Batman has written a good account of the Kedenburg Britelight. It should be worth putting on your site under the account of Kedenburg's death and/or under "stories." I never met Kedenburg..I don't know why we didn't cross paths or maybe we did and it didn't register. I arrived at FOB 2 in April and Delaware and the other teams were running ops almost constantly or kicking back from them in May so we just missed each other I guess. I went into X3 with Delaware about 2-3 weeks later and only thing I knew about that fight was from reading the target files getting ready for the insert. In my write-up on RT Delaware that the NVA unit guarding that part of the trail must have had a lot of room for promotion, referring to the hits they must have taken from Kedenburg fight, the RT Illinois britelight and the RT Delaware extraction...all within 3 weeks!!!-Gene Williams
By: Sherman R. Batman, SFC, FOB2, Spike Team Illinois 1968
The (Britelight) mission went down this way; John had
been inserted into a particularly hot target area and had made contact with the
NVA a contact that split his Team (don't ask me any details on this, I don't
know) causing him to call for a Spare 39 (immediate extraction} and for the
Covey to direct him to the nearest extraction LZ. The only thing that Covey
could find was a couple of bomb craters on a finger that was approx 600 to 900
meters in elevation. This took place in the morning hours of June 13, 1968.
I was in my hootch packing to go to Pleiku for Medical evacuation to either
Japan or the US. Mike to whom I had relinquished Spike Team Illinois was hanging
out near the Operations when he learned that John was running and his Team had
been split. Good old Mike immediately
volunteered S.T. Illinois for a Bright Lights to help extricate John and his
Team. The first I knew of the mission was when Mike came in the hootch and told
me that John was in deep shit and he had volunteered the Team for Bright Lights.
I told him that's great Tramel, Good Luck! Mike then says to me, Batman, you've
got to come with me, You know I don't have the field experience to carry this
off. John Kedenburg was a close friend and I really wanted to go and get him so
I agreed to go along but only as a strap hanger. I told Mike he would have to
run the mission and I would keep him company. I spent the next 30 to 45 minutes
rounding up my field equipment that I had parceled out to a few friends and my
CAR-15 from a LT I had given it to. After packing my recovered rucksack and
getting all my canteens filled Mike and I went to the Teams Hootch and inspected
the Teams equipment and weapons. We were going in heavy, that is, "with all nine
yards", something we had never done before preferring to work with a six man
team ie, two Americans and four yards. After inspecting the Team we went to the
Operations where we were briefed and LTC Smith (CO of FOB-2) asked me to take a
Medic along just in case we found John and he was wounded. This is where Loucks
comes-he was, to the best of recollection, newly assigned and could be spared
also Loucks did not spend the night packing his Medical kit because we went on
the afternoon of the 13th. I gathered up the Team and took them to the Helipad
and loaded on two Huey's piloted and crewed by the best Assault Helicopter
Company in VN, the 170th AHC. We were to be followed by the usual chase Huey
that would have one of our veteran Medics on board just in case some of us were
wounded on the insertion . We launched from the FOB-2 late in the afternoon and
after stopping at Dak To to top off our fuel finally inserted at BENT( Beginning
of Evening Nautical Twilight) or to be more specific Last Light. It was too dark
to move very far but I got the Team away from the insertion LZ, gave Covey a
"Team OK" and set up an RON on low ground something that placed us in a poor
tactical situation but necessary due to darkness.
Once in the RON I counted noses and found that instead of the three Americans I
thought I had on the mission I now had four.It seems that a Sp4 Cunningham (another newbie)
came up to me and asked if he could go along, he told me that he and John were
very good friends and he wanted to try and help find him. He was 'kitted out"
for a recon mission and I told him to tell Mike that he was going and to get on
the 2nd insert chopper. Mike being the perfect one-one immediately gave the
Radio to Cunningham to carry and welcomed him to the team.The next morning at BMNT I moved the Team out in the direction that John had
last been seen the day before. We had no sooner started to move when we picked
up trackers who were signaling by clacking bamboo and an occasional Rifle shot.
Covey arrived and we were put on a more accurate course by the Covey Rider who
had covered John the day before. We were moving at a little faster pace that we
usually maintained on Recon missions and arrived near the base of the finger
that was the last place John had been seen.
