Thirty-five minutes after the battle started, helicopter gunships and fixed-wing flare ships arrived. The gunships flew along the perimeter wire, laying down suppressing fire with their rockets and machine guns. The flare ships started dropping large illumination flares that turned the darkness into an eerie artificial daylight. This had a calming effect on the defenders, bringing the realization that if they could hold out until sunrise they would survive the attack. Always in the back of their minds was what could happen if the lights went out, so there were a lot of prayers said that night to keep the illumination flares coming.

To help their fellow artillerymen, Bravo Battery of the 3rd Battalion, 18th Artillery, fired their 175mm guns from Minh Long, about 20 miles away, and laid down a line of fire on one of the ridges that overlooked Snoopy. Their shells had a large bursting radius and were normally not used for close combat support. But the 175mm battery was the only friendly artillery unit that could fire close to Snoopy. Lying in the bunkers, Snoopy’s defenders watched as the shells from the big guns exploded on the ridgeline–an impressive sight.

The men of Bravo Battery were locked in close combat with an enemy determined to destroy as much of Snoopy as possible. Every bunker and all the other places a sapper could hide had to be checked out. Artillerymen unaccustomed to having to use their rifles soon mastered the art. Pitched battles raged over the entire LZ that night, with much of the fighting hand to hand.

Inside the FDC, the men on duty were busy maintaining communication with other U.S. units coming to Snoopy’s aid. While some sections stayed on the radio, others prepared for the worst by placing thermite grenades on the radios and the artillery computer. If the battle seemed lost and the hill about to be overrun, the FDC section had orders to destroy the equipment so it would not be captured intact. Code books and other crypto gear was piled up and thermite grenades attached. The FDC crew’s last act would be to destroy the radios and flee the area.

Bozak established an aid station in the command post bunker. As the number of wounded troops mounted–several with life-threatening injuries–the FDC section radioed for a medevac. The problem was that the helipad was on the outside of the perimeter wire and not accessible. The only spot to land a chopper inside the perimeter was a small area in front of the command bunker. But the approach from the south and east was blocked by the battery’s radio antennas, which could easily snare the helicopter blades. Any approach would have to come from the north over the LZ, increasing the risk of exposure to small-arms fire.

As the battle raged, a lone medevac chopper made its approach at about 3 a.m., flying a few feet off the ground. The only landmark for the pilot was the roadway leading from Highway 1 to the middle of the LZ. White smoke was popped and the headlights of the battery commander’s jeep flickered on and off to signal the chopper pilot where to land. Moments later the medevac helicopter set down in the middle of the compound. Wounded were loaded and the chopper took off after less than five minutes on the ground. The bravery and skill of the medevac pilot gave the men of Bravo Battery renewed confidence that more help was on the way.

Small groups of defenders continued to clear the hill of NVA and VC. By 4 a.m., the battle was easing up and the engineers and artillerymen were clearly gaining control of the LZ. Firing began to lessen, and by dawn it had completely stopped. The enemy soldiers disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. As the sun rose, the men of Bravo began to emerge from their fighting positions to start cleaning up the LZ. They had survived a night of terror, and many a soldier paused to say a prayer of thanksgiving that morning.

As the FDC crew started to relax in their perimeter positions around 5:30, they noticed enemy soldiers moving away in one of the erosion gullies along the hillside, about 25 meters from the perimeter. They quickly raked the area with M-16 and M-60 fire. Then Captain Robert Miehm, commander of Bravo Battery, ordered the men to cease fire as he issued the ‘Chieu Hoi’ order. (Chieu Hoi was the name of the program by which VC and NVA soldiers could surrender without reprisal.) The only reply from the gully was an RPG round in Miehm’s direction. The FDC section blazed away again, and within seconds there were two lifeless NVA bodies.

After that incident, the rest of the morning was quiet, and cleanup of the LZ proceeded. Snoopy was littered with Chicom hand grenades. Many were duds–the string in the handle of the grenades had broken, and the fuse had never ignited. As cleanup continued, more medevac helicopters landed to remove troops who had been less seriously wounded. The rest of the C Company engineer unit also arrived to help clean up the LZ and sweep the area around the perimeter for any hidden enemy soldiers. Helicopters continued to land, bringing in small-arms ammunition and supplies. High-ranking officers, including the division artillery commander, arrived on the scene to inspect the damage and to learn what had happened during the battle.

A team of graves registration personnel flew in on one of the first choppers and started the grim task of sifting through the rubble of the engineer bunk for the remains of the three engineers. The bodies of the NVA and VC sappers were placed in the scoop of a front-end loader and dumped into the bed of a truck. They were then taken down to the nearest VC-dominated village and dumped in the center of the settlement as a warning to the VC and NVA that LZ Snoopy was still alive and well.

The artillery portion of the hill yielded 25 bodies and a cache of armament that included 10 rifles, two pistols and 150 Chicom grenades. Another 12 bodies were found in the engineer area. Many blood trails were discovered leading away from the hill, and the bodies of another 20 enemy soldiers were found outside the perimeter wire, apparently killed by helicopter gunships or gunfire from the defenders.

Papers captured from the dead enemy soldiers revealed how the assault had been planned. They had trained for several weeks in preparation for the attack. Their plan had been to first destroy the FDC by tossing satchel charges into the bunker. If the FDC had been destroyed, the battery would have lost contact with the rest of the military units in the area.

The attackers, it was learned, had been instructed to destroy the bunker with the radio antennas on the roof. Two bunkers met that description on LZ Snoopy, however–the FDC and the engineer bunker. The sappers had attacked and blown up the wrong bunker. Setting off the satchel charges had been the signal for the rest of the sappers to start their attack on the four howitzers. Because the enemy had failed to knock out the FDC, the defenders had been able to direct other U.S. units in the defense of Snoopy.

The battle at LZ Snoopy was just one of a series of attacks in the southern part of I Corps that month. From one end of the Americal Division area of operations to the other, NVA and VC units attacked Americal positions. In seven days of fighting, the enemy lost more than 590 killed. Heavy rocket fire from 122mm and 140mm rockets and 60mm and 82mm mortars pounded positions in the area. LZ Baldy, headquarters for the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, was also attacked. To the south, near Tam Ky, NVA and VC forces overwhelmed a small outpost atop Nui Yon hill, only to be driven off with heavy casualties. When LZ Buff, northwest of Quang Ngai was attacked, elements of the 1st Battalion, 52nd Infantry, 198th Infantry Brigade, successfully repulsed VC regulars, resulting in 27 enemy casualties.

The attacks by the enemy were part of the plan by the North Vietnamese to demonstrate their determination to carry on the war. In May 1969, President Richard M. Nixon was meeting with the South Vietnamese to announce plans for peace in Vietnam. The fight for LZ Snoopy was just one small battle in the Vietnam War, but to the men on Snoopy, it was a battle for survival. Unlike his comic strip namesake, Snoopy had fought the Red Baron and won.

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This article was written by Hubert Jordan and originally published in the April 1998 issue of Vietnam Magazine.

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