Stories

Little River

Little River runs along the northern edge of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.  My mission was to jump into Sicily Drop Zone and build bridge crossing sites for the entire battalion.  With eighteen troopers, two hours, some rope, and three rubber boats, I was to build a crossing site for six hundred Paratroopers.

I did a Recon of the area and thought I could do it. 

The water wasn't that deep north of Sicily Drop Zone.  Security would be easy.   I briefed the Battalion S-3 and the Battalion Commander on my plan; they approved it.  We rehearsed for days, felling trees, building two and three-rope bridges, and inflating rubber boats.

Then it began to rain.  It rained for three days.

Our jump went as planned.  We recovered our door bundles and moved to the crossing point.

Little River was a torrent.

Everything we tried failed.  Our swimmers crossed the river but further downstream than the anchor point.  The first tree we dropped immediately washed downstream.  The best we could do was a two-rope bridge and two boat crossings with three rubber boats, one large and two small.  To make matters worse, a crew of safety swimmers from XVIII Airborne Corps took control of the big one.

Knowing this wouldn't work, I sent one Scout section across the two-rope bridge and another on the near side to take and hold a small bridge downstream about a kilometer.

When the lead elements arrived, I pointed out the issues to the commander, who, understandably, was unhappy.  He wanted to try it anyway.  The first trooper trying to cross the rope bridge fell into the river.  The boats, loaded with troopers, were too heavy to pull across.  The boss blamed me.  I accepted the responsibility.

I suggested the bridge, which my guys had advised was undefended.   The battalion successfully crossed Little River there and took their objective.

I had failed, but I learned a valuable - NEVER allow the boss to task your unit with a mission outside its capabilities.