There was an open area at the base of the finger that we had to skirt by
remaining inside the tree line. Shortly after clearing this area we started to
ascend the hill and after 20 0r 30 meters the Point Man halted the Patrol and
passed back to me half of a BAR {Browning Automatic Rifle) belt, with a canteen
attached and all pockets full of M-16, 20 round magazines. I knew this belonged
to John since I had got the belt for him and helped him set it up and
attached/adjusted it to his load bearing equipment. We continued on up the hill
and approximately 20 meters further up the hill we found John, he had apparently
given himself two morphine syrette injections one of the syrettes was pinned to
his fatigue jacket and the other was on the ground beside him. He had been KIA
apparently from a major caliber weapon of some kind because his rucksack had
been torn from his body, his BAR belt blown apart and his CAR-15 was a mangled
mess of metal. None of this material was found by John's body but several meters
away further up the hill. John was seated in an upright position with his back
to a log and had from all appearances attempted to put a tourniquet on his left
thigh although there was so signs of a wound to his left leg. He has also
attempted to burn his SOI (Signal Operating Instructions) and his CAC Code that
was used to encrypt and decrypt messages. I kept everyone away from John and
after determining that he was indeed KIA I took all the Teams Swiss Seats tied
them together and after moving everyone into a perimeter a safe distance away I
pulled John's body from where he was sitting this was to insure that the NVA had
not Booby-Trapped his body. After finding no Booby-Traps I took my Marine K-Bar
and cut a sapling that was strong enough to hold John's body, then Mike and I
wrapped him in a my Poncho (not gently easing him into a body bag as Loucks
states) and using the Swiss seats lashed him to the sapling and Mike and I
carried him to the top of the hill. I called Covey and used a pre-arranged code
to tell him we had John and he was KIA.
I sat the Team up in the wood line and with Mike took a good look at our
position. We were on the down slope actually a finger running off from the main
hill mass with two bomb craters that were approximately ten meters apart some
fighter jock had an excellent bomb pattern. Approximately 50 meters to our North
West there was a very tall tree that had precluded the Huey's landing the day
before and had necessitate John's Team having to be extricated on the "strings".
This was a nylon climbing rope with the lower half of a parachute harness
attached that the Huey would drop the Team on the ground for extraction. I told
Mike to Get Cunningham (whose SF specialty was Engineer) and tell him to Take
the Point Men and blow the tree to facilitate the choppers landing because the
only way we could extract John would be for the chopper to land or hover low
enough to allow us to load his body. This was accomplished shortly after noon on
the 14th of June 1968 with the tree imitating an Atlas rocket and leaping about
30 feet into the air before crashing back.
Now, one thing I didn't tell you was that we had lost the Team interpreter on a
previous mission and had hired a mandarin Vietnamese to be our interpreter. The
Yards did not like him and I can't say that I was too fond of him but we had not
had time to adequately train him in the arts of Recon ie., woodcraft, weapons,
explosives, etc , etc.. So he Loucks and Cunningham were the unknown factors
with our Team the rest of us had been together many scrapes and operated as a
unit.
After Cunningham and the Yards got back from blowing the tree Covey called me
and said," I certainly wish you had not blown that tree and called attention to
yourself --the Gunships have not left Dak To. I got some fighters on the way but
as of now I am the only cover you have". No sooner had Covey given me these glad
tidings that one of the Team members advised Mike that we had movement from the
direction of the hill top. Mike and I moved a little out of the wood line with
the Team Grenadier with his M-79 and fired a round in the direction the reported
movement. When the Grenade Launcher fired I saw a flashing in the sun and
realized that the air was filled with hand grenades. I yelled grenade and
grabbed the Grenadier and tumbled into the downhill bomb crater. Mike , I later
learned, re-entered the wood line where he encountered a squad of NVA and killed
or wounded all of them. Mike rejoined the Team and coordinated their fire
against the attacking NVA. In the meantime, by entering the bomb crater, I found
myself in a position to place enfilading fire on the same attacking NVA.
