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village. His fortifications were well organized and usually prepared in a series of hedgerows. The Viet Cong would not usually leave his bunker under any circumstances. The bunker had to be destroyed to kill him. It was here that the tank came into its own.

In the Bong Son Plain, the 1st Cavalry Division usually employed one platoon from A Company of the 1st Battalion, 69th Armor with from six to eight tanks in conjunction with an infantry battalion when they assaulted a fortified village. Because the employment and maneuver of the tanks were so essential in attacking a fortified village, a problem of too much communications sometimes developed. Everybody from the infantry platoon leader and company commander on the ground to the battalion commander and his S-3 in the air were directing the maneuvering the tanks. To sort out this problem, it soon became standard procedure to put the tank commander or his executive officer in a light observation helicopter to control the attached tanks for the infantry battalion commander. This method worked best.

The tank usually carried a basic load of 62 rounds of 90-mm shells and 2,000 rounds of .50 caliber ammunition and very often, in the course of a four or five hour battle, a tank would use as much as three basic loads. To prohibit a tank running out of ammunition during a crucial time of an engagement, the 1st Cavalry developed a system whereby a basic load of tank ammunition was pre-slung for helicopter delivery and stored at the closest fire base to the scene of the action. Upon initial contact, an immediate resupply of ammunition was initiated. This same air transport capability was used to maintain the tanks by rapidly moving mechanics and repair parts to disabled vehicles.

The most critical limiting factor in the use of tanks in Vietnam was the trafficability of the soil. In the Bong Son area during the dry season and the latter stages of the rice-growing cycle, the M-48 tank could move across the rice paddies with a certain amount of ease. When the rice paddies were flooded, movement was greatly restricted and had to be carefully planned in conjunction with the engineers. Bulldozers and engineer mine-sweeping teams had to be attached to the moving tank elements to keep open movement options for the armor.

In September 1967, the 1st Cavalry Division received another armor capability when the 1st Battalion, 50th Mechanized Infantry was attached. The battalion was completely ground mobile in its organic armored personnel carriers.

When I received the 1st Battalion, 50th Mechanized Infantry, I decided not to treat this battalion was an orphan child to be held