Delta-5 January 3rd, 1968 The problem with Delta-5 was obvious; it was built around a hamlet. Anyone could walk in during the day with little chance of detection. The compound was bordered on the west and the south by water. To the northwest there was a hamlet up to the defensive wire. Northeast there were sand dunes and a graveyard rising to a sand dune ridge, on the other side, of which were the beach and the ocean. To the west was another hamlet about one hundred yards from our wire moving up to the wire at the East End by the river. A paved road went east to west through the compound. On the West Side was a wooden bridge, wide enough for one vehicle to cross and about one hundred foot long. A footpath led into the hamlet to the north. In the northwest corner, surrounded by wire, were the Comm. bunker, Med. Bunker and the PF's bunker. Across the river, to the west, was the 'bridge' bunker. To the south of the command area was the 'supply' bunker that was open to the hamlet. East of the command area were two small bunkers, connected by a sand bag wall, guarding the trail leading north. This was also open to the hamlet. About a one hundred yds east was the 'French bunker'. Made of concrete and surrounded on three sides by wire. To the south about one hundred yds was another PF bunker and about fifty yds south of that was a house, reinforced with sand bags, that guarded the east road gate. A communication trench, in disrepair, ran from the twin bunkers to the 'French' bunker than south past the PF bunker stopping at the road across from the 'House' bunker. Our CAP contingent consisted of fourteen Marines and a Navy Corpsmen. Lcpl. Ayers and myself were short timers and we're scheduled to leave the field the following week. We had approximately thirty-five to forty PFs, some good some bad. The PF commander was an on the ball Sgt. who had been awarded a Bronze Star from the US. On the night of the attack there were no more than 20 PFs on duty. Lcpl. Paterson and Pfc. Darden manned the river bunker. They normally had a M60 machinegun but it was in for repairs. In the command area, the Comm bunker had Sgt. Webb, Cpl. Clay, Cpl. Johnson, Lcpl. Wesley, and Lcpl. Ort. Ort would have been on the twin bunker but he had the OP/Ambush that night. Hm2 Moore was in the Med bunker. The PF bunker had the PF commander and approximately four PFs. The twin bunker had Lcpl. Ayers in the left bunker and Lcpl. Langley and myself in the right bunker. The 'French' bunker had Cpl. Cabrera and Lcpl. Briscoe with a 30Cal. Machinegun mounted on its roof. The number of men in the PF bunker to the south of them could vary, and across the road, the house bunker had Lcpl. Glessing and Lcpl. Schanck with a M60 machinegun. I had just gotten off watch and awakened Ayers. I decided to go to the comm. bunker to shoot the breeze with whoever was on radio duty. I left my helmet, flak jacket and unfortunately my ammo belt on top of the left bunker. With my M16 and one mag. I headed for the comm. bunker. I had just reached the road by the command area when I heard an RPG hit the 'French' bunker, when I turned I saw another hit it and another near the 'house' bunker. I ran down the trail back towards my bunker. When I turned the corner and was just behind my bunker I saw a muzzle flash from our communications trench. I was hit in the ankle and fell to the ground. I picked myself up, my left foot being numb, and ran to the bunker entrance. The VC were in our trench! Lcpl. Langley was returning fire out the front of the bunker; I stayed at the door to hold off the VC attacking from our trench. Because dirt had gotten into my M16 when I was wounded, I had to manually eject each shell casing after I fired. The VC started throwing Chicom grenades trying to get one in the entrance of the bunker, but because there was a hooch behind our bunker it blocked a clean shot to the entrance. So the grenades were landing to the right of the entrance, throwing dirt all over me, but I wasn't hit by any shrapnel. Sometime during all this Lcpl. Ayers came to our bunker. He started firing out the bunker entrance also, and we started to get in each other's way, so I decided to crawl to an old fighting hole to the right of the bunker. Once there I realized I didn't have any ammo other than my one magazine. I called to Ayers and Langley to throw me some ammo, they threw me a belt of ammo, but I still had only one magazine. Every time I would raise my head to fire at the trench, I would receive fire from our wire to my rear. I asked Ayers to throw me a couple grenades and I lobbed them into our wire and the firing stopped. I continued to fire at our trench. Then the VC finally got a grenade in the bunker. Ayers came staggering out wounded in the wrist. I heard nothing from Langley. Ayers came over to the fighting hole and fell on top of me. There was barely enough room for one guy. So I crawled to a mounded grave about ten feet away, waiting for the VC to realize that they we're not receiving any fire from the bunker. I saw Ayers get up and stumble away into the night. I lay there and decided it was time to find cover. By this time my ankle was no longer numb and was causing me great pain. I crawled to the hooch that had been blocking the VC view of our bunker and laid still. I heard the VC talking as they moved to the bunker and went inside. I found out later that Langley had been knocked out by the grenade blast, but other than some bad burns on his back was ok. He told me in hospital