History

The 1/92nd Field Artillery
Association - Vietnam

Stars & Stripes Article

"Lucky" Bunker
Feb 14, 1968
B Btry

LZ Hambone or Dogbone?

Shells Fail To Hit Crowded Hole

Reds Drive GI Into "Lucky" Bunker

Dak To Vietnam (IO)-First Lt. Roger Fleming of Westlake, Fla., considers himself awfully lucky.

A platoon leader with Co. C, 1st Bn., 8th Inf., he was recently waiting impatiently at the battalion's old firebase named "Dog Bone" for a ride to the new battalion location which was almost completed.

"I was standing by the heli-pad, hoping that I'd be able to get out on the next chopper," Fleming said, when the rounds started in."

North Vietnamese soldiers striking with 75mm recoiless rifle fire, hit the almost-vacant firebase. "I think they were trying to destroy the artillery fire direction center," Fleming recalled.

"I grabbed my steel pot and started hunting real quick for a bunker to crawl into," the platoon leader continued, and found one. Although there were eight men in it, I squeezed in anyway."

Flemings bunker was flanked by two other sandbagged fortifications. "I guess we were just lucky as hell," Fleming said, "because the bunkers on each side of us took direct hits and a tree stump four feet away hit and completely destroyed."

Within seconds, a battery of 155mm howitzers was in action, pouring rounds into the suspected enemy location.

"After 16 rounds, the NVA broke off the attack," added Fleming, "and I got a chopper out as fast as I could. There were no casualties but a lot of lucky guys there."

More than a few people have ask the question about the name of the LZ mentioned. Was it LZ Hambone or LZ Dogbone (as mentioned in the above article)?
The answer is both. The name used by the B Btry FDC and members of B Btry was LZ Hambone. Also Battalion used LZ Hambone in ORLL's as quoted:
"14 January 68: Battery B moved by Skycrane and Chinook helicopters to YB909121, LZ Hambone," and
"1 Mar - B/1/92 was airlifted from LZ Hambone to Dak To and then returned to Artillery Hill by road to augment the Pleiku defense."

Infantry and chopper pilots would often refer to it as the Dog Bone. While I was there I frequently talked to chopper pilots and as the were coming in with resupply etc., I would pop smoke and the they would ask if it was the one that looked like a dog bone.

Also of note: I was there the entire time and we took some kind of incomming just about every day. Recoiless Rifle, and Mortar mostly. Automatic weapons were responsible for at least 2 choppers going down after swinging around the west hill they made a "contolled crash" on the east hill. One was repaired and flown out the next day, the other was hauled out by a CH-47. We took so many direct hits on the FDC bunker that we spent our nights repairing and resandbagging it and eventually built another on the other side of the hill but before that we lost our FDC Section Chief to a Mortar round. Robert Alexander was KIA on Feb 16th. We also had our share of wounded, and along with the infantry casualties, we called in a number of Medi-Vacs. My own personal bunker caved in on me by a near hit of a Recoiless Rifle round. - JD

* Editors Note: Puntuation and spelling intentionally left the same as in article.

See also Map Number: 6538-3