Southern Cross information
for 1/20 INF 23 INF
11 BDE 23 INF
For date 681124
1/20 INF 23 INF was a US Army unit
11 BDE 23 INF was a US Army unit
Primary service involved, US Army
Quang Ngai Province, I Corps, South Vietnam
Location, LZ THUNDER
Description: The following is an edited version of an article titled "Borrowed Ammunition Zaps Hidden Sniper."
LZ THUNDER--A cool headed platoon leader from the 11th Inf. Bde.'s 1st Bn., 20th Inf. silenced an harassing enemy sniper recently during a search and clear operation near here.-.but it took some backtracking and borrowed ammunition to do it. Moving his platoon through heavily vegetated terrain, 1LT Arthur Teele of Tallahassee, Fla. ordered his men to sweep the area when they began receiving sniper fire. The battalion command and control helicopter was in the area, and was called to give aid. In the chopper, the battalion CO, LTC William Guinn of Greeneville, Tenn. spotted three evading enemy soldiers and opened fire killing one. Retraces Steps As the lieutenant colonel kept the other Viet Cong under observation, the lieutenant on the ground had completed a search of a hedgerow without contact and continued moving forward in search of the hidden snipers. LTC Guinn radioed down to 1LT Teele that his platoon had just passed through an area where one of the VC was hiding. Although a little dubious of the report since his platoon had just searched the hedgerow, the lieutenant halted his unit and marched the 50 meters back to the hedgerow for another look. "When I reached the hedgerow I heard heavy breathing about 15 feet from me," 1LT Teele related. "Using Kentucky windage and Tennessee elevation, I pulled the trigger but it just went click. My heart hit the ground." Retraces Steps Again Stunned, but keeping calm, the lieutenant walked back to his men and borrowed a magazine of ammunition from his platoon sergeant. "I walked back slowly toward the heavy growth making sure I didn't look in his direction," he said. "I was right on top of him before I spotted him crouched in the hedgerow." Apparently confident of his hiding place since the entire platoon had walked past him and unaware that he was detected by the lieutenant, the sniper was permanently silenced before he could use the M1 carbine with three loaded magazines or the grenade he carried with him.
The source for this information was 6811_112_scr supplied by Les Hines 01/05/2000
Additional information is available on CD-ROM.
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Last updated
12/18/2000
Date posted on this site:
05/13/2023