Jungle Ambush : The Nightmare of Vietnam’s War DD

The 3rd Marine Amphibious Force is responsible  for all United States military operations. in the I-Corps area. Located here, in about the center of the I-Corps area, is our major operational base of Da Nang. You will recall that it was at Da Nang that  the initial landings were made by the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade.

This is now our largest operational base. At about here, approximately 50… 50 miles to the south of Da Nang  is the operational base at Chulai. The Marines and the Seabees have built  a small airfield for tactical support. Our third operational base is approximately  45 miles to the north of Da Nang. It is the base at Weih Fubai.

Now although the bulk of our Marines are  located in or around these three bases, I want to point out that the  Marines of the 3rd Amphibious   Force have been fighting from one end of  the I-Corps area to the very other tip. With so many new and different  things for you to see, it is difficult to sort them out in any order.

However, it’s quite easy to choose  what you should see first. Our Marines. They’re the finest. These Marines have just returned  from a tough battle in the North. They are now on the defensive perimeter. Their weapons are cleaned and cared for before  a thought can be given to personal comfort. A matter of importance in the life  of a professional fighting man.

This is neither a clean or  an easy life for our men, but they’ve learned to accept the   physical hardships of battle as  their fathers did before them. In their famous hymn, Marines recount battles fought  in every climb and place. Here in Vietnam, except for snow, they prove it. From the soft ooze of the rice paddies, they move on through  swift-running canals and streams, then push forward into the  jungles that fringe the mountains, where elephant grass tears at the  skin while vines tangle the feet, giant trees cut off the sun.

But it’s not just a matter of  long walks in the tropical heat. Each and every step must be a cautious one, for the Viet… Kong have prepared the way  with mines and booby traps. So watch your step. False one in your ankle is pierced  by the nails of a crudely cunning   trap that only digs deeper  as you fight to pull away.

A hidden shell sits waiting for the unwary foot, and you’ll never know which innocent-looking  piece of grass or fern covers a pit of sharpened, poison-tipped bamboo spikes. Marine engineers must constantly sweep the  roads and trails in search of killer mines. The troops must provide a  screen of security behind   which Americans can assist the Vietnamese in  the revolutionary rebuilding of their nation.

It is necessary to constantly  patrol the outlying villages   and countryside to deny re-entry to the Viet Cong. Marines initiate literally  hundreds of small patrols and   ambushes throughout the I-Corps area each week. But one of the most difficult jobs in this war  without a front is to distinguish friend from foe.

Each person must be carefully  searched and identified. Whether VC are turned up by such  scrutiny or captured in combat, they are treated with scrupulous fairness under  the international rules of the Geneva Convention. Marines have found that such treatment of  an often cruel enemy frequently results   in the proffering of information that  reveals the whereabouts of an enemy force.

In possession of such knowledge, Marines react quickly. Plans are rapidly formulated and a  striking force moves out swiftly. As they move in on the enemy position, they are met by intensive small arms fire. It results in some casualties, but the attack is carried to the enemy stronghold. The Viet Cong are well-dubbed in.

The command decision is to call for  artillery fire support to dislodge them. The observer gives the exact location to ensure  the safety of friendly elements close by. Now the troops can make the final assault and move  in to destroy the enemy equipment and supplies. Many of the hamlets our troops  approach are known to be friendly, but even they must be approached cautiously, for emotional reactions are primal when villagers  are first confronted by men with weapons.

A Vietnamese farmer’s entire  world is a thatched hut, a small rice paddy, his wife and children. For the past quarter of a century, his village has been a battleground, completely isolated by Viet  Cong-destroyed bridges and mined roads. The VC wanted food. They took his rice. They wanted soldiers. They Shanghai’d his sons.

His village chief objected and was beheaded. His neighbors who protested were beaten. He confessed no one. The Viet Cong told him the  Marines would come to seize homes. murder children, and enslave entire families. Anyone who helped Americans, the BC said, would be tortured and killed. So, quite naturally, trust and confidence grow slowly, nurtured by little acts of mercy, by promises fulfilled.

Surely the stranger who binds one’s  wounds does not intend to murder, and always the Marines’first question is, what can we do to help you? When the Viet Cong have  been driven out of the area, a combined action company is formed  to provide security for the village. Marines and South Vietnamese popular forces, militiamen from the village, work and train together in this company.

