Chapter 21: The Bigger Picture
051325
The next day after my Dogface boys ran the 165th NVA regiment off
Hill 203, they got a break. Nothing but routine patrolling happened for
them on that day. By now, they also had a lot of company in the general
area. Back on the morning of the 29th, two companies of Jim Kasik's
2/28th Infantry Battalion had been sent to the airstrip itself. Kasik's
men dug-in outside the existing perimeter around the air strip, while
the CDIG forces were still clearing out enemy conscripts hiding in those
abandoned bunkers inside the perimeter of the airstrip. The Montagnard
fighters and the Vietnamese Rangers made a quick work of those wretched
souls. Kasik's men had donated the rocket launchers which they used to
complete that gruesome task. Kasik’s men shoveled a little faster each
time they heard another explosion from one of those rockets. Those
hapless conscripts had been too scared of being shot by their own
communist cadre to withdraw earlier, without orders. Their cadre,
however, knew a little more about how the game was played. When things
got hot, they withdrew like scared rabbits. There was no one to shoot
them and they could later tell the story anyway they saw fit. So, those
conscripts in the bunkers became trapped, while the rest of the 273rd
Regiment retreated. Greg Murry's 1/16th later landed in an LZ (landing
zone) several miles northeast of Loc Ninh. The Blue Spaders (1/26th
Infantry Battalion) were also inserted a few miles north northwest of
Loc Ninh. To beef things up even more, the commander of II Field Force,
Lt. General Fred Weyand, transferred operational control of the 2/12th
battalion to my "Big Red One”. On the 2nd of November they were inserted
northeast of the airstrip. That battalion was a part of the very brave
Oliver Stone's 25th Division.
Looking back over fifty years at the bigger picture, it’s easier
for me to understand now how easy it was for the man at the top, Le
Duan, to move forward with his plans. History records that those in his
inner circle who opposed his big battle plans were done away with. As
with the mafia and all communist governments, Duan was subject to few
time-consuming moral restraints. The people had no power. Duan sent as
many of his teenaged conscripts to their deaths as needed for him to
stay in power and possibly win the war. Actually, he was using his
conscripts as a distraction, a red flag, if you will; something for us
Americans to chase through the woods. Meanwhile his “made guys” clamped
down harder and harder on villages and towns, extorting their help in
preparing for a fake uprising. It was all an illusion, but one which our
incredibly smart Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, was fooled by
until the day he died. In late 1967, Le Duan could not be more pleased
with the way Westmoreland was taking the bait. The bullish Westmoreland
was mindlessly hooking his horns into Duan’s red flag, ripping it to
shreds, but leaving Duan's shadow government intact. So far, the man who
looked like a general, talked like a general and walked like a general
was not disappointing Duan.
Nevertheless, the II Field Force, under Weyand, performed
magnificently. It was a daunting task to accomplish what Weyand's people
accomplished to counter Hoang Cam’s attacks in late October on remote
outposts like Loc Ninh and Song Be. There were few roads to bring in
resupplies and those were vulnerable to constant attacks. Sure, we had
the mobility of helicopters to move troops and supplies in and out of
remote areas, but it took a tremendous effort by our logistics people to
keep those birds flying. It also took a lot of thoughtful tactical savvy
to make sure they got in and out of landing zones safely. The logistics
required to service, repair, and provide fuel for them, was
mind-boggling.
Recorded statistics say that 19 enemy died for every one American
killed. My research and my experience in the field says that number was
at least double, if not triple. Whatever the number, however, this
statistic was meaningless. More importantly, Westmoreland never
understood the following simple truth. That truth says that it is always
possible to do something very, very well and yet that "something" can
absolutely be the wrong thing to do. If one’s efforts do not move one
toward a desired solution, then those steps are exactly the wrong steps
to take, no matter how emotionally awe-inspiring their display. By the
end of 1967 we had become very proficient at doing exactly the wrong
thing. We became very skilled at chasing down and ripping apart the
enemy's red flag every time. So, he kept pulling out another one and
waving it in front of our faces. To make matters worse, my research
suggests that the very astute Lt. General Fred Weyand knew we were
pursuing a wrong course, but like Westmoreland's old boss, James Gavin,
he was powerless to stop the madness. If those men had been given the
power, would they have known any better than Westmoreland, what course
to take? At this point I don’t believe that it was possible to stop this
run-a-way train by just changing commanders in Vietnam.
