Artillery

Artillery can lob big bullets (Shells) a long way.  If they want the shells to go a long way they aim high and the shell eventually arcs back down to the ground.

On the morning before the day in the last post I was called before I even got into my area, by the guys at the "Citadel" in Quang Tri.  They were under heavy artillery fire.  They needed my help.  I had no idea what to look for ... I was a new guy.  All I knew is the artillery guns had to be less than 17 miles (max range of the enemies big gun) from the Citadel... and I wasn't even real sure where the Citadel was.

It didn't take long to find the artillery guns.  Muzzle flashes.  I could see the muzzle flashes up by the DMZ.  So I headed for the muzzle flashes all the while trying to imagine how high those shells went before the started coming back down.  There was a good chance I was about to fly through them twice... as they were coming down and when I got closer to them, when they were still on their way up... I turned off to the west and imagined I was avoiding them.

As I flew up there I memorized the location of all 7 guns that were firing but as I got closer they stopped firing.  I saw every gun even though they were hidden under the tree canopy.  They had the perfect hiding spot...but they still able to do their job.  They were hoping I wouldn't find them... I was hoping they were out of luck.  I figured out the coordinates of each gun and call for air support.  The Citadel seemed to be safe as long as I was circling overhead, so I circled and waited for the fighters. 

It seemed like a long time but I finally got 4 F-4's out of Thailand.  As luck would have it they only had 5 minutes of play time.  I managed to mark the first gun pretty well and the air strike was underway. 

The first fighter in scored a direct hit... he got lucky.  We got all sorts of secondary explosions.  The gun flew out from under the trees and a tire went bouncing out of sight.  I pleaded for them to wait a minute while I marked the next gun.  They said they didn't have the gas for that and they just unloaded on the gun that was already destroyed.

So they left and I am pleading for more air support... it was really important... I would not want to be in the Citadel that day...  I assumed it was a Catholic Church at one time but I had no real knowledge of it... Except the good guys were real excited about incoming artillery.

I spent the rest of my day orbiting those guns and they never fired another shot.  I pleaded all day for more fighters and never got any.  When they next FAC came up to relieve me I gave him the coordinates for the guns.  I headed back to DaNang and back to the "No Hab Cafe" for a 16 cent Budweiser... I needed a few.

In the previous post I wrote about an Arc Light strike.  I am pretty sure that strike on the following day was to make sure none of those guns were still around.  I never had the time to look around myself and check it out... every day was full...