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A Lonely But Interesting
And Exciting Assignment
Fire Support Base Sarge
By Bob Slater

FSB Sarge [1]
FSB Sarge [2]
FSB Sarge [3]

I was with the HHB of 8/4th and loaned to the XXIV Corp. With this assignment I was placed on FSB Sarge [See Photos]. It was a lonely assignment. My contact with the battalion was through a radio to HHB FDC operator Bill Davneport. Bill was my link to the world at that time, he was and still is a great person. I was supplied once a month whether I needed it or not.

Along with the quad 50's and CIA personnel, I manned the outpost at FSB Sarge for XXIV Corps. My main function was to attack targets supplied by recon units, Special Force units, the CIA and any other group that needed our special kind of fire power. I was fortunate enough to use the Navy, Air Force, and Army artillery to suppress what we decided were enemy sites. During my lonely tour in the God forsaken place I called fire for more than 10,000 rounds of artillery, over 100,000 pounds of bombs, and over 1,000,000 rounds of mini gun and quad 50. I was very accurate with my night vision and caused many a sleepless night for the NVA below me and around me. Night killing were something we tried to do so patrols could function more safely during the day time. My job was simple -- kill everything that moved at night that we did not know who it was. CIA movement devices were all over that valley and the surrounding mountains, so I was kept busy.

As demonstrated by my special assignment, the 8/4th was not just guns and gun bunnies -- we had personnel all over our AO in Vietnam doing all kinds of jobs in the war -- just like the 1/44th AAA, the dusters and quad fifties.