October 31, 1967 brought more fighting. The Loc Ninh air strip
was again assaulted by battalions of the 272nd Brigade shortly after
midnight. Mortar fire led the attack. Then came the ground attack. Cam
had some new toys to play with. One of those toys was the Chinese 122 mm
rocket, which was being used for the first time in the 3rd Corps. He
also had recoilless rifles and flamethrowers. Before the attack, he had
been anxious to show off these weapons to his new NVA conscripts, for a
reason, we Americans never quite comprehended. You see, while
Westmoreland's mind was still stuck in his past war experience in Korea,
the little-known leader of North Vietnam, Le Duan, was embracing a
bigger picture. In this bigger picture, these weapons had a much broader
purpose than we could ever have imagined. Besides being used to kill us,
they were show and tell props, for the pep talks Cam's cadre routinely
gave his teenaged conscripts. Cam had no illusions about these weapons
being able to win the day for them, but that didn't matter. His cadre of
pied pipers bragged them up anyway. Here's why. You see, fear of dying
could make untested fifteen-year-old conscripts break down in disastrous
ways, even if their photo ops did make them look invincible in those
brown or green uniforms with the little rounded pith helmets. Yes, for
the camera, these uniforms made their formations appear monolithic, but
they were not monolithic. They were kids and under similar
circumstances, they could have been our kids. We Americans saw what
communist illusions wanted us to see. Those illusions were helped along
by a national press corps growing ever more devoid of godly
understanding. These new rocket weapons bolstered the nerve of these
immature and very naïve child conscripts, plain and simple. They were
not going to save a conscript from a grisly death. However, new
conscripts didn't know that. These weapons gave them hope. It was false
hope but so what? This false hope made them easier to control, as they
were herded into position to make one more suicidal human wave attack
into the killing caldron of Loc Ninh airfield. The truth is the entire
communist ideology then and now is built upon false hope and
self-delusion.
Interestingly, the survivors in the 273rd NVA Regiment, who lived
through the maniacal attack on the 29th of October no longer needed
those endless carrot and stick pep talks by their cadre. The miracle of
surviving these first soul-shattering events on that Loc Ninh Air strip
worked to quickly harden their immature minds into becoming like the
very same evil, which had victimized them in the first place. In between
now and the next battle, the dope provided by their handlers would help
speed up that transformation. Actually, preparations for this
transformation began much earlier than these poor youngster’s sojourn
from North to South Vietnam. The communist military could not so soon
have turned rice farming teenagers into what they wanted the world to
believe was an army of invincible immortals. It took a cradle to grave
process for that to happen. North Vietnamese leader and Order of Lenin
award winner, Le Duan, understood that this was a process. It’s a
process which never changes for those who crave to have the power of
life and death over their neighbor. First comes the community activists
with their constant appeals to those disgruntled and politically
ignorant individuals usually on the lowest rungs of a free society.
Organized demonstrations are the next step. Support for this is garnered
from wherever it can be found. Many times, that support comes from rich
do-gooders, who thing that their wealthy position qualifies them to
tackle the human condition, making it better. Both the "haves" and
"have-nots" are very susceptible to being played by that same community
organizer, who is only in it for the sole purpose of gaining power for
himself. As this amoral power broker grows in financial strength and
political influence, then comes the ability to gain control of a church,
a school, a town, and eventually an entire free nation. The end result
is that no free nation which allows this process to continue will remain
free. The only antidote proven to be effective against the spread of
this cancer in free societies is the Church of Jesus Christ.
Cam's people just added the final before the grave touches to
this age-old malignancy. In North Vietnam it was a process, which, by
now, was being carried along by a bureaucratic conveyance of rules
governing every aspect of young conscript’s short lives. I was fortunate
enough to have a high school civics teacher named Mr. Johnson, who took
a semester to explain the truth about this evil process. Sadly, I would
be willing to bet that there are no Mr. Johnsons teaching this subject
in our high schools today, but guess who is there in ever increasing
numbers, tutoring our children and giving them their version of the
truth. Without God's timeless rules for life, this process cannot be
stopped, and it always starts with just a few community organizers
feeding like parasites on the very freedom which they seek to destroy.
In the end it will surely unearth the lowest forms of human depravity
just as it did in Loc Ninh in the late fall of November, 1967.
Just after midnight on the 31st of October, the NVA 9th
Division's 272nd regiment made another assault on Loc Ninh air Strip.
Jim Kasik's Black Lions had by now moved their positions inside the wire
and were ready and waiting. The NVA 9th Division's 208th Antiaircraft
Battalion took positions around the Loc Ninh air strip to have a go at
The Big Red One's deadly helicopter gunships and the Air Forces' more
deadly C-47 "Spookys". (We also called them "Puff, The Magic Dragon")
They gave their positions in the night sky away as they slung glowing
red waves of tracer rounds toward the dark earth. Later a veteran
forward air controller said that the NVA's 208th put out the heaviest
antiaircraft fire that he had ever seen. However, it was to no avail.
