Millersville man recognized for service in Alpha Troop during Vietnam War

In an Oct. 20 ceremony, President Barack Obama awarded the Presidential Unit Citation to the surviving Vietnam veterans who were members of the 1st Squadron of the 11th Armored Cavalry, also known as Alpha Troop.

"These soldiers define the meaning of bravery and heroism," he said.

Alpha Troop member Larry Toole of Millersville is happy to be recognized but plays down the notion that anything he or his comrades did was heroic.

Alpha Troop came to the rescue of Charlie Company, a unit of the 8th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, whose infantrymen had unknowingly penetrated a large regiment of North Vietnamese Army soldiers and found themselves pinned down, massively outnumbered, experiencing heavy casualties and running low on supplies and ammunition.

Though the March 26, 1970, battle had gone previously undocumented, a fact-gathering campaign by the commanders of both Alpha Troop and Charlie Company led to a presentation to the Pentagon that resulted in the awarding of the Presidential Unit Citation. The citation is the highest decoration that may be conferred on a military unit and has only been awarded 127 times dating back to World War II.

At the time, Toole was a gunner on a Sheridan tank, operating the main 152 mm cannon.

Alpha Troop's soldiers, on a search-and-destroy mission near the Cambodian border, had just spent a largely sleepless night because of an artillery accident that resulted in several casualties. When word of Charlie Company's situation came to the attention of Alpha Troop commander John Poindexter, the order was given to move immediately.

"We were pretty much running on adrenaline," Toole said.

After slowly cutting a path through about three miles of dense jungle, the Alpha Troopers arrived at Charlie Company's position. The strategy was simple -- pin down the enemy in bunker complexes with machine gun and artillery fire and allow Charlie Company to escape. The enemy returned fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but after a firefight of a little more than an hour, the mission was largely accomplished.

Those in Toole's tank escaped without injury, but other members of Alpha Troop and Charlie Company weren't as fortunate. Among the 75 casualties of the battle, seven were from Alpha Troop and Charlie Company.

"It was an honor being able to sit in the Rose Garden and listen to the president give the account as to how the battle unfolded," said Toole, whose fellow troopers then went to the Pentagon to receive their individual ribbons.

Toole, who was 19 years old and had been deployed in Vietnam less than four months when the rescue of Charlie Company took place, said he was never bitter that the actions of his troop had gone largely unrecognized for nearly 40 years.

"I didn't consider it a heroic act," Toole said. "Charlie Company was in trouble. We didn't have a choice. We wouldn't have been able to live with ourselves if we had just left them out there."