morning I am still on night watch. I haven’t gotten any letters yet I guess it takes a while? The C Bees are building us a new underground bunker how about that! Mess hall at Camp Carroll NVA aiming point Ha! For our Kit Carson.
Mar 1 1968
Have new top secrete artillery round called(Firecracker). The round fires first like any other round but it goes off 350 meters above
the deck. The back of the round blows out and 18 pods of HE spread out 150 Meters. The pods have spring-loaded wings that stabilize it when it goes down so they hit bottom first. Then they bounce up 4 to 6 feet high, go off throwing shrapnel out and gets Charlie. Not too much going on now. There hasn’t been any incoming in a couple of days I think we will get it soon. We used Firecracker on fire mission, it was off
target 100 meters and we still got 13 NVA killed and 3 wounded. The (FO) field observer didn’t know about the firecracker rounds we were using, he got excited and all shook up at the sight of it. Yesterday a helicopter flew over a NVA rocket site and didn’t know it until he took fire from an automatic weapon. He called in a fire-mission on the position. All I know is the helicopter pilot said, “It was good coverage on the target”. 0811’s got their shit together on that fire mission no more rockets today. How is
the place? It is March 1 here about 04:30 in the
Mar 2 1968
They say our Kit Carson is an NVA who has come over to our side? The Sergeant thinks he is laying out our battery positions for incoming. I saw him and he looks like an ARVN in our uniform? Our mess hall has shiny metal roof you can see it for miles? Haven’t had any incoming lately except for a few mortar rounds. I am working on the charts and I haven’t got to long to do in the Nam now just 12 months. Today is Sunday and there is nothing to do. All the new guys in the Battalion went to a meeting and we got incoming, everybody got out ok! How is the weather at home it is misty over here and cloudy most of the time?
Map of Camp J.J. Carroll gun target line of 130 MM NVA guns.
Mar 11 1968
Well tonight about 2 AM we are suppose to get a rocket attack and ground force, but we were suppose to have been over run by NVA two times already and we are still here. There is bitter conflict going on over here between filling sand bags and standing watch. I got a hair cut from the lieutenant he is pretty good he cuts everybody’s hair until the generator goes out and lights go out.
Fog, our convoy got hit at Dong Ha. Not too much going on here now. We took 30 rounds of 130 MM incoming. Most of the incoming lands in Kelo Battery 155’s and the Army’s 175 area.
Mar 14 1968
I am working in the Executive Pit now as recorder. Right now there is a Fire Mission in progress; PLA 0400 (SH) WP, (LOT) X6, (MF) PO-1 HE (DF) 2452, (QE) 331 this means platoon 1 round per gun. 2 guns in a platoon, 6 guns in a battery. PL is platoon, A stands for adjust, 0400 is the azimuth, SH is the shell WP stands for White Phosphors, and the lot of ammo is type X. The charge is charge 6 the number of powder bags used. MF is the method of fire platoon 1 round. WP in adjustment, platoon 1 round HE high explosive in effect. That is after the FO field observer adjusts the rounds onto target. We can’t get clearance on this mission yet? Just now at 25 minutes to 4 in the afternoon we get 4 rounds of incoming rockets.
Camp Carroll Ex Lt Brooks L/cpl. Seahorn