The battle on the 31st was repelled with huge losses incurred by the
NVA. Of course, those numbers were underreported by the ever so careful
Westmoreland. Only nine people were killed on our side and not a single
American aircraft was shot down. The 165th was supposed to join the
attack. That was the same unit, which Mac's C Company of my Dogface
Battalion had sent packing on the 29th of October. The 165th was ordered
to join the attack on the 31st but didn't make it to the fight, because
it got lost in the rubber trees on the way to the assembly area. That
speaks volumes about the incompetence of the core elements of this NVA
unit. Did no one in the entire unit know how to use a compass? Perhaps
the reason for getting lost was because Mac’s Dogface boys had taken out
most of their experienced local forces and guides? These local
card-carrying communists were the hardcore sociopaths who greased the
wheels of any NVA unit. As I have said before, the bulk of the uniformed
NVA conscripts were nothing more than young rice farmers programed to
become cannon fodder.
Of course, senior communist leadership, from Cam's position on
up, were also as hardcore as hardcore could be. However, no matter how
dedicated they were, their commitment alone was not going to help them
win this battle. Later, they publicly admitted as much. Even as early on
as this first Battle of Loc Ninh, Cam probably knew, and his boss, Hoang
Van Tha, certainly knew, that they were not going to be able to take the
airfield at Loc Ninh. If they did take it, they knew they couldn't keep
it. However, the Henchmen of Hanoi also knew something else. They knew
that America had come across the sea and onto the land like a mindless
class five hurricane and hurricanes cannot be stopped. However, if
America could be withstood long enough, to allow her to beat herself to
death upon the land, then Hanoi also knew that America would fade away,
leaving a dysfunctional codependent South Vietnam government in its
wake. That government would be a government severely weakened by the
whole affair. It would be then that Duan, with the logistical support of
Russia and China could easily march in and take possession of the land.
It's a recipe that our enemies have been using ever since and it's a
Real Estate play, plain and simple. When a few people have dominion over
the land then those living on the land will be forced to dance to every
tune they play. How hard is that to understand? Things can be summed up
this way. During this period in our history, the growing godless
thinking in America was turning our country's foreign policies into
nothing more than vain winds. Our vain effort did eventually beat itself
to death upon the shores of Vietnam and sadly is still repeating those
same vain actions in many other places around the globe. Have we now
become so vain, that we shall soon beat ourselves to death upon our own
shores? Without a return to God and our Judeo-Christian values, I
believe that is exactly what will happen.
As dawn broke on the 31st, everyone in the three companies of my
Dogface Battalion at Loc Ninh got a welcome break in the fighting. The
attack on Jim Kasik’s Black Lions and the Loc Ninh airstrip had failed
just as did the one on the 29th. The 105 mm guns behind Mac's C company
position had hammered away all night in support of the Loc Ninh air
strip so the noise of the guns made it hard for some of the newer men in
my Dogface Battalion to sleep. Older (in time served) grunts could sleep
within earshot of almost any noise. However, if they were awake, I'm
sure this night brought back memories of Fire Support Base Thrust and
the battle of Ap Gu. As with Fire Base Thrust, Mac, Fee, and the other
men of Dogface could see and hear in the distance those "Spookys" and
the chopper gunships plying their deadly business around that airstrip.
Just like at that Battle of Ap Gu, those gunships would have been peeing
red tracer rounds toward the earth. The groan of Gatling guns and the
explosions of five hundred pounds bombs could also be heard in the wee
hours of that night. Now, as the sun was coming up all was quiet. The
loudest noises to be heard by Mac and Fee and the others at the Dogface
NDP were now being made by the big Chinooks bringing in resupplies
shortly after dawn. I was at the air strip in Quan Loi early this
morning too to transfer a couple cooks onto those helicopters along with
some hot donuts and fresh coffee for my boys in the field. I had no idea
what they were going through, nor did most others in my B Company. My
entire company was just enjoying the fact that they were chilling out
with me at Quan Loi, telling wars stories and watching another episode
of "combat" projected onto a bed sheet each night.
If this day were to become a welcome break for Dick and the other
three companies of my Dogface Battalion, it was to become an even better
day for my B Company. B Company was "sitting pretty" and removed from
the entire mess going on in and around Loc Ninh Air Strip some twenty
miles away. They were in Quan Loi with me, where I too was "sitting
pretty" and intending to keep it that way until my tour of duty was
over, in less than a month. Little did I know that this great job which
I had landed was well on the way to getting me killed quicker than I
could have been if I had been with Cavazos at Loc Ninh. This day was
definitely going to become one of the most dangerous days of my life and
I was to become powerless to do anything about it.
