War Heroism Sacrifice A Story from the Chronicles of the Vietnam War By Jerry Berry The early morning hours of January 31, 1968 heralded the beginning of the monthlong infamous TET Communist Offensive of 1968. These attacks also included the city of Phan Thiet and LZ Betty basecamp for the 3 rd Battalion (Airborne), 506 th Infantry (Currahees), 101 st Airborne Division (Screaming Eagles), as well as the surrounding villages and hamlets within Binh Thuan Province, South Vietnam. Fierce battles raged in and around Phan Thiet, as the fighting rolled into the month of February. The Battle at Xuan Phong Hamlet On February 2, 1968, the Communist TET Offensive throughout South Vietnam was in its third day. My infantry company, Alpha Company, 3-506 th commanded by Cpt. Thomas F. Gaffney, conducted a combat assault to the northwest of Phan Thiet into an area soon to be called Disneyland in an attempt to block enemy retreats from the heavy enemy fighting within the city. Soon after departing our Landing Zone (LZ), Cpt. Gaffney received orders to proceed to Xuan Phong Hamlet, where intelligence had reported the location of the enemy. Moving two platoons abreast (side by side), 2Lt. John Harrison s 2nd Platoon and 2Lt. James Schlax s 1st Platoon left the LZ and made their way cautiously toward the hamlet, with 2Lt. Len Leibler s 3 rd Platoon as rear security. As we approached the outskirts of the hamlet, enemy snipers fired on us in an attempt to pin us down and separate the lead two platoons as part of a divide and conquer strategy. Early in the firefight, 2Lt. Schlax s RTO was killed by an enemy sniper. Platoon Sergeant SFC JAMES ALBERT BUNN
Sergeant First Class James Albert Bunn, a 32-yearold native of Miami Florida, was the platoon sergeant of Lt. Harrison s 2nd Platoon. His second tour in Vietnam began on October 2, 1967, when he shipped out with the rest of the battalion and arrived in country on October 25. Photo Caption: Alpha Company leaves the docks at Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam on October 25, 1967. SFC Bunn had served his first tour in Vietnam in 1965-1966 with the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry, 101st Airborne. In a letter written to his wife, Rachel, shortly after his arrival in South Vietnam, PSG Bunn wrote, The biggest job this time is not to fight, but to save the lives of my troops. So far, I ve been able to manage the situation by telling the platoon that they re the best. Everyone says this is the best-trained battalion that has ever hit Vietnam as a unit. These guys are hard and a great bunch of kids. I m really honored to know and lead them. We ll do all right, but as you know, I ve never had a man under me killed, and this time I know it s got to happen. It s going to hurt, but I just hope I can stand up to it. As the lead platoon, Lt. Harrison and his men, including SFC Bunn, were the first to make heavy contact with the enemy soon after arriving at their destination. Almost immediately, an intense battle ensued. It continued fiercely throughout the afternoon and into the evening. Most of the enemy contact involved close-in fighting among the buildings and houses within the hamlet. Lt. Harrison recalls, We knew we were moving to contact that day. It was a question of where and when we hit the enemy, not if. There were
very loud battles going on all over the place that day. We expected to hit a wellentrenched enemy and we did. Photo Caption: The photo on left is the actual hamlet which we combat assaulted next to. Photo on right is platoon leader, 2Lt. John Harrison (in front of RTO), 2 nd Platoon, Alpha Co. with his RTO and other platoon members taking cover during the initial contact with large enemy force. PSG Bunn is believed to be at far right of photo. Making their way into the hamlet, 2nd Platoon came upon an area with houses bordered by open rice paddies. The Currahees took shelter behind a low dike in the rear of a small house. In front of the small house, was a much larger two-story house with a sizeable front porch. After searching the small house, Lt. Harrison sent a three-man fire team to check out the large house for the enemy. When the fire team reached the large house, they discovered an old (elderly) Vietnamese couple inside. They let the team in and were talking very excitedly. As the team began to check things out Pfc. Andrew Daniel yelled they re here! Then the shooting started. There was a mad dash back to the front door of the house. Two team members made it through the front door and around to the side of the house, but Pfc. Andrew Daniel was shot as he made his way through the front door and onto the large porch. By this time, the entire area had erupted into heavy weapons
fire, which prevented the Currahees from assisting Pfc. Daniel, who was badly wounded and calling for help. Pfc. Daniel s canteens can be seen on the porch where he fell. Photos Caption: Shown on the right are Pfc. Andrew Daniel and Sgt. Stacy Raynor at Phan Rang shortly after we arrived in South Vietnam in 1967. Photo on right is the large house where Pfc. Daniel was hit and died. His two canteens can be seen on the porch. Lt. Harrison recalls, Daniel was hurt. The porch would be a bitch to get to and then get away from. I can t begin to tell you how frustrating that day was or how many different ideas we talked about to get Daniel off that porch. The platoon leader decided that PSG Bunn would take another fire team and attempt to clear the large house of the Viet Cong inside to facilitate the rescue of Pfc. Daniel. The plan was to make their way to the rear of the house and enter it from a back door. PSG Bunn and his fire team made their way around the barbed wire fences that separated the two houses and slowly approached the back of the large house. Just before reaching the back of the house, PSG Bunn left the fire team and proceeded to the corner of the house. The enemy fire became intense once again, with heavy fire coming from all directions. With bullets striking all around him, PSG Bunn reached the back door, threw a hand grenade inside the house, and followed up with several bursts from his M-16 rifle. At the doorway, PSG Bunn was shot several times by enemy fire from an enemy soldier hidden under a haystack in the backyard of the house. PSG Bunn died almost instantly from his wounds, but the
