SSgt David P. Spears {KIA}
Chief of Smoke
Bravo Battery
by Stephan Zacharias
Attempting to capture the details of his grandfather's death
My grandad was a career Army man having enlisted originally in August
of 1951 at the age of 20. He served at least two tours in Korea. He also
was stationed in Columbus, GA at Fort Benning, before being assigned to
Schofield Barracks with Battery B, 2nd Battalion,
9th Artillery, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry. This was the unit he served
with in Pleiku Province. He was the Staff Sergeant, known as the "Chief of
Smoke" because he led the firing battery. He had a friend in that unit who
was one of the "cannoncockers" Hank Thorne (I don't know his rank, all
I know is that he was manning a howitzer on the morning my grandad was killed.)
SSgt Spears left for Vietnam from Hickam Air Force Base in December of 1965, as
part of OPERATION BLUE LIGHT, known as one of the
largest and longest airlifts of personnel and cargo into a combat zone in
military history. As part of the 3rd Brigade, he had been one of four thousand
soldiers deployed to Vietnam's Central Highlands. They established base camp
near Pleiku. The 25th ID is reported to have brought nine thousand tons of
equipment with them. The 3rd Brigade was the first from the 25th Infantry called
to action. Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 9th Artillery provided direct support for
the infantry. Battery B spent most of its time in the field engaging the NVA who
patrolled the Cambodian border.
This unit was a part of Operation Paul Revere 1, (apparently there were 4 phases).
It was during this Operation that my granddad was killed. There are many
different reports as to how he was killed. Initially the local press in
Tennessee (where he was from) reported that he was killed by one of his own
shells apparently defective: "S-Sgt. David P. Spears was operating a 185
millimeter howitzer against a hostile force when a round detonated prematurely,
the War Department notified his wife." -- Newspaper from Rogersville, Tenn.
However, the account of that days events, July 24, 1966 by the commanding
officer at the time, a Capt Jack Osborne, differs greatly from this newspaper
account. According to Capt. Osborne, my granddad was the very first casualty of
Battery B, 2/9th, 3 Bde, 25th ID. This was an account that he gave in a letter
he sent my grandmother regarding the death of my granddad: "Sgt.
Spears was the acting chief of firing battery and was sleeping in my tent, along
with myself and my medic, a Sp4 Riddle. At about 5:30 am there was a
single explosion which woke me up. Sp4 Riddle informed me that he was hit, and
as Sgt Spears was not yet awake, I immediately checked him. He was, of course,
hit and unconscious. Sp4 Riddle, although wounded in the hip, and myself,
both immediately rendered first aid to your husband and within five minutes
there was a doctor and three senior medics in attendance to him. My XO, Lt
Duffy and at least nine other men in my battery gave blood for immediate
transfusions. In all everything humanly possible was done but your husband's
wounds were too great and he died shortly without having ever regained
consciousness. After a complete check, it is my opinion and the opinion
of the Army that he was killed by a single, incoming, enemy mortar round.
It was thought at first that it could have been a muzzle burst from one of our
own guns. But after a complete investigation, I am firmly convinced that it was
not ."
Yet, several years ago this same Capt had a conversation with my mother where
he revealed that he had lied to my grandmother in this letter. According
to the new account by Capt Osborne, he says that my grandad died not die
peacefully. "He had been sound asleep but when he was hit he did wake
up. I lied about that. There was no sense at the time to talk about
the suffering and wounds he had. It wouldn't accomplish anything. I hope
you can forgive me for that lie." According to Capt Osborne, SSgt. Spears
suffered a lot of pain and was administered some pain medication that helped
somewhat.
Osborne continued: "It was just before daylight. We were all sound
asleep. It was pitch-dark. It was rainy. Raining hard. It was during the monsoon
season. I did not hear the round go off. You get so accustomed to the noise. We
fired off what is called harassing and interdictory fire. One of the gun
sections fired every fifteen to twenty minutes, all night long. It was just to
harass the enemy to keep them awake. Well, we learned to sleep through it, and
I'm sure they did, too. This round went off and I wasn't even conscious of it. I
was still asleep. But your dad (SSgt Spears) started hollering, "Doc! Doc!