For many years, here's how I remembered this most eventful day.
First Sergeant Pink Dillard put things in motion late in the day when he
cornered me and then gave me one simple order. He then turned around and
walked away. Now, I had successfully avoided every sergeant and every
officer in my unit since accepting this new job. I worked hard at
keeping it that way hopefully until my tour was over. Sergeants were
people to be avoided like the plague. If I had learned anything in the
Army, then I had learned this. These feelings about sergeants was even
more intense for officers. When I think back, there was really only one
authority figure in the entire unit who made me feel differently. I
realize what I am about to say seems strange, but nevertheless true. I
did not feel this way about our "Ole Man", Dick Cavazos.
Now, Pink had caught me flat footed. He showed up in the mess
hall tent and he wasn't looking for a snack. He was looking for me. When
he saw me, he made no small talk. Come to think of it, that's another
reason why I hated authority figures in my life. Most had made me feel
like a thing, instead of a person. Dick didn't do that. Most sergeants
including Pink did. If the reader wants to be a great leader, then I
suggest not doing what Pink did on this day. Take thirty seconds to make
small talk. Pink just stopped and looked me straight in the eyes. He was
a scary fellow when he gave someone that evil eye. He then curtly
commanded me to round up the women helpers in the mess hall and drive
them home. That was it. He turned around and walked off. I now know that
Pink had not the slightest idea what danger he was putting me in. At
first, neither did I. However, it didn’t take long for me to realize the
danger when I learned how far I would have to travel. It was with this
realization that I began to think that Pink might be out to get me. I
now realize that was a ridiculous notion coming from my paranoid mind.
None of us, including Pink, knew at the time he gave that order, that
one of those girls lived almost 8 miles away in An Loc. All Pink was
doing was making sure that these young women were not having to stay in
camp overnight with a bunch of young men.
The gravity of my situation was now really starting to sink in
and with it came the swift blow from that two-edged sword which defined
my paranoia. One edge caused me to feel a certain disdain for sergeants,
as well as the military in general. The other edge made me second guess
my own status within the unit. Was I being viewed by Pink as a slacker
because I was obviously a grunt working with the support troops? Pink
had not joined Dogface until late in my tour. He probably knew nothing
of me very successfully walking point for nine months. While mulling
over these thoughts, I became fraught with faulty thinking. I started to
believe that I was being singled out. My paranoia was now slicing up my
thoughts going and coming. It's a very sad way to live one's life. My
mind raced. "Why was Pink picking on me?”. I knew my lane and I was
staying in it. "Did Pink know about my article 15”? "Did word somehow
reach his ears about me giving Donut Man a mud bath”? "Perhaps others or
maybe Donut Man, himself, had gone to Pink with a different version of
the story”. "No doubt, it was a version which didn't paint me in such a
favorable light”. "Were there other reasons which I had not yet thought
about that could have caused Pink to punish poor pathetic paranoid me”?
These were the kinds of thoughts which went racing through my mind as
Pink walked away and they raced through my mind like a run-away train.
First Sergeant, Pink Dillard, was fairly new in the unit, but he
was no novice. He was a Korean veteran. Our very astute company
commander, Watts Caudill, thought very highly of him. A First Sergeant’s
primary duty was to use his experience to keep the people in his unit
lined-out in the performance of everyday matters. That was a tall order.
There were a lot of routine duties to be addressed. However, Pink
Dillard was second to none, in following through with these duties. In a
perfect world, first sergeants should have known something about our
kind of tactical maneuvering. They also should have been skilled in
coordinating artillery and air strikes. However, I doubt that Pink was.
Most first sergeants were not. RTOs, like Fred Walters and David Eaton,
were usually much better at this simply because they got more practice.
Handling the radios required excellent communication skills and a good
speaking voice. With my southern dialect, and introverted personality, I
would not have made a good RTO either. My guess that Pink hated having
to take on that radio. Walters and Eaton were Yankees with bright minds
and outgoing personalities. they made great RTOS. That position allowed
them to also learn a thing or two about tactics. Radio communications
were at the heart of everything. However, First Sergeant Pink Dillard's
job kept him busy elsewhere. He did what most other good first sergeants
did during a fight. He was experienced enough to keep his head down and
let the rest of his men take care of business. By October, Dick had
systematically accumulated a stack of good leadership at all levels and
Pink was one of the best or he would not have been there. It's just that
simple. Pink was blessed with the good fortune to be part of a
well-oiled machine at this point in time. That allowed Pink to focus on
using his valuable skills where they were most needed. Simply put, that
was being the "bad cop" for Captain Caudill when it came to enforcing
routine regiments throughout the company. Unfortunately, all my grunt
mind could see was the “bad cop”. I was blind to those other skills
which he possessed. Beside harassing grunts like me Pink also loved to
harass new 2nd lieutenants. I am sure many of them also had a hard time
appreciating Pink's experience and foresight in dealing with the many
personnel situations which could arise in a unit like ours. Pink had at
least 120 men under his wing and a skinny paycheck to go with that
responsibility. I now realize that he didn't have time to keep a case
file on me.
