Unit
History The 1/92nd Field
Artillery |
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Ben Het/Dak To |
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Bohdan
Prehar, COL(R) A Battery Commander 9/68-5/69 |
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One
Legion of Merit Medal Fourteen Bronze Star Medals with V for Valor Ten Bronze Star Medals One Air Medal Sixty-seven Army Commendations Medals with V for Valor Ten Army Commendation Medals Forty-four Purple Heart Medals Personnel who were assigned to other Units, both U.S. and ARVN, may not have Awards listed here. |
1st Battalion 92nd Artillery was awarded: The Valorous Unit Citation with streamer embroidered Dak To/Ben Het. For service from 04 May 69 thru June 69. The following list of Battery A's KIA and WIA from Dak To/ Ben Het is from the Diary of Judge Bobbie Joe Pope. Judge Pope retired from the Army with the rank of Sgt. Major. He was seriously wounded at Dak To when he was SFC Battery A 1/92. (Note: Between May 69 to Oct. 69, Battery A had over a 60% casualty rate, some were Awarded multiple Purple Hearts.) |
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May
11-PFC Ronald J. Carter-KIA |
June 4-SP4 Guadalupe Guerrero-WIA June 4-PFC David L. Hanson-WIA June 4-PFC David Porter-KIA June 4-PFC Jeffry D. Wood-WIA June 9-PFC Franklin Austin-WIA June 9-PFC Donald Hettervik-WIA June 9-PFC David A. Hughes-WIA June 9-SP4 Joaquin M. Martinez-WIA* June 9-SP4 Jose A. Pagan-WIA June 9-Richardson-WIA June 17-Talbot-WIA June 23-Bailey-WIA June 23-Bober-WIA June 23-Chamber-WIA June 23-Connell-WIA June 23-LT. Johnson-WIA June 23-PFC Joe Martinez-WIA *(two men named Martinez may have wrong date) June 23-SP5 Wayne T. Mitchell-WIA June 23-PFC David W. Metz-WIA June 23-SFC Bobbie Joe Pope-WIA |
SAIGON (AP)-- Fighting flared Sunday in Dak To, the central highlands district capital where Americans fought one of the Vietnam War's most vicious battles in 1967. In the latest fighting, North Vietnamese troops moving under cover of a mortar barrage, attacked the South Vietnamese district headquarters at Dak To, defended by about 125 militiamen. Bombs and artillery beat off the attackers after an hour. Initial reports said two South Vietnamese were killed. And four wounded and the headquarters sustained 50 percent damage. The NVA losses were not known. A South Vietnamese spokesman said one regiment and two Ranger Battalions, perhaps as many as 2,000 troops are sweeping the hills around Dak To as part of Operation Dan Quyen translated as "People Rights." The aim is to take growing pressure off Dak To, where field reports say the NVA are again masses their forces from bases in Cambodia. The spokesman said he had no cumulative casualties for the operation around Dak To, but in three days of fighting a week ago 216 NVA and 47 Government troops were killed. Another 117 Government troops were wounded Latest American Intelligence estimates that 45 NVA Battalions are in the Highlands. A total of 52,000 NVA and Viet Cong are against 89,000 Americans, Koreans and South Vietnamese. |
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SAIGON (UPI)-- American B52 bombers unloaded hundreds of thousands of pounds on NVA Troops concentrations threatening the Allied Specials Forces camp at Ben Het, military spokesmen said Wednesday. The B52s struck in two raids Tuesday night and early Wednesday, dumping their bombs on targets in jungles about three miles south and two miles north of the Special forces camp, 285 miles Northeast of Saigon. Reverberations from at least 180 tons of bombs rolled over the beleaguered outpost, which sits near the South Vietnam's, Cambodian and Laotian borders. Tuesday, Military spokesman reported Allied troops at the Special Forces Camp were resupplied by truck convoy but remained under pressure from NVA gunners. They said there had been continuing battles with NVA troops in the jungle. Spokesman reported that at least 183 NVA soldiers were killed around the outpost in a series of firefights on Monday. A delayed report from a South Vietnamese spokesman said a government infantry battalion backed by U.S. air and artillery power killed 105 NVA troops Monday about three miles northeast of Ben Het. Most were killed by artillery. 12 U.S. Special Forces advisers, about 189 U. S. artillerymen and hundreds of South Vietnamese regulars and Civilian Defense Group (CIDG) forces occupied Ben Het. A U.S. convoy guarded by Allied troops resupplied Ben Het from Dak To, Eight miles to the east along Route 512. NVA troops destroyed one of 11 trucks in the convoy and wounded two U.S. Army Engineers and 19 Government Soldiers along the way, but the ammunition-laden trucks got through to Ben Het |
SAIGON
(UPI) -- Government troops Wednesday reinforced the Ben Het Special
Forces Camp, pushing out into nearby jungles where NVA artillerymen
have been firing at will on the outpost for nearly two months. The "MIKE
STRIKE" force (MOBILE INFANTRY STRIKE FORCE) unit of about 400
men was flown in Tuesday from nearby Pleiku, and moved out Wednesday
in a bid to take the pressure off Ben Het, 285 miles northeast of Saigon
in the rugged central highlands. "The threat is not really serious
to the camp" declared U.S. Special Forces Maj. William Wilson,
35 of Tucson, AZ. "They can't take it. We've got too much fire
power on call. They're going to pay hell for anything they try to do
to us." The sweep was launched about one mile south of the camp,
situated eight miles east of the tri-border region with Laos and Cambodia.
Only scattered contact was reported by nightfall Wednesday. Ben Het,
manned by U.S. Green Beret troopers, American artillerymen and 400 CIDG
troopers, has received an estimated 5,000 enemy shells since May 6 but
no major ground assaults. But the Americans have been backed by an estimated
100 B52 bomber strikes, along with jet fighter-bomber, helicopter gun-ships
and artillery support from a half-dozen nearby bases in Dak To valley.
"The Mission of the Ben Het camp is to guard the tri-border area,
protect the valley and interdict enemy supplies and communications,"
a U.S. Spokesman said. "I think things are cooling down,"
said Col. Alexander Weyand, 40 of El Paso, Tex., a West Point Graduate.
"We may be through the heaviest part, we are starting to get convoys
through on the road." On Tuesday, a nine-truck convoy fought its
way into Ben Het. Two Americans died during the eight mile trip from
Dak To, the last section of which has become know as the "SUICIDE
MILE" because of the heavy fire from NVA forces in jungles along
the road, known as Route 112. About 110 rounds of artillery and mortar
shells hit Ben Het on Tuesday and more were reported on Wednesday. |