Their patrols and ambushes  prevent Viet Cong re-infiltration. Villagers and their headman live unmolested. With this security, fear is replaced by hope and the  desire to build for the future. Marines work side by side with the village people, constructing churches, hospitals, and schools. American generosity provides the building tools, even the very bricks and mortar.

Through many civic action funds, and the Marine Corps Reserve  Care Program is one of them, Americans are giving unstintingly to help in  this rebuilding of a nation and its people. In classrooms such as this, children and adults too. are learning for the first time of the vast  potentials of our free and democratic system.

It is on this other front in the battle to  win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese   people that will be determined  the kind of world their children, and our children too, will come to inherit. The Navy corpsman with his bar of soap and his bag   of medical gear already is well  loved by the Vietnamese people, symbol of America’s helping hand.

But he is only one of 100,000 Navy  men committed to the war in Vietnam. For many of the Blue Jackets, it’s an unusual new kind of shallow water warfare. Operating fast, small boats, round effects machines, and shallow draft transports. They hunt down and destroy  the waterborne Viet Cong, and act as advisors to the Vietnamese  Navy as they move their troops along the   water high roads for an attack  on a Riverside VC encampment.

Just off the coast, other men of the Navy and Coast Guard are on   constant patrol to stop and search  thousands of small ships and junks. Many are carrying supplies  intended for the Viet Cong. This blockade is known as Operation Market Time. It involves the surveillance of a  thousand miles of coast from the 17th parallel to the Gulf of Siam.

Tough duty. but it’s drying up one arterial  lifeline from North Vietnam. Well offshore, in the deep blue of the China Sea, is the backbone of our Navy’s surface forces, the aircraft carrier. It’s a floating mobile air base complex. Over 4,000 men live and  work on this seagoing city. To keep the ship in operation and its pilots in   the air requires the effort  of a community of freemen, engineers, clerks, doctors, mechanics, pipefitters, radar men, cooks, and bakers.

Their working day averages 12 hours. It can be 18 or even longer when air operations  are underway and planes are being sent aloft at 30-second intervals. About half of all the combat sorties over North  Vietnam have been blown by Navy and Marine pilots. It’s a dangerous job, and sometimes not all the planes come safely back.

A search and rescue helicopter hurries  on its way when that radio distress call, Mayday, signals a pilot in trouble. He could be down in the open sea, or deep in the jungle. Their job is to find him and bring him back. On this mission, photographed by a Navy cameraman, the pilot was forced to eject beside a rocky cliff   along the forbidding coastline  a few miles south of Haiphong.

The helicopter cannot get  close enough for a direct lift, so a swimmer hits the water. I’m going to go   ahead and start the recording. I’m going to go ahead and start the recording. I’m going to go ahead and start the recording. But the value placed on a single  life makes any effort worthwhile. Many other ships accompany the carrier.

One such is the destroyer, the tin can, workhorse of the fleet. Indispensable to the Marines  ashore and the Navy at sea. In Vietnam, the skillful placement of  supply-fired destroyers has   often been a vital factor in the success  of marine infantry operations ashore. Another fleet operation in the South  China Sea is the Amphibious Task Force.

It supports teams of marines and their helicopters   that collectively are known  as the Special Landing Force. The SLF operates from a specially designed ship. that is a combination troop ship and  helicopter carrier called an LPH. With almost lightning speed, special landing force can strike from the  sky by helicopter and across the beach by   amphibian vehicles in a highly  effective two-pronged assault.

The SLF has been employed at many  points along the coast of South Vietnam. These Marines are part of the air attack group in   the operation in which we’re  going to participate today. As they head toward land and a new battlefield. The minds of the fighting men are  occupied with their own thoughts, their own prayers.

Even for those who have taken  part in many previous operations, the race toward a new unknown always carries  with it that special feeling in the stomach. We fly above the beach assault force. for our helicopter landing zone is  well inland behind the enemy position. We expect to catch him by surprise. The helicopter force will block  him from escaping toward the west, while the beach assault group offloads swiftly, then moves inland, to play the hammer against the anvil.

As Marines push through the jungle, they must overcome natural obstacles as well as  the enemy hiding someplace in the dense growth. River to cross is a welcome coolness, but its waters support a myriad of leeches that  slip inside clothing to fasten on the skin. The wounds they leave are easily  infected in this tropical climate.