There was less than an hour of daylight left. It was that and the
realization that the one woman lived far away, in An Loc, which made my
gut begin to tighten. I also knew that all patrols and road guards would
soon be returning to positions inside the wire. The road between Quan
Loi and An Loc would then become an very lonely uninhabited ghost road,
with the very real possibility of a big boogie man lurking in the rubber
trees somewhere between Quan Loi and Loc Ninh. My stomach tightened even
more. It was at this point that I felt I had been thrown to the wolves.
Enemy regimental size units surrounded Quan Loi. It was located just a
few miles from the Cambodian border. On July 11, 1967, the enemy had
launched a fairly large raid on Quan Loi. I had been on a number of
patrols around Quan Loi earlier in the year, so I had experienced
firsthand the enormous amount of evidence of enemy activity surrounding
Quan Loi Air Strip. Enemy sappers continually plied their deadly trade
every day, in the rubber trees, along the roads, and after dark they
owned that stretch of road which I would be traveling at twilight.
The first girl lived just outside the perimeter of Quan Loi.
There would be little danger in dropping her off. The second girl lived
just a couple miles, or so, down the road from there. It was the long
distance I needed to travel, to drop the third girl off, which presented
the problem. If I didn't get moving soon, darkness would fall, and the
road guards would be gone for the night. There was a good chance that I
would be driving into the large town of An Loc, at dusk, with no other
Americans around, whatsoever. Every American soldier, who had been in
country as long as I had, knew that no American in his right mind would
ever venture out this time of day, to gallivant across the country in
what was essentially only a pickup truck. Even armored units didn't
travel these roads this time of day unless they traveled in force and
were loaded for bear.
Fortunately, my company was not having to pull perimeter guard
and so my old squad members were close by. Somehow, one of them learned
of my plight and passed along the situation to others in my squad. Five
or six of them soon showed up armed to the teeth. Every man there seemed
as alarmed as me about my plight. Every single man was fully aware of
the danger. That was soon made apparent because they had brought extra
ammo, a thump gun and even an M-60 machine gun. At the time, I am sure
not a single one of those men had hesitated in making the decision to go
with me. I still have a hard time understanding their selfless
motivations for doing what they were getting ready to do. I believe it's
possible that they volunteered to go with me because they remembered
things that had gone well for us while I walked point for the squad and
perhaps thought I had been responsible. However, I am here to reiterate
that every good outcome we shared was the work of the Holy Spirit.
Nevertheless, obviously a bond had been forged between us. None of the
cooks were volunteering to go. It was only those men who had faced death
over and over again with me, who were now going with me. Once more every
one of those men had to know that they would possibly face death on that
road which we would be traveling down. One of them declared that they
were going with my "sorry behind" so I wouldn't get lost. The most
outspoken was that cussin red-faced guy. He quickly declared that he was
going to ride shotgun. He then raised his pump shotgun as he climbed in
the front seat. The rest wasted no time gathering up their weapons and
about ten boxes of extra ammo. For years I have replayed this day in my
mind. I have pondered whether or not these guys got permission to go
with me or not. I don't think they did because there wasn't a single
sergeant around to see us off. I do remember vividly that the cussin
soldier had that kind of look on his face that said, "I'm going out in a
blaze". That pump shotgun he carried was not particularly good for
jungle fire fights but was perfect for this occasion. As a side note, I
am sure that the cussin soldier was still reeling over his wife leaving
him for another man. He seemed to be in that same devil may care mood
after all these months. In most cases that kind of mood could be
disastrous. However, being suicidal was just an absolutely perfect
attitude to have on this particular little road trip.
