Southern Cross information
for 196 BDE 23 INF

For date 700626


196 BDE 23 INF was a US Army unit
Primary service involved, US Army
Quang Tin Province, I Corps, South Vietnam
Location, FSB CENTER
Description: The following is an edited version of an article titled "NEED COUGH DROPS?" by SGT Dave McKeon 196th INF BDE IO. LZ CENTER - A single cough cost four NVA their lives 12 miles northwest of Tam Ky. A small patrol from the reconnaissance platoon of the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry, 196th Infantry Brigade, was recently cutting through dense vegetation along the side of a mountain. "Eventually we came across a freshly broken trail," said PFC Floyd Sloan, Wheelwright, Ky., point man on that day. The "Chargers" followed the trail for several hundred yards. Suddenly the platoon leader, 1LT Dennis Leopold, Elgin, III., halted the patrol. A faint coughing sound was heard up ahead. Private Sloan and three others went ahead to look. Peering through the brush, they saw between 15 and 20 NVA. "When they saw us," recalled Private Sloan, "they all scrambled for their weapons." The infantrymen opened up with M-16 rifles, cutting down four NVA before the enemy could reach cover. The small patrol withdrew into the jungle, leaving their dazed enemy behind.

The source for this information was 7006_323_scr supplied by Les Hines 12/19/2000


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Last updated 12/24/2000

Date posted on this site: 05/13/2023