In deep jungle ravines, the troopers slip down, climb back endlessly for every foot they advance. Now you are with them. Watch where you step and where you grab. A movement in the shadow beneath  you could be a vicious giant rodent. A harmless-looking vine  might be a poisonous snake. Even the trees in this rain forest are hostile.

They grow so thick their triple  canopies bring darkness at noon. Hang on to the man in front of you, or you’re lost in this midnight gloom. Then, suddenly, out of the misty darkness, contact. The enemy has good position and  appears to be superior in numbers. so the Marines call in their equalizers, their support from the sky.

This is the moment for which  these pilots have been prepared, for which they’ve been ready and waiting. Approaching the target area, contact is made with the forward air controller. This Marine is an aviator  attached to a ground unit. He gives the pilots all the information they need   to provide pinpoint close air  support for the ground troops, a Marine Corps specialty.

what was needed to even up the odds. And the infantry action is positive and  powerful in destroying the remaining enemy. We have our gadgets, but our fatalities from combat-inflicted wounds  have been cut to less than 2% because of the   speed with which a wounded man can be moved  from the battle zone to skilled surgical help.

While a Navy corpsman gives emergency aid, a medivac team is being brought in by that  mechanical angel of mercy called a helicopter. Usually less than 30 minutes after being hit, a seriously wounded man is in the operating room. Either at a field hospital  or aboard the USS Repose, a hospital ship that has been a welcome addition  to our medical facilities in the combat zone.

The gleaming white ship carries everything that  would be found in the most modern hospital ashore. A full staff of doctors, nurses, and corpsmen. functions with the same efficiency as the   crew that moves the ship into  the area where the action is. Though battle wounds are the cause  of most of the serious casualties, there are many more that  result from the environment.

Heat prostration, immersion foot, malaria. These can be as devastating to our combat  effectiveness as bullets or fungi pits. But the knowledge that quick and sure   care is close at hand helps keep  morale high in the rice paddies. But the Red Cross, which symbolizes our medical units, is not the only cross in Vietnam.

Wherever the Marines and sailors go, the chaplain also goes. Whether it is for moral and spiritual counseling, friendly word to a lonely man, or the softening of unpleasant news from home, the chaplain is on the scene. Be it a stretch of sand or  a clearing in the jungle, it becomes a church as he sets up his altar.

The men gather to worship in the same familiar  routine of devotion as their families back home. As he holds service, the chaplain cannot dismiss the thought. Will they all return? He knows full well they won’t all get back alive. Prayers are said. A letter is written home to the family. Yet so little can be done.

This one has given so much. There will be no more tales of his  exciting adventure in a far-off land. No more plans for his education, his family, his home. He may have been a lad, not quite a man in years, but he gave us a man’s greatest treasure, his life. And he gave it not unknowingly. These men prove every day they  understand the why of Vietnam.

Listen to a few letters written  home by these young men, some of whom have since been killed. Those boys who are burning their draft cards, marching in protest, getting married, and hiding behind an education, you show me that they aren’t mature enough to  accept the responsibility of being an American, and therefore they don’t  deserve to be called American.

Mom, I don’t want to die over here. but if that is what it takes to make the world a  better place for you and dad and everyone to live   then giving my life won’t be in  vain i try to love my fellow-man no matter who or what he is i find it hard  to believe that american men and women   really object to u s servicemen being here in  vietnam but those people who parade those ashes Didn’t tell us we were fighting a useless  war and had to live without their freedom.

They changed their point of view. Please don’t think I’m trying to talk or  act like a hero because I’m far from it. I’m just trying to do my part in this war. But it’s a war that I’d gladly give my  life for if it’d help bring freedom to   the people here and help it grow  stronger in our own country. The day I left home to come over here.

I kissed my kids goodbye and  my wife had tears on her eyes. I’m just like thousands of other  servicemen here in Vietnam, but pretty much seeing our  families and loved ones again. I do not wish to die here, but I have no fear of death. I know my God is real, and my trust and faith is in him. Keep praying for me, as I shall pray for you.

It’s a lousy war, as is any war, but it’s going to be fought sometime, someplace. I hate to see what it’s doing to  these poor people here in Vietnam. but i’d rather be here than in minnesota if  and when my time to go comes i will go i’ll   go because i know the meaning of the word  freedom i’ll go because i love my family i love my country and i love my  god call it any name you will   from foolishness to sacrifice  but be sure to include love This is the end of our day in Vietnam.

