[September 18, 2026] With permission from the author, Father James N. Drucker, I am republishing his article on the Ambush at Renegade Woods. This article originally appeared in VFW Magazine, May 2022, pages 44-45.
AMBUSH AT RENEGADE WOODS
U.S. commanders in April 1970 wanted to clear an area near the Cambodian border that North Vietnamese Army troops used as a staging area. A recon mission of the Renegade Woods region soon turned into a full-fledged battle for U.S. troops.
This is a story of a surprise attack by North Vietnamese Army forces on U.S. soldiers in early April 1970 in an area northwest of the Angel’s Wing, South Vietnam, near the Cambodian border at Renegade Woods.
The mission given to the soldiers of 1st Plt., C Co., 2nd Bn., 27th Inf., 3rd Bde., 25th Inf. Div., on April 2, 1970, was to rescue a unit of Army Rangers under attack by NVA Forces. The Rangers were trapped in a densely wooded area in Tay Ninh Province near a bend in the Vam Co Dong River. The area was covered by thick, double-canopy jungle and vines.
Preceding the battle, Army intelligence had suspected a buildup of enemy forces at Renegade Woods. Army Ranger Teams 38 and 39 from F Co. were sent in for further intelligence. But they were immediately ambushed by a strong NVA force. All companies of 2nd Battalion were sent to aid the Rangers. Those infantrymen soon were the target of NVA machine-gun fire at short-range.
Soldiers from 1st Platoon thought their mission was to rescue Rangers, later to find out that 11 of them had been previously rescued by Warrant Officer James Tonelli, a UH-1 (Huey) helicopter pilot. Because of the intense fire and enemy resistance, the bodies of two Rangers who were killed in action that day had to be left behind on the battlefield. At the time, this was unknown to the men of the 2nd Battalion.
1ST PLATOON TAKES THE BRUNT OF CASUALTIES
The soldiers from 1st Platoon were the first to arrive and were immediately engaged by heavy enemy fire by NVA forces. Four soldiers of the 1st Platoon — all front men in both columns — were killed immediately:
- Spec. 4 John Rarrick, posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross
- Spec. 4 Mickey Griffith
- Sgt. Melvyn Kalili
- Pfc. Severiano Rios
All four were awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received under direct fire.
A total of 12 soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, as well as three Rangers, were killed that day. In total, 28 U.S. soldiers were wounded (12 from 1st Platoon), and all received the Purple Heart. Some received the Bronze Star with V-Device.
As the first troops in battle that day, 1st Platoon took the brunt of the losses.
Capt. Jerry Bateman, commander of C Co., received the Silver Star. Bateman, 1st Platoon leader 1st Lt. Ronnie Clark, Sgt. Mark Stevenson, Spec. 4 John Dapra, Spec. 4 George Reinwald, Pfc. Michael Schaefers and Pfc. Daniel Klossner all sustained serious wounds and were sent to a military hospital in Japan, never to return to Vietnam.
Other 1st Platoon soldiers wounded that day were: Spec. 4 Jerry Tempesta, Spec. 4 George Weldon, Spec. 4 John Parrot, Spec. 4 Bruce Hotchkiss, Spec. 4 Jack Haur and Spec. 4 Bobby Woods. Fighting alongside them were Spec. 4 Terry Lane, Sgt. Lloyd Yost, Spec. 4 Dale Berg, Spec. 4 Chuck Kooney, Spec. 4 Bobby Howell, George Worley, and Spec. 4 Ernest Jones.
‘ABSOLUTELY’ AN AMBUSH
After Bateman was wounded, the operations officer for 2nd Battalion, Army Maj. Howard Landen “Dutch” McAlister, put 1st Lt. Cyril Weisner in command of C Co. In an article McAlister wrote for the June 2012 issue of Vietnam Magazine, he explained his decision.
“The company still lacked enough leaders to be fully effective, but I decided that trying to introduce replacement officers in the middle of a battle could result in confusion and hesitancy,” he wrote.
Weisner noted that the Americans were facing two battalions of the NVA’s 271st Regiment, 9th Division, which also included Viet Cong forces. After the battle on April 5, 1970, U.S. soldiers counted 101 enemy bodies. Weisner believes that the attack was “absolutely” an ambush.
