David Larsen was tossed an M-60 machine gun and several belts of ammunition before jumping, almost falling, from his U.S. Navy river patrol boat into the pitch-black jungle next to the North Saigon River.
Seconds before, a rocket exploded among six U.S. Army soldiers who had been deposited by sailors on land to ambush Vietcong.
It was Aug. 2, 1969, and the enemy turned the tables. Vietcong zeroed in on the ambush team, killing three outright and seriously wounding the others with rocket fire.
“I kind of think they waited until we pulled in,” Larsen said Thursday. Nearly four decades ago, he was a 21-year-old petty officer when he dashed into the jungle.
He got ahead of the dead and the wounded and laid down protective fire. Another young sailor, Bob Tipton, soon joined him while others evacuated the dead and the wounded.
The brief but fierce battle earned Larsen the highest Navy citation, the Navy Cross, and Tipton a Bronze Star.
The exploit was chosen by a Los Angeles production company as one of 13 episodes to be featured in a Discovery Channel series dubbed “Battle Zone,” a depiction of exploits stretching from Korea to Iraq.
Interviews of participants will be interspersed with action scenes that were re-enacted and filmed Wednesday and Thursday nights near the sloughs on the north end of Ebey Island.
Larsen, from Parsons, Kan., and Tipton, of Jacksonville, Fla., joined about two dozen river patrol boat veterans from Vietnam to witness the taping.
The Snohomish River sloughs were picked for the documentary because local veterans, who affectionately call themselves river rats, restored one of the few shallow-water jet boats. Designated PBR for “patrol boat, river,” the local boat was used for the documentary.
The Northwest veterans group, called Gamewardens NW, is headed by Heinz Hickethier, who lives near Bremerton. He has worked the last two months to set up logistics for the production company and the PBR-veteran visitors.
“It means a lot to us,” Hicke-thier said. “We’d like to see a true story told about PBR sailors.”
That doesn’t mean the production went off without a hitch.
First, the Snohomish County Council had to change regulations that prohibit shooting in the area. For documentaries, blanks can be used to portray the firefight scenes.
The company thought it had full cooperation of the Navy, producer Arthur Maturo said. The restored PBR was going to be used by the actors and the actors were to be members of an Everett-based frigate, the USS Ford.
But a Department of Defense regulation prevented the use of active duty personnel and Navy equipment from being used in documentaries.
Maturo, from North Point Productions, switched gears quickly and hired actors to play the parts of Larsen, Tipton and numerous others involved in the firefight.
Maturo said he intends to make do “through smoke and mirrors and editing.”
The last glitch was a long delay in the arrival of the PBR boat, which was being towed to the production site opposite Otter Island after its engine failed. The boat was about four hours late when the boat towing it missed a turn in the windy sloughs and wound up almost in Marysville. Shooting the first night didn’t stop until about 4 a.m. Thursday.
The glitches turned out to be an “emotional upheaval,” Maturo said.
No production problems dampened the spirits of the Vietnam vets, however.
They gathered on the riverbank, ate sandwiches and watched the filming late into the night.
Larsen, recalling that night in 1969, said he just happened to be in a place where he could do some good, and many others really should share a part of his Navy Cross.
Besides Larsen’s Navy Cross, eight of them earned Bronze Stars that night, and many came to watch the re-enactment.
Tipton was on a boat not far from Larsen’s.
“We heard the rocket and heard (a cry for help on) the radio,” Tipton said.
He also grabbed a machine gun and plunged into the foliage.
“We got between the bodies and (Vietcong) and kept them away,” he said. He, Larsen and others broke the rules by leaving the boat.
“Rules don’t mean a damn thing,” Tipton said. “Everybody did what they were trained to do. It just came natural.”
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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