A glimpse of the war as it is being waged all day, every day, by these young men who are growing up in a hurry. 18, 19, 20 years old. They were boys when they got here. They’ve become men overnight. The suffering, hardships and sorrow they bear, not only their own, but what they see in others around them, has helped to make them compassionate, tolerant.

and mature. The young men who comprise the vast  bulk of our Navy and our Marine Corps, who are seldom seen on television, were rarely interviewed by the press. These men are, as they have always been, the truly strong men. Only a couple of years ago, these young men would have been embarrassed  to tell what patriotism meant to them, how much they loved their homes, their God, their country.

Now they daily risk their lives, their beliefs. This vast cross-section of America, its young, tired, gallant fighting men, this is not only the face of America, this is the heart of America. They will return, most of them, but that valiant heart will keep beating, only if it is nourished and  sustained by the rest of America.

And these, then, are the true heroes of the war, the young men of your Navy and your Marine Corps, whatever they are, and ultimately… Whatever our country is, we owe to them and their  brothers and the other services. Past, present, and future. Okay, move out. I’m sorry. From out of the skies over  Vietnam come the screaming METAL,

the heroic paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Divisions. Their fabled exploits during World  War II can never be forgotten. In December 1944, outnumbered and surrounded  by the Germans at Bastogne, the men of the 101st courageously fought on. When the Germans ordered them  to surrender or be annihilated, their acting commander, Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe, gave the historic reply, nuts, and they stood until the Germans were defeated.

It is in this same tradition that  the men of the Screaming Eagles   1st Brigade today serve on the  jungle battlefront of Vietnam. On a warm spring day in 1965, several Army aviation companies arrive in  Vietnam aboard the carrier USS Iwo Jima. It is the beginning of the  Army’s air mobility build-up, the first of the assault helicopters, which soon will fill the air  over this embattled land.

Even as the pilots of the 101st Aviation Battalion whirl  away toward the field at Vung Tau. All of South Vietnam is infested with Vietcong. From the north, they stream down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and like a disease, spread throughout the Southern Republic. I thank the parents for the help they’ve given us.

Into this setting come the  first of the Screaming Eagles, the aviation crews of Company A, forerunners in the massive American military  buildup to stop the communist enemy. For the Republic, this is a time of desperation. I thank the parents for the help they’ve given us. Here at Vung Tau Airfield, 40 miles southeast of Saigon, the job begins for these airmen.

Along with helicopter crews  from other aviation companies, the men of the 101st are to be processed for movement to their  new homes in the forward areas of Vietnam. Their mission now is to  create the helicopter bases. from which US Army forces can be flown  into combat against the Viet Cong. Quickly now, they make ready.

In the next 90 days, before the airborne infantry arrives, these men will do a man-sized job. On the 29th of July, 1965, the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division arrived at Cam Ranh Bay. And here we go. The brigade, with its supporting elements, is commanded by Colonel James Timothy, who is welcomed to Vietnam  by Ambassador Maxwell Taylor.

And by General William Westmoreland. In the ceremonies which follow, Colonel Timothy gets his first look  at the strife-torn shores of Vietnam. And for the first time, the brigade unfurls the proud emblem of  freedom over the land it is here to protect. To Ambassador Taylor, the occasion holds a special meaning, as the one-time commander of the 101st talks to his son, Captain Thomas Taylor, now a member of the Screaming Eagles.

Concluding today’s event, some of the airborne infantrymen stage a parachute   jump for Ambassador Taylor  and General Westmoreland. It is to be one of the few jumps these  paratroopers will make in Vietnam. The Screaming Eagles descend toward  the Earth and the unknown hardships   of jungle warfare they will  face in the months ahead.

Within two weeks after their  arrival at Cam Ranh Bay, the Screaming Eagles are sent northward  on their first combat operation. As they sail for Kinyan, 130 miles up the coast, it is mid-August, and the brigade hasn’t yet had time to  establish its permanent home base in Vietnam. While the Vietnamese are  celebrating the Lantern Festival, the men of the 327th and 502nd are moving inland  from Kinyan to An Kei in the Central Island.

Their mission is to clear and secure  the An Kei area as the base camp… for the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division air mobile, which will be arriving from the  United States in a matter of days. At Dao Mong Pass, overlooking An Kei, the landings begin. After months of special training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, this is it, the moment every man knew would come.

