We have been learning about Gordon Labat who was born in 1947 in Marshall, to Rose and Henry Labat. Gordon and his siblings grew up on the family farm east of Marshall. He attended Catholic schools in Marshall and then farmed with his Dad before being drafted in fall 1968. He completed Army basic and advanced infantry training and then deployed to Vietnam in April 1969.

The Army assigned him to Company A, 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, part of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. His platoon leadership assigned him as assistant gunner on an M-60 machine gun team. Gordon went on his first combat patrol less than a week later. He quickly learned the patrolling routine and how to operate with his gunner. He participated in many combat patrols during his first couple months in Vietnam. Some patrols were hot, meaning they had contact with the enemy, but most were not.

On June 20,1969, Gordon’s unit moved north to a new base camp near Xuan Loc, into more rugged, jungle terrain. That move quickly led to a rescue mission that did not go as planned.

“We moved up to the jungles on the 20th of June. It was the 23rd of June when one of the other companies got hit at night, so they put us in the air. I was in the third chopper with the machine gunner. The first (chopper) went in; loaded wounded; and came back out. The second one went in; put wounded on; but didn’t make it back out. He hit a tree and crashed. We flew back to base. The next morning the B-52s were bombing and the ground was shaking where we were. I thought, ‘I sure wouldn’t want to be where those B-52 bombs are falling!'”

Gordon’s unit received orders to move out.

“About 10 o’clock the Captain came and said, ‘We’ve got to go check out that B-52 strike.’ Some of our guys were already with this other company, so we were short-handed. We loaded on APCs (Armored Personnel Carriers) and took off to that site. Charlie (Viet Cong insurgents) was waiting for us.”

Gordon explained what they encountered at the B-52 strike area.

“We dismounted and went in. We had a brand-new platoon sergeant that day, Sergeant Noyd’s first day in the field. He was with me. I wasn’t with the machine gunner that day. I got down on my belly and I saw a commo wire and I could see them up ahead of us. So, I told the captain, ‘We’ve got (Charlie) ahead of us. Let’s pull back and call artillery in on them.’ After that we went in again and it got hot. I had Sergeant Noyd with me. We crawled up behind a mound of dirt. We were going to get up and start shooting when a VC threw a Chi-Com (Chinese Communist) grenade. It landed on the other side of the mound of dirt. I said to him, “Play dead.” So, we did and I could see the VC. I didn’t want to move, but I had my hand on a grenade in case I had to do some reacting if he came to check. It worked! The VC took off and we had plenty of help behind us.”

Gordon recalled that was just the beginning of the firefight.

“We were only supposed to be out until three o’clock that day. Well, 10 days later we came back in. We were engaged with Charlie for three days and then they left. We choppered out (Medevac’d) 35 guys in those three days. It was a lot. One guy got hit in the head, but he didn’t die. They used a jungle penetrator. It’s like a big piece of pipe that folds over with seats that you could put guys on and then pull them up through the jungle. They (Medevac helicopters) were hovering up above the jungle. After the VC pulled back we did some recon and searching.”

Gordon knew many of the troops who were injured and Medevac’d in that engagement.

His unit continued combat patrolling. He remembered the Battalion Chaplain visiting them in the field.

“We had a Catholic priest who would get out to the field. He’d come out and say Mass during resupplies. Everybody was Catholic at that time.” (Gordon laughed)

He described how the wet monsoon made patrolling even more difficult.

“You could set your watch every day by the monsoon rains because at three o’clock it was going to be raining. You’d get wet and then it’d get dang cool at night. Everybody had a problem with leeches, especially if you went through streams and you always went through streams or little rivers. You could feel them on you.”

Gordon explained that sometimes the monsoon rains or other factors interfered with helicopter resupply.

“A couple times there was that problem because it was rainy. You’d kind of watch your rations. One time we were watching a trail. They didn’t want to give away our position (with a resupply). We went three days without anything to eat. We could get water out of the stream and put purification tablets in it, but we didn’t have any food. Then John Novak pulled out a picture of a McDonald’s hamburger and hot fries. (Gordon laughed) You son of a gun!”

Gordon’s unit reassigned him from field duty later in his tour,

©William D. Palmer 2024. The Lyon County Museum’s monthly Veterans Coffee is Tuesday, Aug. 6 at 1:30 p.m. for veterans of any armed service. Join us for coffee, conversation, and camaraderie.