Unfortunately, my CAR-15 would only fire semi-auto fire due to the LT I had
given it to having fired approximately 300-400 rounds through it and then not
cleaned the weapon. When I got it back from I did not have time to check the
weapon something we always did to include test firing. But fortune some times
provides us with even better means to accomplish our tasks than what we set out
with. I gave the Grenadier (who was glued to the wall of the bomb crater) my CAR
took his M-79 and began laying down a grenade about every meter of the position
of the NVA. While all this was going I realized that I was separated from my
Team
Radio by approximately 10 meters of hotly contested terrain and only had my
URC10 Survival Radio to communicate with our air assets. Shortly after the
barrage of 40mm grenades the NVA fire slackened and Mike was able to move the
Team to the bomb crater where we set up a 360 perimeter. SP5 Loucks (I didn't
even know his name at the time) appeared to be dazed and unable to function on
the firing line so I sat him in the bottom of the crater. Shortly after this,
for some reason known only to Loucks, he pulled the pin on an M-26 grenade and
tossed it up the side of the bomb crater again fortune smiled on me and it
landed near me close enough I could grab it an throw it toward the NVA before it
exploded, I then directed Mike to disarm Loucks and to pay particular attention
to his supply of hand grenades. Shortly after this two A1E's arrived and I was
able via the URC10 to direct them to area from where the heaviest fire seemed to
be coming. After dropping a couple truckloads of CBU the lead A1 called to
inform me that he could see wt he estimated to be 500 NVA debarking from trucks
and moving toward our little hill. "Holy Shit", says I. "Don't worry we'll fix
those scamps," says he and rolls in for another pass this time with napalm. A
little later the Huey Gunships arrive from Dak To, with the lead Gun Pilot ,my
friend and post-war buddy, Buc 9 ,CWO-3 Roger Weaver. The Guns swung around our
hill and proceeded to hose the entire area with mini-gun fire including the bomb
crater we were in. Again Fortune was looking out for us and the fire passed
harmlessly about six inches over the bomb crater. At about this time Covey
informed me that my Radio Operator was wounded and was in the uphill bomb crater
but unable to walk due to wounds. I gave the URC10 to Mike and told him I was
going for Cunningham. I ran over to the crater and jumped in only to find that
Cunningham was not in the crater. I did find several M-16 magazines and expended
M-16 brass which sort of nailed down that the uphill crater was where John's
Team was extracted the day before. I began picking up the magazines and stuffing
them in my shirt. Mike told me later that he thought I had lost my mind and was
doing a "Police Call" in the bomb crater during a firefight. After picking up
the magazines I returned to the Bomb crater where Mike tells me that I had got
it wrong that Cunningham was in the tree line . So once again I take off from
the bomb crater, this time in the right direction, and find Cunningham who was
seriously wounded and unable to walk. I returned to the bomb crater and informed
SP5 Loucks that he was a Medic and it was time he did some Medicking. I then led
him to Cunningham where we patched him up as well as we could considering the
circumstances and carried him back to the Teams position in the bomb crater. As
we now had the most combat power in the area things began to quiet down a little
but not before we were fired on with Rifle Grenades, they missed us by a mile
but it was a unique experience to be fired on by such an outdated weapon .
Around 1530 hours the Slicks arrived and CWO-3 Roger Winterath landed his Huey
at the bomb crater and we loaded the wounded and John's body on his aircraft. I
gave him a thumbs up and he lifted off and immediately did a pedal turn of 180
degrees and headed out for Dak To. Years later I was talking to him and he told
me that when he lifted off he saw an NVA soldier aiming his AK-47 at him so he
did a pedal turn to place the Peter Pilot on that side and took off. Even though
I am repeating this here I am certain Roger was only pulling my leg. After the
first Slick carrying our wounded departed Mike informed me that the interpreter
was KIA at the original position occupied by the Team. Here I made one of the
dumbest, bone-headed mistakes I could possibly ever make I told the two Yard
Point Men to go and collect the interpreters body and his rucksack which
contained John's shattered CAR-15. Later I was to learn that my two best troops
did not follow my orders due to the fact that Yards don't have nothing to do
with dead bodies something to do with their animist beliefs. So I loaded the
remaining Team members (Loucks & Cunningham had left on the first chopper) on
the next chopper and we headed out for FOB-2 when we were safely away from the
combat arena Mike informs me that he is wounded. I asked him where and he
pointed to his left Buttock. I had him drop his pants and , sure enough, he was
wounded just where he said he was. I nearly fell out of the chopper laughing and
told him that it was just like a dammed Texan to get shot in the A-s! At about
this time the two A!'s came by and flew wing with us saluting Me, Mike , our
team and the Chopper crew then did a couple victory rolls and flew away.
And that is the story of how S.T. Illinois conducted a successful Bright Lights,
fought an approximate four hour action against overwhelming odds (estimated 50
to one) and brought John Kedenburgs remains back to American control. One more
thing, Mike told me later, that in the initial exchange of fire the interpreter
had been wounded and subsequently began crying out and moaning. Every time he
did this the NVA would reply with a couple of 30 round magazines of AK-47. After
this had happened a few times and the interpreter did not respond to request
that he keep quiet one of the point men killed him. This could have been one of
the reasons they did not retrieve his body as directed it would have been sort
of difficult to explain how the interpreter was shot in the back of the head
when the enemy was firing from his front. (Note: in a book it was
reported that one of the brightlight team members related he heard the NVA
shouting ''GI, you die!", he was wrong as he had the wrong War that the
enemy shouted to the US Marines on Guadalcanal, "Marine you die!" There
was only one body extracted, that of John Kedenburg), Batman sends.