A Viet Cong main force battalion  has been reported in the area, and the airborne infantrymen  expect instant contact. But it doesn’t come. The Viet Cong are evasive, biding their time. It is an anti-climax for the men. This is their first lesson in Vietnam. No big battles when expected. Instead, a nagging war of attrition with  primitive booby traps and snipers.

Small unit actions and ambushes in the jungle. Only when he thinks the situation is favorable  will the enemy show himself in force. So the long, hard task of ferreting out  the communist enemy begins. And the Screaming Eagles are good at their job. By the end of September, they will kill 600 Viet Cong. It will be a difficult thing, and some of these airborne fighting men will die.

But the job, for this time, will be done. As the advance elements of the 1st  Cavalry Division begin arriving at Anshe, they commence taking over the area  secured by the screaming Lijus. Finally, the men of the 101st Airborne are free to head south. and establish their own home base in Vietnam. From An Kei and the Central Pilot, the brigade moves 170 miles to  the coastal town of Phan Rang.

This is to be their permanent camp, as soon as it can be filled. Though weary from their  campaign in the hill country, they work throughout October until  the base at Phan Rang has been set up. General Westmoreland visits the Screaming Eagles   on Thanksgiving Day 1965 and  inspects the camp at Van Rang.

He is pleased with their performance at An  Kei and congratulates them on a job well done. Even as he returns to Saigon, the brigade is conducting local  search and clear operations. As the new year begins, the entire brigade is deployed to Tui Hua, 100 miles to the north in Phu Yen province. Known as the rice bowl, this is the richest rice growing  region in central Vietnam.

From this fertile area come crops to  feed all the people of central Vietnam. But the Viet Cong have been seizing the harvest   and collecting unbearable taxes  from the frightened farmers. Now come the screaming eagles to protect  the right harvest and stop the Viet Cong. Codename Operation Van Buren. The orders read, search out the enemy in the  Tui Hua sector and destroy him.

This assignment will be tedious. The VC desert their dwellings and  avoid confrontation with the Americans. Yet the district is infested  with an enemy who makes night   raids and continues to molest the farmers. The search goes on. Brigadier General Willard Pearson takes  over command of the Screaming Eagle from the 29th of January, 1966.

He steps up the pressure on the Viet Cong. Excuse me, sir. Excuse me. Across the broad reaches of Buyan province, the Viet Cong are pursued. For the most part, they evade capture and withdraw to  disappear in hidden underground sanctuaries. In the wake of U.S. military operations, the enemy rice rage dominates.

But the VC themselves mingle with the  local people and often are bypassed. attacking our units from the rear at night. On 8 February, the Deputy Commander of the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, Lieutenant General John Heinke, comes to Tui Hoa to personally  evaluate the situation. What he sees convinces him that the  enemy is well entrenched in the district.

that it will require repeated efforts by the 101st to dislodge these communist guerrillas. Operation Van Buren becomes Operation Harrison. February becomes March, and daily the Screaming Eagles patrol the jungles   and foothills surrounding  the rice fields of Tuigua. Enemy main force headquarters are located and hit.

by the U.S. Air Force with B-52 bombing raid. The men of the brigade go in to check   the results and prepare field  reports for Air Force intelligence. Daily they go out, and daily they return. Roll of the Tui Hoa region. Now operating in small units, they kill 516 hardcore Viet Cong  troops between February and April.

The rice crops are saved. Once, early in March, the men of the brigade receive a surprise  visit from one of Hollywood’s movie heroes, Robert Mitchell. During this enjoyable interlude, there is talk about the glamorous  girls of the film world. Mr. Mitchum   is given the opportunity to fire some of the  weapons of the real life heroes in Vietnam.

In mid-April 1966, the 2nd Battalion of the 327th is left to guard the  rice harvest at Tuy Hoa, and the rest of the brigade  moves out on Operation Austin, two weeks in the area around Phan Thiet, then onward to Nang Co near the Cambodian border. Here, where the Ho Chi Minh Trail enters South Vietnam, the Screaming Eagles meet the 141st Regiment of the North Vietnamese Army.

For a while, the fighting is intense. The 502nd Airborne Infantry  takes a number of casualties. It takes six days, from the 14th to the 20th of May. for the U.S. paratroopers to drive the North  Vietnamese aggressors out of   their positions in the foothills of Nang Co. The communist regulars are well-disciplined, well-equipped, and tenacious.