Doc! I'm hit! I'm hit!" Well, I started to turn over and I felt a
good pain and knew I was hit with something. I immediately grabbed my rifle,
thinking there was somebody in the tent. We'd had that happen before. I shined
the light around and there was nothing. And the medic said, "I've been hit,
too, sir." But your dad had taken on the worst. I needed the medic's
help, so I asked, "How bad are you hit?" and he said, "I'm all
right. I was just hit in the butt." He was hit right square in the
butt. It was pretty deep wound, too. Anyway, we got over to your dad and
got him calmed down so we could talk to him. You could see his right side that
he had some small intestines that were coming out. Well, you're taught how to
treat that. We put some bandages over it and checked him out hastily. And,
unfortunately, there was no doctor in the LZ with us. So we got on the radio, he
came up, and they took him then." Osborne said the intestinal wounds were
not enough to have killed SSgt Spears. "We didn't know how badly he was
injured because the doctor had got there and we didn't do a real good check on
Dave. What happened was, one [shrapnel] had come up through the cot and hit him
in the back and entered his lung. He had severe bleeding in his lungs. The
doctor found this. But we couldn't get a dust-off out there because it was dark.
And it was raining pretty hard."
According to the duty officer's report that day it records that at 5:35 am a
call came from 2nd Battalion, 9th Artillery and reads: "B/2/9 requests
DUSTOFF. Short rd or burst fired H & I mortar resulting in 3
casualties: 1 litter, 1 walking, and 3rd man down, had injuries: extent unknown.
DUSTOFF ASAP when weather clears."
Capt Osborne, however, states that it may not have been due to the weather that
the Dustoff was having issues: "They (dustoff) were taking too long to get
down there. I was really pissed. And you don't piss off somebody who has five
big guns. I dropped a round in the middle of the LZ. That got their attention.
They came, finally, after we dropped that short round. But on the way out, they
ran out of fuel and had to go back. They'd failed to refuel the night
before. The pilot got court-martialed over it."
Although, Capt Osborne did an investigation on the shrapnel from SSgt Spears'
body and found it to be unknown, the Army concluded that the shell came from one
of the "five big guns", that a shell from one of the unit's guns hit a
tree near the middle of camp and exploded and it was shrapnel from that
explosion that killed SSgt Spears. Osborne denies this official report and
insists the shrapnel came up from the ground, not down from the sky.
Prior to SSgt. Spears' death, the Army did not place sandbags around the tents
that may have prevented the injuries that took my grandfather's life. According
to Osborne: "Your dad's death (SSgt Spears) saved a lot of lives in
Vietnam." Apparently a subsequent investigation had included a report of
what they could do to prevent further casualties, and from that point on they
began to place sandbags around the outside of tents.
Although Osborne insisted that there was a court martial of the dustoff pilot,
my family has been unable to find any documentation that could support this
claim. And the very few men that my mom has been able to contact from Battery B
that would talk about this incident say they cannot remember any investigation
into the death of SSgt. Spears or the court marital that Osborne referred to.
Another man in the 2/9 who served with my grandfather, a John Nash, says the
unit moved extensively from Kontum Province to the rubber plantation to the Ia
Drang Valley.
Senator Gordon Smith, of Oregon had a congressional investigation launched
several years ago and this was the analysis reported by researchers at the
National Archives at College Park:
"Our staff searched all the records we have in our custody that might
have contained information regarding the incident in which SSgt David P.
Spears was killed. There are no records of the 2/9th artillery for this time
frame. The daily journal and daily situation report for the 3rd Brigade/25th
Infantry Task Force mention the accident. Copies are enclosed. The task force
was attached to the 4th Infantry Division at the time. Their records provide no
additional information, either in the division general staff or division
artillery files. The records of the next higher echelon, First Field Force
Vietnam, reiterate the information that was passed to them by the brigade. The
G-3 daily journal reads: "Fm 3/25 LT. Powell, to MAJ Cropper, 240525--B/2/9
had a 105 muzzle burst. Rslts: 3 wounded, 1 serious, 2 minor. Medvac requested
but weathered in. No additional details." The records of the United States
Army Vietnam Provost Marshal and the 18th Military Police brigade do not cover
this time frame. Line of duty investigations and summary court martial are not
included among our records. "
PostScript: Thank you for taking your time to review this information
regarding my granddad, SSgt. David P. Spears. Like you I strongly believe
in recording history for future generations. One of my favorite quotes I heard a
few years back: "Stories
have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or
why we're here." Thank you
so much!
--Stephan P. Zacharias
Information offered by Sgt Joe Cook, member of the FDC of "B" Battery: