Giang district. He also asked if we or any SEAL platoons had operated in that area. Sadly, I had to tell Dan that November Platoon hadn’t operated in that area and we didn’t have information about any POW camp in that area, nor did I have access to our Barndance cards of past operations. However, I did assure him that we would be very interested in such information. Dan made no comment and left the room.
I looked at Jake, shrugged my shoulders, and said,
“C’est la vie.”
CHAPTER FIVE
He who does not carefully compare his own forces with those of the enemy will come to a disastrous end. Things which are unexpected or sudden frighten the enemy, but they pay little attention to things to which they are accustomed. It is better to avoid a tricky opponent than one who never lets up. The latter makes no secret of what he is doing, whereas it is difficult to find out what the other is up to.
—Emperor Maurice,
The Strategikon
, ca. A.D . 600
Shortly after breakfast on August second November Platoon was given its warning order. I was to carry sixty-three 40mm HE rounds, two concussion grenades, 145 5.56mm ball ammo, two quarts of water, four minifrag grenades, three mini-CS grenades, two mini-smoke grenades, one survival radio, pencil flares, a T panel, a strobe light with a blue lens, mosquito repellent, a first-aid kit, a Swiss seat, an M-16/XM-148 with Singlepoint, a penlite, a flashlight, two MK-13 day/night flares, four pop flares, a 1:50,000 scale map of our op area, a Silva compass, and a knife.
At 1500 Dai Uy gave his PLO. Our op was to insert by Sea Lord slicks and assault two hootches with Seawolves overhead for support. Interestingly, that day’s targets were near the hootches we had assaulted in Cai Be districton our two previous missions. Inspection was at 1700, followed by rehearsal until 1800, when we loaded the slicks and flew to Cai Be subsector to pick up Chief Muoi and his two male operatives. Chief Muoi also brought along a very pretty and well-built Vietnamese woman of about nineteen years of age. She was originally from the area of that op and had recently Chieu Hoied. Some of her family members had been tortured and killed by power-hungry Communists. There was no doubt in my mind that her primary motivation for coming along as our guide was to settle a few scores. A few weeks later she was ambushed and killed while riding her motorbike on QL-4.
At 1835 the two Sea Lord slicks swooped in low, side by side, with the targets at twelve o’clock, and flared within fifty meters of the hootches. While our helo was still moving forward at about ten knots, all of us jumped out the side doors, screaming “Yaaaaaooooohhhhhh,” à la
Kelly’s Heroes
.
As soon as my boots hit the deck I sprinted into one of the hootches and had an old man and a young boy out before most of the guys had a chance to offload. We carefully searched the area and nearby hootches for the enemy and found nothing. Surprisingly, we didn’t receive any enemy fire from the tree line. We threw concussion grenades into the canals to force any hidden VC who were underwater and breathing through air tubes to the surface, but had no results.
It wasn’t long before we learned from our Seawolf buddies that there were friendlies in the tree line. We knew that a unit of the ARVN 7th had an AO adjacent to ours cleared. However, they had strayed into our AO and were within six to seven hundred meters of our location. Needless to say, there were no VC/VCI in the area. We extracted before zero dark thirty and returned to Dong Tam. After our debriefing, we sat around and discussedthe problems we were having with some of our Vietnamese allies.
The next two days were spent working on agent dossiers, information reports, plotting VC/NVA Order of Battle on our 1:50,000 scale situation map overlays, OB organization charts, agent handling and recruitment, and piecing together mosaics.
August sixth was a fun day.
I looked at Jake, shrugged my shoulders, and said,
“C’est la vie.”
CHAPTER FIVE
He who does not carefully compare his own forces with those of the enemy will come to a disastrous end. Things which are unexpected or sudden frighten the enemy, but they pay little attention to things to which they are accustomed. It is better to avoid a tricky opponent than one who never lets up. The latter makes no secret of what he is doing, whereas it is difficult to find out what the other is up to.
—Emperor Maurice,
The Strategikon
, ca. A.D . 600
Shortly after breakfast on August second November Platoon was given its warning order. I was to carry sixty-three 40mm HE rounds, two concussion grenades, 145 5.56mm ball ammo, two quarts of water, four minifrag grenades, three mini-CS grenades, two mini-smoke grenades, one survival radio, pencil flares, a T panel, a strobe light with a blue lens, mosquito repellent, a first-aid kit, a Swiss seat, an M-16/XM-148 with Singlepoint, a penlite, a flashlight, two MK-13 day/night flares, four pop flares, a 1:50,000 scale map of our op area, a Silva compass, and a knife.
At 1500 Dai Uy gave his PLO. Our op was to insert by Sea Lord slicks and assault two hootches with Seawolves overhead for support. Interestingly, that day’s targets were near the hootches we had assaulted in Cai Be districton our two previous missions. Inspection was at 1700, followed by rehearsal until 1800, when we loaded the slicks and flew to Cai Be subsector to pick up Chief Muoi and his two male operatives. Chief Muoi also brought along a very pretty and well-built Vietnamese woman of about nineteen years of age. She was originally from the area of that op and had recently Chieu Hoied. Some of her family members had been tortured and killed by power-hungry Communists. There was no doubt in my mind that her primary motivation for coming along as our guide was to settle a few scores. A few weeks later she was ambushed and killed while riding her motorbike on QL-4.
At 1835 the two Sea Lord slicks swooped in low, side by side, with the targets at twelve o’clock, and flared within fifty meters of the hootches. While our helo was still moving forward at about ten knots, all of us jumped out the side doors, screaming “Yaaaaaooooohhhhhh,” à la
Kelly’s Heroes
.
As soon as my boots hit the deck I sprinted into one of the hootches and had an old man and a young boy out before most of the guys had a chance to offload. We carefully searched the area and nearby hootches for the enemy and found nothing. Surprisingly, we didn’t receive any enemy fire from the tree line. We threw concussion grenades into the canals to force any hidden VC who were underwater and breathing through air tubes to the surface, but had no results.
It wasn’t long before we learned from our Seawolf buddies that there were friendlies in the tree line. We knew that a unit of the ARVN 7th had an AO adjacent to ours cleared. However, they had strayed into our AO and were within six to seven hundred meters of our location. Needless to say, there were no VC/VCI in the area. We extracted before zero dark thirty and returned to Dong Tam. After our debriefing, we sat around and discussedthe problems we were having with some of our Vietnamese allies.
The next two days were spent working on agent dossiers, information reports, plotting VC/NVA Order of Battle on our 1:50,000 scale situation map overlays, OB organization charts, agent handling and recruitment, and piecing together mosaics.
August sixth was a fun day.
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