World: How Accidents Happen

In the thick jungle country 35 miles north of Saigon, the U.S. 1st Infantry Division ran into a hornets’ nest last week. Assigned to secure Highway 16 for a supply convoy due to move through, elements of “the Big Red One” wandered unknowingly into a major Viet Cong troop concentration. It took the efforts of three full battalions to blast out the entrenched V.C., and much of the fighting was at close quarters—where accidents can happen.

The accident happened when the commander of one surrounded unit radioed for air strikes to help out against the Reds. To guide the airmen to their targets, he ordered smoke rockets fired onto V.C. positions, outlined his own with colored smoke grenades. Despite the precautions, two Air Force F-100s swooping in to the rescue dropped their napalm canisters right on the U.S. lines. When the smoke cleared, many of the American troops lay writhing on the seared ground. Others ran screaming from their positions with their clothing afire.

The division commander, Major General William DePuy, held no grudges. “The 1st Division called in the air strikes close because this was close combat,” he said. “This is a rough business. When you’re only off by 50 meters and the planes are going 150 or 200 miles an hour, these things are going to happen.” Added DePuy: “I would ask for the strikes again in the same situation. We would have lost a lot more than we lost to the napalm if we had tried to winkle them out of those bunkers alone.”