By Ken Cox
Introduction
The story of my time at FSPB Coral
derived from kept written letters and audio letter tapes to
my wife Ann-Maree from Vietnam and from some still vivid
memories.
I was a signalman with 104
Signal Squadron (104 Sig Sqn) and at that time was duty
signalman to the Task Force Headquarters command post at Nui
Dat South Vietnam. There was a major operation
that involved the Task Force headquarters to move out of Nui
Dat and to establish a forward Headquarters (HQ) with two of
our three battalions. Hence we would have a
forward and a rear task force HQ.
I and two other Command Post (CP)
duty Signals (Sigs) were assigned to remain at the rear HQ
at Nui Dat and the other duty Sigs to the forward HQ at FSPB
Coral. Of course many other 104 Sig Sqn members
deployed forward with their various attachments and with the
Squadron.
After those terrible first nights
from the 12th May myself and others back in the “rear”
started feeling rather uncomfortable or guilty with the
disparity of our mates copping it badly up forward while we
sat safe back at the Dat. After a tough two
weeks for our mates up forward myself and others were
finally sent to Coral to replace our weary comrades.
Fire Support Patrol Base Coral
FSPB Coral from the air
late May 1968
Photo from AWM
collection
At 0645 on the 25th May we departed
with twenty six others from Nui Dat in a Chinook for the 35
minute flight to FSPB Coral.
I was impressed with the current CP;
Ten feet deep with much overhead sandbagging, electric fans
inside and with timber floors. It obviously would be
safest place to be when the incomings were happening! It
also must have been hell before that was established.
HQ 1 ATF CP Bunker at
FSPB Coral late May 1968
Photo from
AWM Collection
Of course only eight hours a day
were spent in this “luxury” the rest was in and around your
little trench in the ground. It was a six by
four foot hole two feet deep in the muddy ground with some
saplings with two layers of sandbags over them and a plastic
hoochie covering.
That first day was spent watching US
fighter bombers conducting air strikes on suspect VC base
camps in the area; A “fantastic sight” as I said
in a letter of the 25th May.
My first night was interesting.
At 0415 hours on Sunday morning the rockets and mortars
poured in. I was not on duty in the CP and was asleep
in my ditch with another Sig. I described it
thus in my letter of the 28th:
“The first rockets landed about 50
yards from us and woke us and killed one digger. They
then came in for over an hour and that I wasn’t really
worried but very pissed off at being woken up! Our guns let
loose and the noise of the incoming explosions and ours was
unbelievable. The next morning when I got up I saw how
effective it was. Our little hole was 40-50 yards away
from the other Sig lines and every tent and hoochie of
theirs was shredded and torn with shrapnel including our Q
store that took a direct hit. A mate of mine (he was
an Air TAC guy and not a Sig) had a lucky escape.
He was the only guy I saw who had a fortified hole in the
ground. Star pickets and not saplings lined his one
man roof and 3 or four layers of sandbags on that.
He copped a direct hit over his face and the bags were
cratered to the bent pickets. I will always remember
that sight. If he was in any of our digs he
would be dead.
Tuesday 28th May saw a relatively
small rocket and mortar attack at 0230 hours that resulted
in three diggers wounded but there was a heavy bombardment
of FSB Balmoral only a few miles away that resulted in one
digger dead and six wounded. However it was a night
that resulted in probably the most vivid of my life’s
memory. It was during this attack and I was on duty in
the CP. A captain had actually taken over the radio when a
message was received to get someone to go outside and
stop light from escaping from what was thought to be the RAP
about 50 yards away. I was told to do this and someone
threw me my rifle (SLR), another a helmet, and then the
commander Col Dunstan put a paternalistic hand on my
shoulder and said “keep your head down out there son”. (I
must say that Colonel Dunstan, then the Task Force
commander, emanated genuine warmth that would ensure any
diggers respect.)
Well I emerged from the CP into the
night and a very different world. What an
unforgettable sight! Our whole perimeter was lit
up with the flashes from explosions that were probably our
own fire in case of another ground attack. The sky
above was alive with the trails of numerous rockets going
overhead apparently into FSB Balmoral. Flares
and continuous tracer fire were pouring out of “Spooky” (an
armed DC-3 aircraft gun ship) protecting what was a big
attack on Balmoral. You could also hear the
rockets and as I have noted before you can tell an incoming
is a rocket from the sound just before the explosion.
It was a chaotic sight and of course I was not sure what was
incoming or outgoing but certainly Balmoral was copping it
that night.
I made my way along the muddy track
towards the RAP that turned out to have been shifted but it
was obvious to me that the light was coming from our own
radio bunker. I made my way down the steps to
the curtain and rather stupidly put the barrel of my SLR
through the curtain slit and paused a second or two without
announcing myself. The poor Sig on duty, who with good
reason was alarmed at this, was ashen faced and reaching for
his M16. He was at Coral from the start and
experienced that fateful night when our perimeter was
penetrated by enemy. My sincere apologies go to this
person.
Underground in the 104
Sig Sqn Radio bunker at FSPB Coral - Radio Sets remoted to
the CP
Photo supplied by Allan
Lohrisch, 104 Sig Sqn
Thursday 30th May was a busy morning
in the CP. One of our companies had a heavy contact
with the enemy 1 ½ miles to the East. They tried
to flush some enemy from a bunker system and suffered one
dead and seven wounded. Enemy dead was estimated
at forty. Fighter bombers were then used. I noted that
it was hoped that that bunker was to be used for attack that
night but with numerous such enemy camps surrounding us we
were certainly not off the hook for tonight.
Friday 31st May at 0215 hours saw
only about ten rounds of mortars/rockets which lasted for
only five minutes. I did not mention any
causalities.
Thursday 6th June departed FSPB
Coral. I witnessed the spectacular explosive
demolition of the CP and then boarded an Albatross Iroquois
chopper with four of the big brass; I was the sig for the G2
Ops Maj Maclean and was the last person to leave Coral.
We circled the base to ensure no one was left and did a
scenic flight over Bien Hoa, Long Binh and other areas
before landing at Nui Dat at 1600 hours.
HQ
1 ATF CP bunker being blown up at FSPB Coral on abandonment
of the Base
Photo supplied by Allan
Lohrisch, 104 Sig Sqn
Footnote:
I only had 12 days at Coral; less
than half of the time that my mates who stayed for the full
operation.
Of course those twelve days were
infinitely easier and safer than the first but they were
twelve days that taught me a lot, and I believe I’m a better
person for the experience. How sad though was
the incredible loss of life for so many brave young men.
I am fortunate in that my wife
Ann-Maree, then my fiancée, kept every one of my daily
letters I wrote to her from Vietnam. She also kept
hours of letter tapes. The written letters have been
mostly scanned and saved digitally and over the years the
good quality audio tapes were transferred from the reel to
reel tapes, to cassette tape, and then finally digitized to
CD and MP3 files and in excellent shape. These are a
good resource for research and of course to remind me of my
long ago youth and the Vietnam experience that was such a
significant part of our lives.
Regards to all
Ken Cox
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