Without any fanfare the rest of my guys climbed in the back along
with the three girls and off we went, through the gate and down a little
bank toward a row of ten huts maybe a half mile outside the air strip
perimeter. Those ten huts were in the first village where one of the
girls lived. As I was driving through it, the girl started hollering to
be let off. She realized that I was not slowing down for her stop and
then started screaming. We could see the fear on her face as she began
to cry. There was sheer terror in her voice as her screaming turned into
a loud moaning. She had no idea that she was only giving us more
confirmation that I was doing the right thing when I had decided to drop
her off on the way back. I punched the gas pedal to the floor and kept
rolling. Several of the guys riding in the back tried to explain to her
what we were doing. Their explanations fell on deaf ears.
We had already determined that we would use these girls as an
insurance policy against an enemy ambush. Yes, they were human shields,
but at minor risk to them because we were not a high value target. The
enemy would not want to kill them, just so he could kill us too. We were
just not that important. If we had not taken that precaution, I am
convinced that our little joy ride would have turned out to be the ride
from hell quicker than it takes Mel Tillis to say, "On top of Ole
Smokey". Shortly after passing the first girl's stop, all the girls
became noticeably quiet, and they sat very still. The next girl in line
to be let off sat silently as we passed through her village. Tears were
still streaming down that one girl's face but at least she was quiet.
As I said, my red-faced companion was riding on the passenger
side. On the final leg of our journey, he calmly pulled a cigar out of
his fatigue pocket and lit it. What a scene It made, as I watched him
take his first slow puff. He then turned his head slowly toward me and
grinned like Jack Nicolson in "The Shining". Instead of an ax in his
hand, he was carrying that pump shotgun. Yes, as I glanced over at him,
I was definitely convinced that he was suicidal. The entire scene was
surreal. It could easily have been a build-up to a climax in some
Hollywood thriller. He had gotten that first dear John letter during
Operation Junction City, and since then his wife had divorced him,
taking the children with her into the home of her new lover. It now
seemed as though he had little to live for. The wild-eyed expression on
his grinning face said it all. His demeanor squeezed from me another
memory of those final scenes from “The Wild Bunch". His facial
expression said, "Why not go out in a blaze of glory?". I must admit
that I did love the part about the glory, but I was really having a
problem with that other part about going out with it.
After taking those first few puffs on the cigar, my friend took
the shotgun, which he was clutching in his other hand and gently laid it
across his lap. On we went. Both his and my heads were pointed to the
front now, while the guys in the back scanned our flanks.
Rows of rubber trees flew by us. Although I knew exactly what
this crazy red-faced partner of mine was thinking, I don’t remember
exactly what was going on in my own mind. Obviously, it was a tempered
version of his thoughts, but I also know that it had something to do
with a feeling of absolute and utter helplessness. Squeezing everything
that the ole truck could muster; while listening to the gears whine, I
managed to stay focused on the task at hand, which was to get there as
quickly as possible and do the same coming back. Truth is, at this
moment, I would have gladly given this truck driving job up in a second
to be walking point again, in pitch black, with my trusty M-14 in my
hands, and Dick Cavazos watching my back.
We were completely alone on the road. I saw no one walking. There
was not a single bicycle or even a single three-wheeled Lambretta. This
was a bad sign. It was downright spooky. I knew any enemy patrol would
be able to hear my truck coming for miles. That would give them more
than enough time to set up an ambush. However, to say that I or anyone
on the truck was fearful, in a normal sense, would be wrong. We were all
ole guys to combat which meant that each one of us had been pushed
beyond the limits of fear on multiple occasions. There was a place in
each of our minds which had already been hardened to endure more readily
what we might now soon face. It's not easy to describe. The fear we felt
was more a knowingly apprehensive type of fear rather than a
knee-knocking fear. Everyone who has gone through repeated exposure to
combat knows what I am talking about here. There is a hardened place in
a combat veteran's mind which allows him to do what needs to be done.
That hardened place shuts down all normal thought processes in the
brain. That includes all thoughts of home, family, allegiances,
friendships, and yes, even the mind-numbing fear of living or dying. In
turn, it heightens the senses which help recognize and eliminate the
threat. Hollywood war stories have rarely, if ever, got this right.
Today's tantalizing media creations are masterfully mesmerizing, and
also very persuasive to a gullible viewing audience. However, when it
comes to capturing the real feelings of the average combat grunt, those
portrayals are usually wrong, wrong, wrong.
When we approached the outskirts of An Loc, the road from Quan
Loi snaked to the right and down a rather steep incline, before it
opened up into a large market square on flat ground. The street was wide
and packed with people. To my left, the center of the street had a very
wide esplanade, and vendors were crowded together up and down the length
of it. They were selling all kinds of food stuffs and other merchandise.
