March 26, 2015 marks the 45th anniversary of what is call “The Anonymous Battle”, which culminated on Oct 20, 2009 at the White House with A Troop, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment receiving the Presidential Unit Citation.

 After a day of betting the bush, fatigued from the a day’s work, A Troop, 1st Squadron,  11th Armored Cavalry Regiment settled  in to their “NDP” night defensive position.  It was the evening of March 25, 1970. Around 11:00 p.m. one of their three mortar tracks exploded, killing three men. The next day after the sleepless night, these same men hear a firefight about two and a half miles away. On their radio they heard calls for help as C Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division had inadvertently walked into the middle of a heavily fortified North Vietnamese Army supply base camp. Outnumbered seven or eight to one with no air or artillery support due to triple canopy jungle foliage, C Company was taken many casualties and getting low on ammunition and needed help. A Troop’s Captain John Poindexter tells his men to “saddle up”, bust two and a half miles of jungle and try to save C Company. After eight solid hours of intense firefight with night coming on, Poindexter and A Troop gather every man, dead or alive aboard their vehicles and start to evacuate the area and get all these men to safety. The story doesn’t stop there, thirty years later Captain Poindexter finds out everything about this battle, the brave deeds of the men are somehow lost. His new battle is to get his men the recognition for their brave deeds. The first book “The Anonymous Battle” written by Captain Poindexter and later “Blackhorse Riders” by Philip Keith tells the full story much better than I can.    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghNQ8qrF3GA