In spite of heavy ground fire, Army aviators get in with  their dust-off helicopters, and the wounded are whisked away to safety. This is the enemy. When he was captured, he was carrying a machine  gun made in Czechoslovakia. He won’t be using it again. As for his comrades, they have been put to rout, and in their hasty flight, they have dropped their arms.

Over 100 of the North Vietnamese  lie dead in the mountains. Victory at Nang Co. is ours. Yes. But for the Screaming Eagles, the greatest testing is still to come. Far to the north in Kantum province, the brigade launches Operation  Hawthorne in the area around Dokto. Kantum is a forbidding wilderness lying in the   foothills of the mountain country  which marks the border of Cambodia.

It is the first week of June, and the air is heavy and humid. Until now, the enemy has held sway here. 30 miles north of the little town of Dacto, the airborne engineers erect a crude bridge. A few miles beyond lies an  American special forces camp. It has been under siege by the  Viet Cong for nearly a week.

Supplies and ammunition are badly needed, and relief troops must get through. The burst of the trucks begins crossing. Near the bridge, the men of B Battery 320th Artillery prepare  for another firing mission. Throughout the morning, they have rained howitzer shells upon  the enemy forces attacking the camp.

Now, with fresh supplies of ammunition, they’re ready to begin again. Each time the shelling starts, the enemy withdraws his attacking  forces to escape the punishing fires. When it is lifted, he regroups and again tries to take the camp. Despite week-long airstrikes by U.S. Air Force jets, the Viet Cong have shown no signs of withdrawing.

But the artillery fire, directed by those defending the outpost, is having a telling effect. The screaming eagles are under fire. The enemy has come to silence the guns. Communist fire comes from everywhere. Out there, the enemy is creeping in. He will try to overrun the American positions. The weight is agony.

Then the enemy makes his move. This is it. Live or die. Thank you. In the forefront, General Pearson. The bot, here in hell. From Bastogne to Vietnam, the tradition remains unbroken, magnificent. The streaming eagle. The battle wanes.

A small part of Operation Hawthorne is over. Some of the men of the 101st will fight no more. But for this day, the bastions of freedom held. They came from the north, a full battalion. Their weapons, not ours, have been silenced. Throughout the oppressive  days and nights of June 1966, Operation Hawthorne continued.

In the violent conflict which  rages in Can Thun province, the Screaming Eagles repeatedly beat back  prized troop units of the North Vietnamese Army. In 16 straight days of combat, the brigade envelops the 24th North Vietnamese Army Regiment and more  than 500 of the communist aggressors are killed. It is the largest single battle  of the war for the men of the 100th Brigade.

The bitter struggle to preserve the  freedom of this little Asian nation is   made more bearable as each man is enriched  in spirit and strengthened in his resolve. At last, the fighting is done. Hello, my name is I’m a student at  the University of California, and All the world had heard about  the gallant screaming eagle   and the battles of Operation Mothra.

In recognition of their outstanding  victory in Khang Phung province, the Premier of South Vietnam, Nguyen Cao Thi, comes to the little town of Dat To. Premier Thi and the Deputy Premier express the   gratitude of their nation in a way  that fighting men can understand. These are some of the  weapons taken from the enemy, the premier has told.

In the hands of the communists, the arms of China, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Russia, and even a variety of United States, French, and British weapons, which had fallen into those same enemy hands. Living evidence of the North  Vietnamese regular army. Six out of the 22 taken alive  by the screaming Uyghur. Premier Kee confronts the aggressors.

You are lucky the Americans have taken you, he spires. On the 21st of July, following surveillance operations along  the Laotian and Cambodian borders, the brigade returns to Tui Hua. A new operation, labeled John Paul Jones, gets underway. Its purpose is to open and secure a 16-mile stretch of National Highway 1  between Tui Hua and Vung Ro Bay on the coast.

The accomplishment of this mission  will speed up logistics support   of the Tui Hua area by permitting  ships to unload at the nearby bay. It begins with elements of the 500-second infantry landing at  the cliff-guarded Vung Ro Bay. Where, without encountering resistance, they begin moving inland to link up  with the oncoming units of the 327.

The inland forces push forward, securing the highway and sweeping  the adjoining countryside. Supported by helicopter gunships, Helleborn assault troops clean out  the operational zone within six weeks. By early September 1966, They have secured Bung Ro Bay  and Highway 1 north to Thu Y Hoa. Sweeping through the mountains, the brigade captures 40 North Vietnamese  and Viet Cong and kills 209 of them.

