptied his magazine into the old f***er, dropping him fully stitched and dead as a doornail.  This was when CPL Alias had his "I told you so" thoughts in the Prelude.

The VC and the pack donkey quickly moved north, away from the Americans, rifle and machine gun fire kicking up dirt around them and cracking through the air past them.  The old man's grandson waded across the river, and hurriedly headed in the direction of his dearly departed granddad.  He was yelling something in Vietnamese - which no one could understand, as Cong was lying on the ground bleeding profusely and likely no more than semi-conscious...





SFC Daltry yelled at his Squad Leaders to keep the men moving forward as the VC and the pack donkey slipped away.  They did as instructed.







As the 2 rifle squads were maneuvering forward, Private Skowronski moved over the wounded medic, and got him patched up enough to get back on his feet.  Mendar them moved to the other 2 wounded men to see what could be done.  He started with Cong, their interpreter.





As that twas happening, Daltry and SGT Blackfeather (the FO) moved toward the first pile of crates.  Daltry hollered to his RTO to catch up.

[CapnJim]

Part 2: Smoke if You Got 'Em.

Unfortunately, Cong bled out and died as Doc was looking after him.  Doc Mendar turned his attention then to PFC Jaymes.

Daltry and the FO made it to the first pile of crates.  SFC Daltry, this not being his first rodeo, noticed the tripwires that booby-trapped the crates.  He managed to disarm the old grenades, and discovered a major VC supply stach.  BINGO - finally something worth the effort...

   

The rifle squads kept moving forward, but it had gotten quiet again.  The men were nervous.  It seemed to them like the calm before another storm.



Doc Mendar worked on PFC Jaymes, trying to stop the bleeding.  And Daltry didn't like the quiet.  He told the FO to drop smoke ahead of their position, in case more VC tried any funny business.  The FO got on the horn to the mortar FDC.  And Dalty's RTO was hurrying to catch up.  Daltry wanted to call in Chicken-Man 1-2 to medevac Jaymes.



Within just a minute or two, the smoke rounds landed.  Short.  Practically right on top of Daltry and the FO.  They now couldn't see shit.  The FO tried to adjust fire, but all he got for a bit was static...  In fact, one of the rounds damn near landed right on top of one of 1st Squad's riflemen...

And Daltry's RTO made his way to him, accompanied by Private Skowronski.  Daltry called for the medevac.

 



The boys kept up their advance.  All except for 3rd squad's Private Barkus and his M79.  For some reason, he was back up on the hill by the M60 team, acting like a 6-year old kid playing right field.  CPL Wyman would be having a, um,  word with him when this was over... 



Chicken-Man 1-2 came in and landed.  Doc Mendar struggled to drag Jaymes to the medevac bird.  As an M60 gunner, Jaymes was likely a big fella...



Again, the men kept moving forward.



One of 1st Squad's riflemen, PFC Garfield, made it to the other pile of crates.  He did not see the tripwire.  The old grenade went off.  Well, sort of.  The detonator kinda just fizzled, but the grenade itself didn't explode.  And, to top it off, the crates didn't have anything particularly valuable in them.



Just as Garfield finished searching those crates, more VC finally appeared.  But SP4 Mark and his pig was ready.  A VC light machine gunner and his 2 riflemen appeared to the (American) right of the bamboo patch.  SP4 Mark lit his opposite number up, and seriously wounded him.  The 2 VC riflemen took ineffectual pot shots at the GIs.



Less ineffectual were 3 VC with SMGs, who popped up to the (American) left of that bamboo patch.  They fired on PFC Garfield at the crates, wounding him.



With that, the VC bugged out, dragging their wounded comrade with them.  It got quiet again, except for the sounds of men moving around and orders being shouted.  And the medevac helicopter taking off with Jaymes now safely aboard.

The fight (and game) was over.  Stay tuned for the postlude, which I plan/hope to post tomorrow.  As I mentioned, the campaign will go on...

[Lord Raglan]

It’s great to be back in the Nam again with Capt Jim 👍🏻

[mikedemana]

Looks like they made it out okay on this mission. It's like the proverbial doo-doo missed the fan entirely and just went splat. Of course, if you're the interpreter Cong, you might not feel that way...!

Three more missions to go...you're almost there!

Mike Demana

[CapnJim]

Thanks, men.  Now for the after-action actions...

Game 9 Postlude

3rd Platoon secured the area, and set up 360 security.  Two more choppers came in - one to take Cong's body back to Edith, and the other with The Old Man in it.  He could tell that 3rd Platoon was on a razor's edge.  So, he had arranged with the Battalion Commander to give 3rd Platoon some much-needed R&R.  So, 3rd Platoon RTB'd, put their shit away, and spent several lovely days in Saigon.  Well, except for PFCs Jaymes and Garfield.  They would spend the next few weeks in an Evac Hospital, nursing what turned out to be relatively minor wounds.  And Daltry - he went to visit his cousin, a SOG guy in RT Ohio up at CC North.

When the men all got back to Firebase Edith from their break, their spirits and morale had improved.  What's more, when SFC Daltry returned from up north, he had 6 FNGs waiting for him at the Company CP. That was good, because 4 of the men were set to rotate back to The World (including 3 of his junior NCOs).  Daltry would have to put some thought into who would go where, and who could move up into the leadership positions.

But, all in all, while it seemed like 3rd platoon was headed for implosion, things were beginning to look up.  SFC Daltry knew better than to hope too much, but he was beginning to think that he and the boys might actually make it through their Tour of Duty....


And a couple admin notes. 

First, after a discussion with the guys and my brother (an old USMC mortarman), we are changing how mortar rounds fall.  Instead of having the 3 rounds deviate individually, they will deviate (per the rules) as a triangular grouping of 3 rounds, with their blast radii just touching each other.  Also, as we started in earlier games, deviation on adjusting missions using the same aim point is halved.

Second, from this point forward, someone will have to be near the intended landing spot for any medevac choppers, to pop smoke (they did this to mark the landing spot for the pilots).

It looks like our next game will be 17 October.  I'll post scenario details a few days prior.     

[has.been]

Thanks for all the writing & pictures. Another interesting read.
As you know Flatpack & I are dipping our wargaming toes into Nam.
All help is gratefully received.

[CapnJim]

Thanks!

Just holler if I can be of any service...

[Lord Raglan]

**Capn Jim's Nam**

Some day this war is going to end— 
not with a trumpet, not with a pen, 
but with silence thick as ash, 
and boots that no longer march.

The sky will forget its fire, 
the earth will unlearn its scars, 
and the ghosts who danced in trenches 
will drift beyond the stars.

But until that quiet comes, 
we fight with breath and bone— 
not for glory, not for kings, 
but to find our way back home.

[CapnJim]

Yup.  They are getting close to the end.  3rd platoon is now a mix of hardened veterans who likely just want to survive their tour and go home, and FNGs who don't quite know what to expect.

9 months down, 3 to go.....

[carlos marighela]

Another cracking read mate!

[Hoagie]

I'm relieved they got through that one relatively well, but you are going through your interpreters with alarming speed!