Sgt Grit,
It's me, Little Bit, D. Michael Rayo. We were stranded together on Baldy and submitted a story in regards to meeting up with you in Da Nang and our little road trip down Hwy 1 on The Sunny Side Of The Pond.
This is in reponse to:
Re: The posting of IOD units .
By Sgt. LM Hinton
S-2 IOD Hq Batry 11th mar. NCOIC, IOP. Team 250….
I was attached to Golf Btry 3/11 from Oct '69 to June '70. I do remember the IOD's and an old grad buddy from Artillery School. (forgot his name, but do remember he was from Cincinnati and loved Rock and Roll). He was on the IOD team that was stationed on LZ Ryder. So I had access to the IOD unit and viewed it first hand. The IOD saved time and got us to our target faster without using W/P to adjust. We went straight into a H.E. mission. With W/P, we were telling the bad guys that "you better get the f–k out of there because in a few minutes, all of hell is coming your way."
While on Ryder, I remember, my buddy's LT (don't remember his name either) who was in charge of the IOD team, was calling in a fire mission when suddenly a lightning storm started on our mountain top location where we were perched over looking a couple of valley accesses coming in from Laos. (LZ Ryder). Lightning was hitting all over the hill. Almost seemed like were getting mortared. A bolt of lightning hit close to the Lt's radio, it sent a bolt of electricity through the phone and shot into his head. He died before the medivac chopper got there. That was a freak of nature. Remembering also, he had only a few weeks before he rotated.
The other IOD setup that I was aware we had close to us, and I'm not sure what number the mountain was called, (perhaps hill 250?) but we called it LZ BUSHWACK. Their call sign was RAZOR BILL. The hill was so small that all we had room for was an ammo pit, and four 105's. And a very, very small landing zone.
Anyway, hope that helps you out on the info you needed about the location of the unknown IOD.
D. Michael Rayo
Area of Operation… Hoi An / Que Sahn/ Baldy, Ross, Ryder, Bushwack. .
G 3/11… Oct '69-Jun '70