Bum Dum Isle patrol 1966

Finally getting around to posting this.  Second battle with my Rung Sat marines.  If you are just joining, go back and read the last post, we will wait.  Good; now before Lt Peoples joins the squad has to go out and patrol a small island on one of the many rivers.  Contact is not expected and they are "flying the flag" to show the people the government IS in control.  ( sound familiar?)   Capt Vincent suggests that Gunny Sgt Gibson go with the squad.  Gunny agrees and hatches a plan to scare Cpl Lucero straight.  Gunny is "pleasant" so he wants to rehabilitate him.  Sgt Rodriguez is in charge of the mission; Gunny is "just" an advisor. 

Mission:  Patrol Bum Dum Island.   Gather intel as available. 

Characters.

Sgt Rodriguez   Haughty/ Govt                  Avg
1st FT   Cpl Lucero     corrupt/ govt         below avg
2nd FT  LCpl Ellis      corrupt/ machines   Avg
3rd FT   Riggins                                         Avg

Gunny Gibson      Pleasant                     Above Avg
2 PBRs    with Injun Joe

 Bum Dum Isle with the Marines approaching in 2 boats.   Huey's on call.  30% chance of an ambush which doesn't occur. 

Injun Joe scans the treeline.

The center point of BD Isle.  A religious marker.  ( rolled up a key building)

1st squad deploys with attached corpsman.  All is quiet.     3 stripe will take 2nd and 3rd FTs through the village while Gunny takes 1st FT to search the riverbank for bunkers. 

LCpl Riggins' team takes point as the few villagers scatter.  Riggins is glad they don't have to search hooches. 

Gunny (lead figure) takes Lucero into the brush to look for bunkers and instructs the rest of the team to check out the boat and netting.  The team thought they heard something but wasn't sure.  When they catch up with Gunny Lucero is badly bruised.  Gunny explains he tripped a VC trap and was slammed into a tree.  LCpl Lucero concurs.

Meanwhile, Sgt Rodriquez' spanish makes little headway with the locals. 

One of the PBRs stops a local boat with "unlikely" chance of anything occurring and nothing does.

LCpl Riggins' team crosses a small section of swamp when suddenly...

Shots open up from the jungle ahead of them and a LMG opens up from a hooch behind them leaving...

2 boys down in the muck.  Riggins drags them into a nearby hooch.  1 is obviously KIA. 

The scene mid game.  3rd FT is hold up in the hooch by the swamp.  Unknown VC ahead of them in the jungle.  2nd FT + 3 stripe mid board with civi.   VC LMG bottom of board and VC squad lower left ( having used a tunnel to move from jungle to rice paddy.)

Random event brings the on call huey on.  A true air, land and sea battle now! 
Huey fires at the VC in the paddy as he doesn't need identification for them.  Results somewhat disappointing.  [ anyone have FoF stats for a vietnam huey?] No casualties but they do break the squad.    Injun Joe has very limited targets due to LOS restrictions.  1st squad is essentially on its own. 

VC squad before the huey rains down rockets! 

Gunny and 1st FT lay down fire into the jungle.  

2nd FT drives off the LMG ( 1 body found) but not before a villager sustains a WIA. 

Sustained fire from the rest of the marines results in a standoff with the forces in the jungle but LCpl Riggins is KIA.  After several minutes, the VC wisely break off contact. 

Great mission that really felt like a story.   This squad certainly has a lot of character!   I called the mission a draw.  We held the battlefield but didn't run Charlie off.  We had 2 KIA and the VC had 4.  There was 1 civilian WIA.  Not sure this battle convinced the local population the the government was in control.     Post battle---where to begin? 

Cpl Lucero responds positively to Gunny's coaching and the FT accepts him back.  Morale in the squad drops however after 2 draw missions and 2 KIAs.  Confidence in 3 stripe is at -2 and his leadership drops to below average. Lt Peoples shows up and he will lead the next mission.  Unfortunately I rolled him up and he is "haughty" so might not be what the squad needs right now. Capt Vincent decides he can't leave 3rd FT without a NCO so they pull one from battalion.  Cpl Jonas joins the platoon and will act as ASL instead of Cpl Lucero.  So I rolled him up and he must be good at pushing paper!   He is glum and only cares about making rank.  He is also a below average leader.  Looks like Gunny still has his work cut out for him!

Enjoy

Joe