Vitenam Tourney Action Report

[The Rattler]

Round 1
rattler (u.s) vs tide (nva)

Operation Strike

Initial Landings:

Flying high above the column of APC's strapped into a huey i was taking note of the steam rising from the jungle as if it were a dragons breath. I hoped this was not an omen of things to come. The CO ordered us in saying "this one will go close to ending the war if we can give the nva a hard lesson in warfare so they lose the will to fight." I had heard that before of course! With support from the flyboys and fresh eager recruits morale was quite high. Suddenly from the mists a flash then a terrific explosion. The APC's had been ambushed and RPG's were whistling this way and that. I saw the infantry disembark with m16's chattering and then some nva rifles opened up point blank range. I saw a whole platoon drop to the ground with no life left all happening within a split second. I bit hard on my cigar and ordered the hueys in for support. A hail of rockets and machine gun fire pushed some nva back with losses but all of a sudden the enemy had vanished into the jungle.Some more drops of infantry and chasing the enemy we were fired upon taking more losses.Then someone tripped a wire and a chain reaction of explosions erupted followed by deadly fire from the jungle depths, causing 2 more platoons to no longer exist.The enemy was tough and smart. This wasnt going to be easy. The recon plane Bird dog reported fire from ground units to the north and east and the hueys were sent to disrupt and dislodge these small nests of resistance. Infantry were dropped and inflicted losses on the enemy but 2 hueys were shot down in the process when assaulting with one crashing to the ground on top of a whole platoon. The other just exploded in mid air it must have been a RPG. Circling above the conflicts decisions had to be made and still we were nowhere near any of our objectives.Some AA units had opened up disrupting some of our air transport, it was getting obvious we had kicked over an an ant nest. It was now a question of priorities.
Will do another report after a few more turns.