By Jessica Ginet
In our March 2014 issue, we covered the basic premise of what is now known as the Anonymous Battle, which took place in War Zone C in South Vietnam on March 26, 1970.
Last month, we featured the recollection of Olalla resident Paul Evans, Private First Class, Rifleman, Charlie Company, Second Battalion, 8th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile).
This month read about Port Orchard resident and Private First Class Stanley Carter’s experience during the Anonymous Battle.
Carter, part of Alpha Troop, was the loader for Sergeant Guiterrez on the tank ‘American Woman’. Alpha Troop rescued Charlie Company after they found themselves literally on top of a North Vietnamese Army stronghold, outnumbered, and running out of ammunition.
His first firefight was during the Anonymous Battle in March 1970. Carter, who was drafted into the Army in June 1969, was in the country for just over two months when he found himself in the middle of chaos.
The Anonymous Battle on March 26 is always on Stan Carter’s mind when he recalls his war experiences.
Carter arrived in Vietnam on Jan. 10, 1970. He was assigned to the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and also to Alpha Troop, second platoon. Carter went to Armor School in Ft. Knox, KY, where he learned his way around tanks. He loaded ammunition on Sheridan and M-48 tanks while in Vietnam.
“I was on a few ACAVs at first, then I was assigned as a loader on a Sheridan tank, an A-27, named ‘Avilla’ at that time and changed to ‘American Woman’ soon after I arrived.”
While researching the popular culture of this era, it was noted the song “American Woman,” by the Canadian group The Guess Who, was considered anti-American. The group was prohibited from playing this song when they performed for Nixon at the White House in 1970, the same time that Carter’s platoon was involved in the Anonymous Battle in Vietnam.
Carter’s tank commander was Staff Sergeant Pasqual “Gus” Gutierrez. “He was a two-year man who graduated top of his NCO class and came out an E-6 instead of an E-5,” Carter said, continuing, “I have to say right now that Gus saved my life and the crew of A-27 many, many times. When we got into a firefight or were ambushed, in any situation, he knew exactly what to do. I felt safe with him as my tank commander.”
Carter recalls the platoon he was assigned as a very capable one. “The crew of A-27, if I do say so myself, was exceptional. Our driver [Harry Disler] was a great driver and drove exactly as ordered in battle and out of battle. He was a good mechanic and the tank was always well maintained.”
Carter was taught how to load the main gun line on the M-48 by Gutierrez.
“In a firefight we had a system that went real smooth. I’d turn the main gun switch to on and say, ‘She’s ready.’ Gus would reply, ‘On the way’ and pull the trigger to shoot the main gun. I would then reload the canister round.”
Carter said that during a firefight, the dialog between the two, with Carter saying, “She’s ready” and Gus replying, “On the way,” would progress quickly, in a sort of pattern, indicating the main gun was always firing, which was good.
Carter remembers Lieutenant Healey telling the second platoon, “[We’re] going to rescue some grunts trapped in a bunker complex.”
Without hesitation, the second platoon started busting jungle on their mission to assist Charlie Company. While Carter usually stood on the loader’s seat with his upper body exposed outside of the tank, he was quickly told to drop down inside.
“Busting jungle was causing a lot of tree branches and vines to come across our turret. Gus told me to get inside, close the loader’s hatch, and stay inside ‘till we reached the grunts.”
Carter doesn’t recall just how long he was sitting inside the hot, stifling turret before they reached Charlie Company.
“When we got there, we could hear shooting. When we were getting on line to move in, Gus told me to get ready. Then all hell broke loose,” Carter said, adding, “Main guns, .50 calibers, M-60 machine guns, M-16s, everything. I don’t know what everybody was doing because I was down inside loading the whole time.”
At one point, Carter remembers coming up to give Gus additional .50 caliber ammo boxes that he couldn’t reach.
“At one time our tank shook and Gus came on the horn and said that Sergeant Foreman (of Alpha Troop) got hit. It was a very sad moment, the thought of what happened to him. His crewmen must have been devastated . . . but that’s war.”
When the firefight was over, Carter came up out of the turret to help Gus change his .50 caliber barrel. The barrel had turned red-hot from the continuous firing.
Emerging from the turret, soaking wet from being confined the hot, small space for hours, Carter was both weary and anxious. “I remember that when leaving the area, the tank in front of us had a body wrapped up in some ponchos on the rear deck. I was wondering if it was Sergeant Foreman.”
In Captain John Poindexter’s book, “The Anonymous Battle”, Staff Sgt. Gutierrez described Carter: “I don’t remember our loader’s name, but I can clearly see his face – a skinny kid with blond hair and dark horn-rimmed glasses. I must have looked at his face a hundred times that day as he handed me grenades so I could throw them at the bunker openings to keep those RPGs from coming out at us.”
One short week after the Anonymous Battle, on April 1, 1970, Carter found himself in yet another firefight. And yet a month later, in May of 1970, Carter was with the troops Nixon sent into Cambodia to locate weapon caches and supplies of the enemy.
“I thought at that point that I wouldn’t make it out of Cambodia,” Carter said.
Carter remained in country until Oct. 24, 1970, when he was injured by a tank. “We usually had a hooch to stay dry under and stay out of the sun with but this time we didn’t have the stuff we needed,” he said.
His platoon was securing a highway when a monsoon hit. “I saw our gunner during the monsoon getting out of the rain by going under the front of the tank and I decided to do the same.”
The next morning, however, either the driver forgot or didn’t receive word from the tank commander that there were men underneath the tank. According to Carter, the tank moved, pivoting, and crushed his right foot, breaking a bone in his left foot as well, and injured the gunner’s calf. “That was the first and the last time we ever did that,” Carter said.
Carter was supposed to stay in country until his tour was over in January 1971, but he was transported out of Vietnam on November 5, 1970, and sent to Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco, to heal and recuperate.
Carter just happened to be surfing the net in 2004 when he stumbled up on the site for the 11th Armored Cavalry. It was on that site that Carter found contact information from guys he remembered from his platoon. He attended his first reunion in Colorado Springs in 2005, 38 years after the Anonymous Battle took place.
“I’ve been to every reunion since then except one,” Carter said.
“When you’re drafted, you don’t think about being a veteran.” Carter continued, adding, “As I look back on times as I’m older, I realize it was probably one of the best things that’s happened to me.”
For his service during those intense 10 and a half months in Vietnam, Carter received the National Defense Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Sharpshooters Medal, Marksman Medal and the Presidential Unit Citation.
To read the first and second parts of this series, go to www.KitsapVeteranslife.com.