"Bill Haponski" <haponski@seacove.net> was a former S3 and XO ofthe Blackhorse when he assumed command of the 1/4 Cav in the Spring of 1969.  He wrote: 

The S-3 logs reveal the following:

On 18 March, the first day of Atlas Wedge, we no longer had D/2-16 which no doubt reverted to its parent battalion. For the next three days, we often had full or partial control of D/1-4 (Air), a most unique circumstance. Organization was as follows:

Task Force 1-4 Cav (opcon now to 3rd Brigade, Lai Khe):
    A/1-28 Infantry (straight-leg)
    C/1-4 (-)
    D/1-4 (Air)

A and B troops were not initially assigned to TF 1-4 Cav, but probably were directly under 2d Brigade control in Di An,  continuing their road security, sweep, and Water Plant missions.

The log does not record SP from Di An, but by 1110 that morning the column had reached a point 10K north of Lai Khe on Route 13. (Nice movement, guys!!) By 1330 we were already jungle-busting and inserting ARPS, headed westward toward the Michelin, some 20K distant. By dark we had RIF'd 6K, an impressive distance, and then we went into RONs.

I do not recall how much of the headquarters section I took with me, and hope to discover this as the logs unfold. Only part of the time during the day did I have a LOH for movement control and visual reconnaissance. The rest of the time I rode my command track. I don't recall the organization of the squadron's command section precisely, but it was not a large unit. I traveled light, leaving the TOC in Di An. I think I had one or two, maybe three other tracks with me in the command section. I don't recall which unit the section traveled and RON'd with, but probably the infantry in order to beef up their armored capability. (The command section got into fights too, as you will see in the coming days.) I presume that C Troop had given the infantry company one platoon, and had taken an infantry platoon in return. That's normally the way we did it. I don't know if C Troop had gotten its other cav platoon back yet, but I believe it did. I note from log entries that the infantry company moved as fast as the cav troop, so maybe A/1-28's one platoon of cav had a company minus of infantry aboard, a lot of guys to be riding tracks. More likely though, A/1-28 had been assigned some M113's from the pool of those vehicles they kept somewhere at division to be given to straight-leg units when necessary for their missions. This is a point we'll have to get more information on. I know I had an interpreter or two and probably a few Kit Carson scouts riding in the command section, but probably gave a lift to some of the infantry as well. (What the heck, although they don't smell so great sometimes, it's nice to have the infantry around when you need them.)

B52's (Arclights) dropped their loads in boxes not far from us during the night, and one of our missions for the morning was to do bomb damage assessments in the boxes.

We got into some old base camps, but had no contact that day or night, a situation soon to change.