Pacific Stars and Stripes information
for 2/7 CAV 1 CAV

For date 700416


2/7 CAV 1 CAV was a US Army unit
Primary service involved, US Army
Tay Ninh Province, III Corps, South Vietnam
Location, Tay Ninh
Description: The following is an edited version of an article titled "Troops Praised for Balking at CO's Order." Tay Ninh (AP) - A company of American infantrymen who balked at a battalion commander's order to move down a narrow jungle road were praised Monday for showing "common sense." "Thank God we've got young men who question," said Lt. Col. Robert L. Drudik of Milwaukee, Wis. "The young men in the Army aren't dummies, they are not automatons. They think." Drudik, deputy commander of the 1st Air Cavalry Division's 1st Brigade, said the Army had no intention of punishing the men for disobedience because "it was not the order itself they questioned, it was its execution." He also said there was no plan to relieve the company commander. "There hasn't been a war in which the troops didn't question certain judgements," he said. "It happens time and again - it's nothing new." The battalion, company and platoon commanders involved all were new at their jobs. The men who balked were seasoned combat veterans. The incident 23 miles northwest of Tay Ninh was filmed by a television crew from the Columbia Broadcasting System, and CBS showed a report on it last Thursday night. Led by Capt. Al Rice, 24, of Kingsport, Tenn., Charlie Company of the brigade's 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry had been sent in to the jungle to block the escape of a North Vietnamese force expected to attack a U.S. artillery base on the night of April 5. The attack failed to materialize, and Rice was ordered to move his company to a rendezvous point to be picked up by helicopters. Drudik said it was a "race against time" because a massive B52 bombardment was scheduled for the area. At daylight, Rice, a Ranger who had taken over the company two days before, began moving his men through the thick jungle. They came out on a narrow dirt roadway about a mile from the pickup zone. It was then that the platoon in front, led by 2nd Lt. Stephen L. Eggleston of Burlington, Vt., another newcomer, saw fresh tracks in the muddy road and balked at an order to hurry ahead which Rice relayed from Lt. Col. Edward L Trobaugh, the battalion commander overhead in a helicopter. The men in the platoon figured that the tracks in the narrow road were those left by the enemy and that the platoon could run into an ambush. Trobaugh, who had taken over the battalion two days earlier after a Pentagon assignment in Washington, was desperately searching for a closer clearing from which to pick up the infantrymen. Meanwhile for about 15 minutes the lead platoon stayed where it was. Rice, told by Eggleston that his men refused to move, went forward to talk to them. As they argued, other platoon leaders and the majority of the company agreed they should not move ahead. Then Trobaugh spotted another open area in the opposite direction. The men hurried to it and began shopping away brush and small trees. Then one at a time the helicopters dropped into the small opening, "like hovering into a well," Drudik said. Drudik was in radio contact with both the troops and the approaching B52s. And as the big bombers neared their target 300 yards from the landing clearing, only 42 of the 120 infantrymen had been lifted clear. "Abort the mission," Drudik ordered with only two minutes left until the bomb bays opened. "Division came back and asked me, 'Did you say abort?' and I said 'Roger, the mission is aborted.'" Drudik said it was not the men's hesitancy which caused the bombing to be called off, "the time was just cut too closely - there wasn't enough time either way," he said. "But I'm sure if the men had known a B52 strike was going in there, they'd have hightailed it - no questions asked," he added. But the company could not be told that because the enemy might intercept the radio message. Whether North Vietnamese or Viet Cong actually were waiting down the road in ambush was never determined. But the men figured they were and didn't take the chance.

The source for this information was 7004pss.avn supplied by Les Hines 02/02/2000


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Date posted on this site: 05/13/2023