Meanwhile, while this battle raged, Captain Vincent. J. Tedesco, the 1st/44th Artillery Liaison Officer, was in the officer’s club at Dong Ha drinking a cold beer, unaware that one of his combat batteries was in a hellacious firefight on Route 9 below Camp J.J. Carroll. Word came that Charlie Battery and their Marine Reaction Force, trying to rescue an overrun convoy, was in very deep contact with the NVA and needed help. It wasn’t Tedesco’s job to take out the Dong Ha Reaction Force, but normal Reaction Force Commander Captain Fredrick Taylor was on another battalion mission. Captain Tedesco, without hesitation, took control of the Reaction Force. Quickly, he assembled a full complement of Dusters, Quad 50 Machine Gun Trucks, and 1st/44th Army personnel then proceeded to the ambushed convoy.

Captain Vincent J. Tedesco:
That evening I could not fall asleep, I decided to describe the action in a tape recording made for my wife Suzann:

I don’t know where to start to tell you, Suzann, about what happened yesterday or should I say last night. I guess I’ll start from the beginning. I was over in the club around a quarter to five when we got word that Charlie Battery was in contact with the enemy on Route 9 between Cam Lo and Camp Carroll. They had gone to retrieve a convoy that had been ambushed on that road, and they were in deep contact. They needed help and Fred Taylor wasn’t around. He is the Reaction Force Commander; I’m the alternate Commander. Since he wasn’t around, it was my job to take the Reaction Force in there and try to bail out Charlie Battery. We left Dong Ha about 1730, and it took us a half hour to get to the ambush site.

I had two Dusters and two Quads 50s with me. I was in the lead Duster, the Quads were in the middle, and one Duster in back. When we approached the ambush site, I saw a tank off to the side of the road. Apparently knocked out of action, it was abandoned. I saw a dead Marine lying on the front of the Tank. Later, I found out he was the officer in charge. There were trucks and a jeep in the convoy, every one of them knocked out. The jeep had been knocked out by an RPG, which is similar to our bazooka or 3.5 rocket launcher. Those still alive were hiding against the vehicles and along the sides of the road, not doing anything very much but looking very horrible and scared and frightened. I saw, further up the road across a little bridge, Charlie Battery’s Duster. The guns pointed crazily up at the sky, the hatch in front was open and nobody was visible around the track.

I took my track, and we drove past the tank and proceeded toward Charlie Battery’s track trying to find out what the story was with them and to give them any support we could. As we started moving along the road, we had to pull way off the road into the bushes because there were so many wounded and dead along the road. We had to drag the wounded and dead off the road before we could move forward. The enemy was constantly shooting at us. We finally could move back on the road and crossed the bridge. I moved my Duster off the road to my right and saw where the enemy fire was coming from. We were receiving sniper fire, and the Air Force was putting air strikes into the area.

I directed the track commander, SSgt. Vincent DeSantis, to return the fire on the enemy that was raking our relief column. With DeSantis directing fire and loading the guns, their Duster delivered effective fire against the NVA automatic weapons, recoilless rifles and mortar positions in the surrounding hills. I left my track and ran to Charlie Battery’s track. I started looking for an officer or NCO in charge, hoping to find out what had happened. I found Lt. Steve Hardin and discovered three of Hardin’s five-man crew had been wounded when RPGs had slammed into the track. Spec. 4 Gilbert had both arms blown off by the first RPG. The second RPG had blown off the muscles, tendons and flesh from the back of Pvt. Solomon’s legs. Marines who had been riding on Duster were also wounded. Nearby, a Marine Lieutenant Terry Joeckel, who could not speak because his lower jaw had been shot away, was calmly writing down grid coordinates on a piece of paper. He passed the piece of paper to his radio operator, who called in the fire mission.

Suzann, it was horrible. People dead and wounded were all over the place and in a complete state of shock. It was impossible to set up security or try to get the convoy functioning. I got on the horn and notified command what the situation was and that we needed infantry and choppers. Running in a low crouch, I crossed the road and re-crossed the bridge and made my way to the destroyed convoy. I passed the main body of destroyed trucks, past the knocked-out Tank to where I had left the two Bravo Battery Dusters and G65 Quad 50’s and the rear Duster. They directed their fire on either side of the road, at the same place the infantry were placing their fire and where the snipers bullets were coming from. Satisfied their rounds were on target, I moved back down the line, trying to find any officer in charge of the convoy. There were two officers, a Marine Captain and an Army Lieutenant present. All they could do was hide up against the track vehicles. There were wounded all over the place. Suzann, it was horrible. There was a wounded Warrant Officer in a very complete state of shock. It was impossible to get them to move off the road, set up some security, and try to get the convoy functioning.

When I saw these two officers weren’t very willing or capable of taking command, I took command of the entire destroyed convoy. My first problem was to get the wounded out. I got on the horn and notified Carroll what the situation was, and that we needed infantry security and choppers to evacuate the wounded. The NVA now concentrated their fire on the Bravo lead Duster, seriously wounding DeSantis in the back. Refusing medical aid, he continued to direct his crew’s fire and load the guns. Another RPG struck the rear of the turret, killing one of the Cannoneers, Spec. 4 Billy Strickland, and wounding the rest of the crew. Wounded a second time, DeSantis continued to refuse medical aid, the bullets showering all around him. He began evacuating casualties from the stricken vehicle.