heavy enemy fire and the intense battle that raged on throughout the afternoon prevented his men from recovering his body until later. A volunteer group of Currahees, led by Lt. Harrison, returned that night and retrieved his body from the hamlet still heavily infested with the enemy. Photo Caption: Left Photo A photo I took during the battle of an F 104 Phantom making its run on the enemy s position near Lt. Harrison s platoon. Shown in the foreground in photo on right is a one of the hidden enemy bunkers beneath piles of hay or other debris which PSG Bunn and the Currahees encountered that day. Lt. John Harrison continues, Jim was a professional soldier who could not stand the thought that young men would die when he could have been there to help them. So he had volunteered to go back to Vietnam to train a young inexperienced Lieutenant, when he could have stayed in the States for at least another two years. He had been fun to be around and to learn from. I miss him to this day. At the time of his death, James Bunn had written a letter to his wife, Rachel, but had not yet mailed it. In his letter dated February 1, 1968 (the night before he was killed), PSG Bunn wrote, When TET started, we were mortared and moved out after them [the enemy] the next day [January 31]. Overall, the battalion has broken up the attempt [by the enemy] to take this airfield [LZ BETTY]. We are going to try to cut them off tomorrow [February 2] on the other side of Phan Thiet. We ve got a big job to do tomorrow, but try not to worry I ll be okay.
Epilogue First and 2nd Platoons continued to move forward into the hamlet, despite the constant enemy sniper fire. As the Currahees maneuvered into better positions, Lt. Harrison s 2 nd Platoon had made full contact with a reinforced Viet Cong/NVA company that was guarding the 482 nd Viet Cong Battalion Headquarters at Xuan Phong Hamlet. Lt. Schlax s 1 st Platoon and Lt. Liebler s 3 rd Platoon were immediately pinned down by enemy fire, unable to maneuver their men in support of the beleaguered 2 nd Platoon. An intense battle ensued, raging on throughout the afternoon. The paratroopers sustained heavy casualties as a result of the close-in fighting among the buildings and houses of the hamlet. Relentless heavy weapons fire within the area severely hampered the ability to get medevac helicopters in for the wounded. Other seriously wounded could not be rescued from the killing zone because of the murderous enemy gunfire. 1SGT Philip Chassion and PSG James Bunn lost their lives during the battle, as they attempted to rescue Pfc. Andrew Daniel, who had been seriously wounded early on in the battle. By late evening of February 2, 1968, the battle-weary soldiers of Alpha Company withdrew from the hamlet and formed a Night Defensive Perimeter in the vicinity. Later that night, a fifteen-man volunteer patrol, led by Lt. Harrison, returned to the enemy-infested hamlet to recover the bodies of those paratroopers who could not be rescued during the heat of battle. It took three grueling hours to retrieve the bodies of 1SGT Chassion, PSG Bunn and Pfc. Daniel. It had been a long, hard day for the men of Alpha Company, especially There are more stories about Vietnam Veterans that should be told for the sake of posterity. PSG James Bunn and those who fought with him are true patriotic heroes. True heroes often go unrecognized unless their specific stories are told, and there are many other fine soldiers that served in Vietnam who deserve to have their stories told. I have told the stories of other members of the Currahee Battalion-officers, NCOs and enlisted men in my books titled "They Called Us Currahees", My Gift To You and most recent Twelve Days In May. These books include true stories such as this one, along with pictures and personal interviews with fellow paratroopers during and after battles. It documents the serious side of war, as well as the humorous side of our tour of duty in Vietnam. The books are completely factual, without hype, and tells of the many heroic and ultimate sacrifices that the men called "Currahees" like PSG James Bunn made for our country. They fought the battles, remained steadfast in their dedication to duty, and suffered in silence as our nation diminished their role in an unpopular war. Berry, a paratrooper, served with PSG James Bunn in Vietnam as both a rifleman and as the Battalion Combat Photographer and Reporter (PIO). After completing his tour of duty in Vietnam, he began his thirty-year career with the U. S. Forest Service, retiring as a Staff Wildlife Biologist in 1997. Berry currently resides in Libby, Montana and continues his dedication to the legacy of the 3-506 by
maintaining an active Internet website (www.currahee.org) for his fellow Currahees.