Their products were displayed on many varied types of structures. There
were several large trucks as well as a number of Lambrettas squeezed in
between these structures, and they were loaded with mostly vegetables
and fruits, but some had other merchandise too. Off the street to the
right was a line of single-story huts, with their rusty corrugated tin
roofs rising above the items for sale to their front. I am sure that
these tin huts were permanent residences as well as the owner's store.
The high-pitched whining of the truck gears took on a lower tone
as I geared down. Every man could sense that something wasn't right.
Every weapon except mine was at the ready. Both my hands were glued to
the stirring wheel. One could cut the tension with a knife. No children
were running toward my truck looking for handouts as they normally did.
The three girls were beyond emotions now. They each had a more permanent
wide-eyed and frozen look of fear on their faces.
As I entered the crowded market square, my red-faced companion
rose from his seat, with the cigar butt still clinched between his
teeth. The canvas top on my truck had been removed before we left Quan
Loi, so it was easy for him to stand and position his shotgun, pointing
outward over the windshield. I brought the truck to a complete stop.
There were scores of armed men scattered around us on all sides. Unlike
us, however, they did not appear to have been indoctrinated into the
same American ideals of truth, justice, and the American way. All were
wearing black pajamas, and all had AK-47s or M1 carbines slung over
their shoulders. Several guys to our front started slowly moving from
the side of the street to positions directly in front of my truck. They
were obviously not going to let me pass. Another man came out into the
street, from a tin hut on our right. His AK 47 weapon was unslung but
pointed down. He joined the others blocking our front. It was quite
obvious that they were working things out in their minds on how to make
this our last day on earth. Our last day, that is, without causing a
mess in the marketplace.
My red-faced companion started traversing his shotgun back and
forth, briefly stopping and shaking the barrel at each man blocking my
path to our front. This act had the heart numbing effect of making these
would-be attackers freeze in their tracks. I am sure that they realized
what buckshot could do to a person at this close range. “Come on! just
make a move! And I’ll let you have it!” my companion repeated over and
over in a loud but distorted growl. His voice was distorted because the
stub of that cigar was still clinched between his teeth. With each jerk
of his gun barrel a glowing red ash would shake loose and float down
across my truck's windshield. At this point, in sight of hundreds of
onlookers, there could be no doubt in our road blockers minds that we
would exact a costly price for our lives. The blood red number one on
each man's left shoulder removed all lingering doubts, of that.
Fortunately, he took his posturing just far enough, without winking, as
Doc Holiday had done in the movie, "Tombstone”. His actions slowed the
cognitive thinking of these fellows just long enough, without triggering
a deadly reflex in return. It was years later, before I realized what a
masterful job my red-faced friend, flaunting his shotgun, had done that
day. Maybe he wasn't so suicidal after all.
The one girl who lived in this town had a rather large bag to
gather up and she needed to be helped down from the truck, so it took a
few seconds. They were the longest few seconds of my life. When I heard
someone in the back yell, “Let’s go!”, I quickly gassed the truck and
immediately cut the wheels to the left. I made one of the sharpest U
turns I had ever made in that truck. As I straightened out, heading in
the opposite direction, several armed men in black pajamas jumped to my
right and out of the way. I am sure that my boys in the back were making
gestures to them, which made them think twice about doing something
which might ruin their dinner plans. I gunned the truck for everything
it was worth. Now, kids were running toward us, but not to ask for
hand-outs. They were throwing rocks and sticks and anything else that
they could get their hands on. It was just another verification that
these were Viet Cong, which we had just encountered, and not South
Vietnamese special forces. The kids were showing off to impress them.
During the day, I had driven through An Loc and these same kids were as
friendly as they could be. I couldn’t help but think, as I topped the
hill, and headed out into rubber tree country again, “What duplicitous
little rascals they really were".
We left the outskirts of town without a shot being fired, but it
was definitely what could be categorized as a Mexican stand-off. As
tensions subsided, the girls who were still on the truck started
chatting again, while I started pondering what had just happened. I have
not stopped pondering that over fifty years later. Until this day, I can
never forget those few seconds while I was sitting still, surrounded on
all sides by scores of enemy soldiers in black pajamas. I remember
looking at my hands at the ten o’clock and two o’clock positions on the
stirring wheel and thinking this was the way that I was going to die
without any chance whatsoever of defending myself. Obviously, these Cong
had come in from the boonies to take a little break and do some shopping
and obviously they had timed their shopping hours to coincide precisely
with the American withdrawal of daytime security on the roads and in the
town of An Loc, itself.
Now, years later, it is easy to armchair reasons why we did not
get killed that day. For one, they had no idea we were coming so there
was no time to prepare an ambush. Number two, if a fire fight had
ensued, children and civilians would have gotten killed, including the
remaining girls on the truck. The collateral damage would have been too
much, for such a small prize. Furthermore, these were local forces, so
they had family and friends mingled amongst them.
