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Hill 122
Bacon was quite different from Fales: he was small, easily frustrated, and given to
unpredictable brainstorms. He could be all sweet reason one day and irrationally frantic
the next.
In my capacity as S-2, I was the coordinator of observation and liaison. In these
early days, when we were still settling in, I assigned duties to the LnO's and FO's,
sending them forward to join the infantry as they were needed. It didn't matter which of
our firing batteries a FO was from, he went to whatever infantry company lacked one
when it was being committed to combat. Before he left, I would brief him and show him
what I knew of the situation on the map, and tell him to check in with the LnO at the
appropriate infantry battalion on the way up.
It soon became evident that there was an advantage to having a LnO stay with the
same battalion all the time: he got acquainted and knew how they operated and what to
expect of them, just as they learned what to expect of him - and us.
Lt Bill Beck, of B Btry, was one of our most aggressive observers. He was stocky
and muscular, and usually wore the smile of a successful salesman. But one day he came
to me, worried. "At Fort Sill," he said, "they taught us to get on high ground, where we
could see the enemy. But I can't find any place where I can see much of anything. What
shall I do?"
I thought over the problem and looked around at the little fields surrounded by
hedgerows. He was right. I couldn't see much of anything either, and I didn't have a good
answer to his question. "Well," I finally answered, half-kidding, "you might try climbing
a tree.
Next day Major Peach cornered me. "Did you tell Beck to climb a tree?"
"Well, kind of, I guess he might have thought that was what I meant."
"Don't do it again. He can't see anything up there either, and he's liable to get his
butt shot off. "
I heard later - much later - that Beck had climbed a tree, that he had become a
visible target, and that after being knocked out of the tree by a near miss, he had
immediately climbed the same tree again!
In the evening of the first day of our attack, Bill Beck was with one of the
companies of the 1st Bn, 359th Inf - A Company, I believe - when I got a call from him
saying that the Bn Commander of the 1st Battalion had been wounded, and so had Capt
Harvey Safford, our Liaison Officer. I told Beck to take over as LnO until a replacement
could be decided on. Eric Peach approved what I had done and said he'd think about
whom to send up. This was the second LnO we had lost within a month, and we were
getting short on captains.
Within two days, we had forgotten about replacing Beck. The 1st Bn had a new
commander too, a Captain "Fireball" Pond, whose nickname fitted him perfectly. A short,
slight man with a sharp up-turned nose and strawberry blond hair, he wore a perpetual
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