Staff Sgt. Vincent DeSantis: I was part of “B” Battery, 1st Bn/ 44th ADA and our battery was located across the road from the 1/44th ADA Battalion Headquarters at Dong Ha. It’s a bit after 3 PM and my crew and I were in the motor pool doing maintenance, just trying to get through the end of the work day. My Platoon Sergeant ran up to us and told us there was a fire-fight down the road and to get my track to the main gate and wait for the rest of the reaction force to form. My track was the first track to arrive at the gate so we became the lead track in the reaction force. It normally takes six men to properly man a Duster, at that moment my crew complement was: me, SSgt. Vincent DeSantis as Squad leader. My Driver was James Carr, the Gunner was William Swartz, but I still can’t remember the name of the azimuth tracker. I would usually be the right gun loader, but at that moment we did not have anyone hitting Dong Ha Mountain to our far right. For whatever reason my track slowly preceded into what seemed like the center of this massive ambush. We pulled off the road into a small clearing and Captain Tedesco advised us that he would proceed on foot to access the situation and see if there were any survivors. As soon as he left we began to take enemy fire. I felt a sting in my back and realized I was hit by a sniper round. I directed Strickland to man the M-60 machinegun and to fire into the wood line. My idea was with Strickland firing the machine gun into the tree line to protect us; the azimuth gunner and I could load the 40MM and get the guns back into action. I was about to direct the azimuth guy to rotate the tub around when an RPG hit the gun tub just above the Driver’s position. The explosion was deafening. A bright light and the fire ball filled the tub. I felt the heat of the fire ball on my arms. After the fire ball burned out, I checked myself to see if I was in one piece. There was no panic from the gun crew. I called out to the crew, the gunner Swartz said he was ok, the azimuth tracker said he was ok. I looked across to Strickland, he was sitting on his loader seat very still, and his head was down. I reached over to him said his name and shook him twice… he was dead. Now unable to man the guns, those of us able to move left the track and returned to the road and back east out of the kill zone. To this day, not a day goes by that I do not think of Billy Strickland. God bless him.

Captain Vincent J. Tedesco:
I moved back to my track trying to find out why my Duster wasn’t firing. The Duster Squad Leader told me they had been hit. I ran around to the front of the track to get to the radio and let them know we had lost another track, and I saw a horrible sight. My Driver, Spec. 4 Can, who had driven me into the ambush with his head sticking out of the hatch, was hit in the face and head when an RPG or aerial bomb landed near our track. It blew shrapnel and debris all over his face, shoulders and neck. I thought he was dead. He’s in critical condition, but I think he might pull through. As of now, he’s still alive. The radio was out of action and everything was covered with blood. I was now trying to give and get medical aid for him, Sergeant DeSantis, and everyone else. I moved back across to Hardin’s track again, trying to get some kind of aid for all the wounded. Each time I ran back and forth trying to give aid and reorganize the men, there were more and more wounded and killed. Finally, a medivacs chopper came in, and then we started receiving even more automatic fire and RPG’s. All the enemy now concentrated their fire on the approaching chopper as he tried to land. I ran over to the chopper and got him out of the area before he got shot down in the middle of the convoy. This went on and on and on, Suzann, just on and on and on. I kept moving up and down the convoy, kept calling for infantry and artillery. As it started getting darker, I called for illumination. The illumination rounds bursting high overhead, released parachute flares that bathed the terrain in an eerie orange glow. I knew the NVA would use the cover of darkness to move in for the final kill. I just kept calling for illumination as we waited for reinforcements and another Reaction Force.

Finally, after waiting for hours for help, I decided we were going to load all the wounded on the two Quad 50 trucks and the tracks and make a run for it. We had gotten one of the Quads loaded with the wounded when two Seabee trucks came in on their own to give us help. We got some more wounded and some dead loaded on their trucks. They headed out under the protection of the Quads. All of a sudden, the choppers started coming in. The choppers started landing all around us, taking out the other wounded. Now that the wounded were leaving, my new concern was the tracks and trucks that were out of action. For some unknown reason there were at least 50 civilians huddled in the area. We fired over their heads to keep them down. We weren’t sure whether they were VC – NVA or what they were doing. We had a Marine sergeant covering them the whole time with a machine gun.

Hardin and I returned with a few Marines to secure our Dusters. I didn’t want to leave the destroyed tracks for the NVA. I requested permission to destroy the Dusters, and Battalion denied this permission. They said a relief column from Dong Ha was on its way. A third Reaction Force commanded by Captain Charles Vickers, the 1st/44th Artillery S-4, departed Dong Ha and headed to the ambush site at full speed. They consisted of two Dusters from Alpha Battery, two G65 Quad 50s, and four ammunition-laden five-ton trucks carrying 1st/44th Headquarters Battery clerks, cooks, drivers, and mechanics, acting as infantry. Well, about 1900 hours, it was getting pretty dark, and I was just about to say “To Hell with Battalion” and blow all the destroyed vehicles, when I saw the headlights of the relief column. Once Vickers arrived with his extra force, things cleared up pretty quick. We got the rest of the wounded out and as many of the dead as we could find. Hardin got my original Duster started and he drove it out. Vickers brought one of his Dusters across the bridge and hooked the destroyed Charlie Battery (Hardin/Towns Duster) up with a tow cable, and towed it out. With Vickers’ team covering our withdrawal, we finally left the ambush site. We started pulling back, evacuating the wounded and picking up all the weapons. I left Lieutenant Gregg from Bravo Battery in charge of the area. We moved out to the Cam Lo Marine Compound with the help of the Huey gunships and got back to Dong Ha at about 2200 hours. It was a very horrible -unbelievable- experience. I don’t guess I will ever forget the sight of that battlefield or the look on the face of that poor kid that was driving me. I didn’t sleep at all last night. The Marines moved in and secured the ambush site.

A month after the battle, Captain Tedesco became the new Battery Commander of Charlie Battery. He would ride the road with his men, get to know them personally and was proud to lead them into Khe Sanh. All those who rode the infamous Route 9 remember the fighting men of Duster Charlie Battery.