“We were clearly outnumbered,” Weisner said. “My own eyeballs testified to this.”
Spec. 4 Henry Zukowski wrote in a May 4, 1970, article for Tropic Lightning News that he learned a lot about the enemy while cleaning up the battlefield.
“After the battle, 29 Army plows of the 501st Land Clearing Company protected by the 2nd Battalion unearthed enemy bunkers, trails, tunnels and fighting positions, which eliminated future possible enemy infestations,” he said. “This hidden area had been previously devastating to our combat soldiers. No longer was that the case.”
A 1st Platoon soldier, Sgt. Jerry Rattelade, did not participate in the battle, but did witness the carnage a few days after the fight.
“There were many dead soldiers in that CONEX box (a large metal shipping container),” Rattelade said. “I had to identify the bodies of my deceased platoon mates killed in action: John Rarrick, Melvyn Kalili, Mickey Griffith and Severiano Rios.”
BACK TO THE CIVILIAN WORLD
After the war, the surviving soldiers returned home to resume, as much as possible, their normal lives. Klossner and Weisner used their GI Bill for studies. Klossner became a lawyer and judge. Weisner helped veterans at the VA as a clinical therapist and medical clinician.
Bergman served the people of Austin, Texas, as a patrol officer. Weldon was a machinist and fisherman. Tempesta, a life member of VFW Post 7410 in Bellmawr, N.J., returned to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1971 as a machinist-limited shop manager. Schaefers worked in Oregon for the U.S. Forest Service as a heavy equipment operator maintaining logging roads.
They witnessed first-hand the horrors of war, pain and anguish, personal and collectively. They still suffer much in the form of physical and mental agony: PTSD, TBI, flashbacks, cold sweats and horrid-dreams.
In closing, many of the surviving members of 1st Platoon believe the final chapter of the Renegade Woods story is incomplete. They believe Kalili, Schaefers and Klossner were never properly recognized for their valor in combat. Many also say the story will be finalized when Tempesta receives the Medal of Honor.
Father James N. Drucker is a former Air Force chaplain and captain who served in the Gulf War. He is a life member of VFW Post 8051 in Philadelphia.
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Please read my books:
The story of Renegade Woods is the kind of fight every combat veteran recognizes: a rescue that became an ambush, double-canopy jungle, short-range machine-gun fire, and young men walking point who never got a second chance. Spec. 4 John Rarrick, Spec. 4 Mickey Griffith, Sgt. Melvyn Kalili, and Pfc. Severiano Rios paid that price first, and their names ought to be spoken whenever this fight is retold. Veterans know what it means when two Rangers had to be left on the field because the fire was too heavy to recover them that day; that unfinished duty sits in a unit for a lifetime. Capt. Jerry Bateman earning the Silver Star and then being pulled out wounded, with Maj. McAlister handing C Company to 1st Lt. Cyril Weisner mid-fight, is leadership as it actually happens—imperfect, urgent, and made under fire instead of in a classroom. Weisner was right that it was absolutely an ambush and that they were outnumbered; a veteran’s eyes do not need a staff briefing to know when two NVA battalions have the drop on you. After the shooting stopped, the 501st Land Clearing Company’s plows tearing up bunkers, trails, and tunnels was the unglamorous work that keeps the next patrol from walking into the same kill zone. Sgt. Jerry Rattelade identifying his dead platoon mates in a CONEX box is a scene too many of us have lived in one form or another, and it never leaves you. The survivors came home and built lives as judges, therapists, cops, machinists, and forest-service operators, while still carrying PTSD, TBI, flashbacks, and the kind of dreams that do not care how many years have passed. What still stings, from a veteran’s view, is the unfinished business: Kalili, Schaefers, and Klossner never properly recognized, and Tempesta still waiting on the Medal of Honor many of his brothers believe he earned. Father James Drucker did these men a service by putting their names, units, and wounds back in print instead of letting Renegade Woods fade into another forgotten April in Tay Ninh. A veteran reading this does not need a sermon tacked on at the end; remembering the dead, telling the truth about the ambush, and finishing the awards is the only decent close to the chapter.
Ah yes, Father Jim Drucker, the DooWop Priest.
https://wwdbam.com/podcasts/rock-n-roll-reveille-with-father-jim-drucker-phillys-doo-wop-priest/