that he woke up on the floor of the bunker with the VC walking all over him as they ransacked the bunker. He played dead and survived the night. The firing in the compound stopped and only an occasional explosion or shot could be heard. The VC went through the hamlet looking for survivors. At about this time helicopters finally showed up, but it was too late to change events. I tried to signal the helicopters by waving my arm but do not know if they saw me. Then about an hour before dawn the VC pulled out. As the sun started to rise I heard Vietnamese voices by our bunker and then I heard Langley talking. I shouted to them and crawled out into the open. It was great to see Langley alive, I thought I was the only survivor. There were several dead bodies by the bunker; they looked like PF's. I have always wondered whether these were the men we were fighting or did the VC kill them. I read in the Stars and Strips the next day that we lost 18 PFs killed, but they had the marine casualties wrong in the article so who knows? They carried me around to a hooch where they were gathering the wounded; it was than that I saw some of our guys lying on the ground covered with ponchos. In the hooch were Ayers, Johnson and Paterson. Johnson was in the worst shape, having been shoot several times and having some shrapnel wounds, but he was conscious. He had crawled away after the command area was overrun. Paterson had numerous shrapnel wounds. He had saved himself by crawling into the water by his bunker. I don't know how Ayers saved himself. The VC killed everyone they found. Langley was the only one on his feet and he went to the main gate to await our relief. It was about an hour after dawn that a relief force from the Korean Marines arrived. Not too long after that, the med evacs started coming in and we were evacuated to Danang. The attack on us was well planned. The VC had infiltrated our hamlet before the attack. The bunkers with machineguns were hit with RPG's at the start of the assault. We lost the following brave men that night. Sgt. Donald Webb, Cpl. James Clay, Cpl. Andy Cabrera, Lcpl. Ferdinand Glessing, Lcpl. Henry Schanck, Lcpl. Ivan Ort, Lcpl. Wesley McKinney, Lcpl. Charles Briscoe, Pfc. Claude Darden and HM2 Thomas Moore. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers: For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother. Shakespeare, Henry V, Act IV, Scene 3 Cpl. James Copeland D-5, Delta Co., 2nd CAG |
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LCPL. IVAN ALLEN ORT JR. WAS OF THE MARINES KIA ON JANUARY 3, 1967. |
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LCPL. WESLEY McKINNEY FROM TAMPA, FLORIDA, KIA ON JANUARY 3, 1968. THE HOOCH JIM COPELAND AND WESLEY SHARED IS IN THE BACKGROUND. |
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LCPL. CHARLES 'FRENCHIE' BRISCOE FROM CLEVELAND, OHIO, KIA JANUARY 3, 1968. SEEN HERE CROSSING THE RIVER AT DELTA 5. |
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LCPL. HENRY EDWARD SCHANCK FROM FAIRMONT, MINNESOTA AND LCPL. FERNINAND W. GLESSING JR. FROM AUBURN, NEW YORK. BOTH LCPL. SCHANCK AND LCPL. GLESSING WERE KIA ON JANUARY 3, 1968 WHEN DELTA 5 WAS OVERRUN. |
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JIM COPELAND ON THE LEFT AND CPL. JOHNSON ON THE RIGHT. LCPL. ORT IS IN THE BACKGROUND. BOTH COPELAND AND JOHNSON WERE WOUNDED IN ACTION ON JANUARY 3, 1968. |
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LCPL. GLESSING WITH P. F. CORPSMAN NICKNAMED 'JAY', PREPARING FOR A PATROL AT DELTA 5, CIRCA 1967 |
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CPL. JAMES HENRY CLAY WITH ONE OF THE VILLAGE KIDS NICKNAMED "KINGFISH". CLAY WAS ONE OF THOSE WHO WAS KIA ON JANUARY 3, 1968. CPL. CLAY ALSO SERVED AT DELTA 4 BEFORE BEING TRANSFERRED TO CAP DELTA 5. CPL. CLAY WAS FROM PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA. |
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ONE THE LEFT IS PFC CLAUDE DARDEN JR. ONE OF THOSE KIA ON JANUARY 3rd, 1968. CLAUDE WAS FROM WASHINGTON, D. C. JIM COPELAND IS ON THE RIGHT, NOTICE THE BULLET HOLES IN THE WALLS. |
L TO R, CPL. CLAY, LCPL. PATERSON WHO WAS WIA AND ONE OF THE SURVIVORS IS HOLDING THE MONKEY. SGT. DONALD FRANKLIN WEBB, FROM YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO ONE OF THOSE KIA AND LCPL IVAN ORT. THE BUNKER THE BACKGROUND IS THE P. F.'s BUNKER. |
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JIM COPELAND AND CPL. ANDY ANASTATACIO CABRERA, FROM LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO. CPL. CABRERA WAS ANOTHER OF THOSE MARINES KIA ON JANUARY 3rd. THEY ARE SEEN HERE PICKING UP SUPPLIES. THE CRATER HOLE BEHIND THEM WAS LEFT BY A 500 LB. BOMB THE V.C. SET OFF ON THE ROAD LEADING INTO THE DELTA 4 COMPOUND. |
CPL. CLAY AND SGT. WEBB AT DELTA 5 |
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JIM COPELAND HAS PROVIDED PHOTOGRAPHS OF ALL THE DELTA 5 MARINES KIA AND ON JANUARY 3, 1968 EXCEPT THE NAVY CORPSMAN HM2 THOMAS PHILIP MOORE FROM LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY. IF YOU HAVE PHOTOGRAPHS OF 'DOC' MOORE OR ANY OF THE SURVIVORS PLEASE EMAIL US. BELOW IS AN ARTICLE THAT APPEARED IN THE JANUARY 4, 1968 ISSUE OF 'STAR AND STRIPES'. JIM CARRIED THIS IN WALLET FOR 33 YEARS. |
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L TO R, LCPL. BRISCOE (KIA), CPL. JOHNSON (WIA), LCPL. DAVID AYERS (WIA) AND THE VIETNAMESE KID WAS NICKNAMED 'BUGS'. |
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