Of course, there was another nagging question to be asked. If we
were smart enough to make the girls ride all the way over and back, why
didn't we also think to stop at the top of the hill and let the girl out
there instead of driving down the hill into the crowd? Here is my
thinking on that. The reason we didn't do that is because we were very
naive. Like I said, I had driven through this town during the day by
myself. We expected a possible ambush on the road, but we never expected
the enemy to be crawling all over the marketplace. Here is another
disturbing thought about what we witnessed on that day so long ago.
There were significant events taking place in that marketplace,
unfolding before our very eyes. Those events were much more significant
events than just Charlie buying banana bread for dear Ole Uncle Ho. You
see, Vietnam was invaded and dominated first by the Imperial French and
later by the expansionist Japanese. Both occupations, one after the
other, created an almost perfect learning environment for the Vietnamese
to become adept at running, not only a shadow government, but also a
shadow economy, while coexisting with their much more powerful enemies.
My research suggests that on this particular day, while I was
moonlighting as an Uber driver, I just happened to witness the workings
of a shadow economy in full swing. It was a shadow economy which
contributed greatly to the support of the large main force units located
throughout South Vietnam. Rice production figures fell significantly
during 1967, not because we Americans were trampling through a few rice
field or not because we dropped a few bombs in those rice fields, but
because farmers everywhere were transacting deals to siphon off large
portions of their production to be delivered into the hands of communist
support troops. Deals were made at night in town all across South
Vietnam like An Loc. In my III corps area, this rice was then
transported by support troops, at night, to cache points throughout War
Zone C and D. As I sat for those few seconds, helpless, in that driver's
seat, I was looking at the first link in an enemy logistics chain
carrying on its business in that An Loc marketplace. That business began
at dusk, within minutes, not hours, after we Americans went home for the
day. This particular logistics link began at An Loc and ended up feeding
and resupplying NVA conscripts, who were trying to kill Dick and my boys
at Loc Ninh. What I have just described was happening all over South
Vietnam. Hardly any food supplies came from over the border. That rice
was consumed just getting those warm bodies down the Ho Chi Minh trail
and into South Vietnam. For rice to make it from local growers to the
mouth of an NVA conscript, however, hundreds of transactions on price,
delivery and quantities had to be continually negotiated between local
farmers and buyer agents for COSVN. We had just witnessed some of those
negotiations taking place and they had twelve hours out of every day to
carry out these business deals. And it wasn’t just rice. Commodities of
all kinds were being acquired in this and other marketplaces across the
country.
An army runs on its stomach. Shutting down access to these
marketplaces, by providing twenty-four-hour security would have been a
major step in shutting down large scale enemy operations in South
Vietnam. No, it would not have been the only step needed, but it
certainly would have been a major step and a much more effective step
than the shedding of American blood in those horrific search and destroy
operations. Essentially, Westmoreland gave our enemy 12 hours out of
every day to raid store house South Vietnam. Food growers were glad to
do business with COSN. Why not? It was a relatively safe way to go, for
Vietnamese farmers to be able to generate a living for their family.
COSN was not going to harm the hand that fed them, and we Americans were
oblivious to the problem, so I say again, why not sell their goods to
the communists? Sure, shutting down these markets for our enemy would
have required a massive effort but in the long run, it would have been
more effective, then that other massive effort that we were already
exerting, to blow up things and kill more people. Retraining and
repurposing the Arvin Army to provide twenty-four-hour security would
have been a big job, but it was doable. Petraeus did that very thing in
Iraq, and it stopped the insurgency cold in its tracks.
The short of it is this. One cannot hope to win a war if he does
not possess the will to possess the contested lands twenty-four hours a
day, providing rule of law for everyone living there. Communist regimes
still have the will to do that, but communist ideals create laws which
strip their occupied lands and the people living there of all
inalienable rights. Those inhabitants of that forcefully occupied land
then become slaves to the decisions of those few at the top of the
political ladder. Outside of a world ruled by Jesus Christ, himself,
enforcing laws based on Judeo-Christian principles is the only way to
maintain a civilized society which does not enslave it's people. History
has proven over and over that my words are true. Even if those at the
top of that political ladder start their reign as the most fair, honest,
and just administrators in the world, no human being will ever possess
the wherewithal to protect those inalienable rights. Only enforcement of
a written constitution based on Judeo Christian ideals can do that. I
certainly cannot do it, nor can the reader. No one, but Jesus Christ is
able to wear the ring of total power, not even Frodo. Next Chapter |