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Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Hubert Yoshida Interview
Narrator: Hubert Yoshida
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Emeryville, California
Date: April 7, 2022
Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-506-28

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TI: And at this point, how battle tested was your unit?

HY: Oh, we had been in country from July to April, so we had been around. We had had other major engagements, so I was down to thirty-six men.

TI: So by reputation, were you viewed as one of the better, stronger units?

HY: Well, I had fewer men than most of the platoons, that's why I was assigned to guard the helicopters. But I was 1st platoon, and normally the company commander would use my platoon first, so I had more attrition than some of the other platoons.

TI: And you would be used first because, why? Why would you usually be the first one?

HY: Well, because the 1st platoon would normally be the senior platoon.

TI: The senior, the strongest?

HY: Yeah. But by that time, I had had the most casualties, so I had attrition. So anyway, I gathered my men and we had to cross this open area under fire. Managed to get across and find the company that was being under attack. So when I got there, Lieutenant Bonham, who was... I had known from before, but I was surprised because this F Company was a different F Company that I'd worked with before, so I was surprised to see Lieutenant Bonham there. Anyway, he was the only officer who hadn't been wounded or killed. And so he briefed me on the fact that there's a platoon that was cut off, their platoon commander was dead, and he didn't know exactly where they were, they were somewhere in that area. He didn't know how many North Vietnamese were between us and them. We didn't know we had North Vietnamese, (until) I could see the dead bodies around, and they were dressed in khaki uniforms with these helmets and were carrying AK-47s. So that's all he could tell me was that they were somewhere out there and they had gone this way. And so I got my men together and I didn't have much to tell them except we would have to go that way. You know, there was hedgerows. Hedgerows are like barbed wire fences with thorny bushes growing in them, very hard to get through. And they were kind of like, would channel you down these paths, and the alternative was just go out in the open. So we went down this hedgerows where the previous platoon had gone down. It was like channeling you into an ambush. Fortunately, the lead fire team leader noticed when he was going around a corner, that there were some rifles sticking out of this hedgerow. And so he backed off and he went around and he dropped some grenades into the position. And this is how war happens. I mean, there are events that happened that all of a sudden changes the whole course of everything.

What happened after he dropped those grenades in, the North Vietnamese there panicked, and all of a sudden they came jumping out of their holes and started running down the trail. So we opened fire and we killed them all, or maybe about twenty of them. If they had just stayed in their holes and we'd have had to dig 'em out, we would have had a hard time doing that. So that was fortunate, too, I keep saying serendipitous things that happened. I imagine they were new, they were from North Vietnam, and I imagine they were, probably had less experience with combat than we had by that time, so that's why they panicked. But that was a good thing because we killed them all, and it wasn't more than a minute or two. And we just started listening, was there any more there, what else was there? And it didn't seem like anything else was there, so we were kind of elated because we had been so fortunate. I did have one, one of my machine gunners was killed, but we had suffered no other casualties. So we found the platoon, they were in another, yet another hedgerow, and they were in bad shape. You could see in their eyes, I mean, they were just scared, they were incapacitated mostly. There were only two men who were still functioning. One was a platoon sergeant and another was a corpsman who was still administering (aid). I guess when you get into combat, if there's things to do, you do them and it takes the fear way. But if all of a sudden you're being (active), you stop fighting and you're there, the mind takes over and you just sort of be there scared. I wasn't scared because I was doing things. I was leading my platoon, and my platoon was actually (responding) there. So anyway, we found them, and they said there were three men caught in an open field in front. And I left one of my squads to help them move the men back, their wounded back to their company area. And I took the other two squads that I had and moved forward to try to recover those men caught in the field. And there was no way we could do that; one of my teams tried to get out there and one of my men got wounded because they were just covered. They were in an open area and they were just covered with fire.

TI: So at this point, is it a judgment call? I mean, it seemed like it's almost like a trap. I mean, it's almost like they're bait to get people out there, and knowing that, I mean, you, in some ways, have saved almost everyone else. What goes through your mind?

HY: Yeah, I figured, well, I knew where they were. They were in a hedgerow in front of these men. So I decided that if I can lay down a base of fire and pin them down, then these men, if they were mobile, they could get back to us. So two of the men were wounded but they were mobile. I finally made contact with them on the radio. So I gave them the signal, we laid down a base of fire, and those two had to get back on their own, but the other one was dead. And so we did that, we laid down a base of fire, and those men were able to make it back. So by that time, I said, fine, I got everybody, now we can get back. And the meantime, my other squad had taken back their wounded and helped them evacuate the area, the rest of the platoon had come back. And when they came back, they came under fire because the North Vietnamese had come back to the area that we had cleared. So now we were the ones who were cut off and had no contact with the F Company. But fortunately, instead of trying to go back to join F Company, we were next to the edge of a clearing and I could see that the battalion was over at this other village, it's called Chau Nhai. It was all open area, but it wasn't more than maybe four or five hundred meters. That maybe we could just go directly there instead of trying to go back through F Company. So I decided, we weren't catching any fire, direct fire at that time, but I knew if we tried to join with F Company, we'd go right back into the North Vietnamese. So I made the decision we're going to get back. And it wasn't very pretty, I mean, it was just get out there and move, and don't stop for anything.

TI: Because they were just in an open field.

HY: Yeah, it's just a series of open fields. So we got out maybe a hundred meters and then they started getting, we started getting long range fire. But I kept everybody moving, I didn't want anybody pinned down. And it was getting to be dark at that time, so that was to our advantage. So to make a long story short, we made it back and nobody got hit.

TI: Oh, amazingly.

HY: Yeah, 'cause it was dusk. I mean, we could see the tracers from the machine gun that was coming around, and there were a few mortars that were fired. In fact, it was kind of pretty because the moon had already risen in the afternoon, so we had a full moon, and there were some tracers coming at us. It was almost like a light show, and it was kind of pretty.

TI: So deadly, though, I mean, when you think about what was...

HY: Yeah, when you think back, but we made it back. So that was kind of my involvement, and the next... well, it wasn't quite done. Because when we got to the battalion perimeter we were told to take the section of the battalion for defense, and they didn't know if anybody was there. So I went out there, brought my men out, and as we moved into that area, we got hit again and I lost another man, one of my point men, so he was killed. So we backed off, and we could hear them talking, the Vietnamese talking to each other. And I waited for this other platoon to join me and we were going to make an assault, but by that time, they had left. So again, it was just fortunate timing.

TI: Because that would have been a very bloody firefight?

HY: Yeah, it would have been a frontal assault and it would be another firefight, but they had left. And what we assume is that they were probably an advanced forward position for the mortars that were a forward observer point, so they weren't there to really fight, they were going to move. So, again, I was very fortunate and I didn't have a major battle to fight. So we got some sniper fire during the night, but essentially that was most of the action. And next morning, in the meantime, the rest of my company, the other two platoons in that company, had been overrun on another hill, so they had suffered a lot of casualties and I had actually the least casualties among all the companies. So I was, again, very, very fortunate just the way things happened. Even though I had thought I was going into the worst part of the fighting, I actually came out in the best condition.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.