While Operation John Paul  Jones is still in progress, the engineers begin construction work on the   connecting highway between  Vung Ro Bay and Highway 1. The Screaming Eagles have done their job well, and a new seaport is born. In the weeks which follow, the brigade protects the rice farmers as they   harvest some 17,000 metric  tons of the precious grain.

Once again, The Tui Hua sector becomes the battlefield, and the Viet Cong suffer heavy losses, with 239 killed and 42 captured. The Viet Cong have had enough. They are nowhere to be found. Eleven Vietnamese are found, however, in a Viet Cong prison camp. They have apparently received no medical  attention while in the hands of the communists.

Held by the Viet Cong for several months, their ailments range from open sores  and skin infections to malnutrition. As well as deformities  caused by unset broken bones. This man, a former Viet Cong who defected to the  Republic and was later captured by the VC, cannot tell of his unspeakable  nightmare with the enemy.

On the 9th of December, the odyssey of the brigade continued. From Thuy Hoa, back up north to Can Thum province. The Viet Cong have been cleared  from Phu Yen province by this time, and the Screaming Eagles are moved to the  north in a record 48 hours by the U.S. Air Force. The deployment of the brigade by  means of parachute marks the first   jump in more than a year for many of the men.

But they’re in superb physical condition, and the jump goes well. As 1966 draws to a close, the brigade descends upon Can Thum  province to take part in Operation Picket. Fighting side by side with  Vietnamese army forces and militia, the men of the 101st once again will scour the countryside, finding and finishing the enemy.

The operations in Can Thum province  continue until the 21st of January, 1967. Then, after more than a year’s absence  from their home base at Van Rang, the brigade is ordered back for a rest. It seems a long time since the LSTs  first moved the brigade up the Kinyon   as they headed for their first combat around An K.

Now, the LSTs are taking them home. On the 26th, the last convoy rolls into camp at Van Rang. Brigadier General Willard  Pearson welcomes the men home. It will be one of his last  official acts as Brigade Commander. Two days later, General Pearson transfers  command of the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division to  the new Brigade Commander, Brigadier General S.H.

Matheson. The battle-hardened troops watch  with solemn pride as Lieutenant   General Engler pins the Legion of Merit on  the uniform of their departing commander. So the Screaming Eagles bid farewell to  the commander who led them in 14 combat   operations from one end of Vietnam to the other. For the Screaming Eagles, as for the rest of the United  States military forces in Vietnam, the valiant effort to keep that  young nation free continued.

However far removed from our shores. The conflict between those  who cherish human dignity   and those who would snuff it out affects us all. In this belief, the gallant men of the United  States Army stand steadfast, not only in Southeast Asia, but wherever they may be asked  to serve in freedom’s card. It is June 1967.

The place is the South China  Sea near the coast of Vietnam. The USS Harnett County has sailed  10,000 miles from the western shore   of the United States and has arrived at  the Cochin River in the Mekong Delta. The war that lies ahead for these men is beyond  the rivers and rice paddies of this ancient land.

For the next 12 months, they will launch patrol boats, armed helicopters, against the enemy. They will search from the  skies and patrol a thousand   miles of waterways to fight the Viet Cong. This is their story. it begins here on the land amid  the lace-like structure of canal   and waterway this is the heartland of  south vietnam the mingkong delta here   where the mangrove forests stretch  as far as the eye can see where lush farms and rice paddies dot the  land the vietcong exercise a shadow   tyranny over the people using the  age-old tactics of force and terror

These men and others like them   have come here to aid this small  nation caught in the midst of war. In an age that boasts of science and technology, what they accomplish here will still depend  on the courage and skill of each other. The ship is two miles from  the mouth of the Cochin River, two miles from the place where real work begins.

Navigation here is dangerous. There is a possibility of running  aground on the treacherous shoals   and sandbars created by the  mud and silt of the river. added to this danger is the fact  that the vietcong are entrenched   in this area and up until now have  roamed the waters almost at will for the two hundred and seventy-eight men that   comprise this ship this is the  last leg of the long journey san francisco and seattle are far  behind the sights and sounds of a   once familiar world have given way to  the ominous quiet of the near-by jungle

first patrols leave the ship at dawn and  the men fall into the routine that will   govern their lives as once to come words  like soul and reconnaissance words that   were once part of their training here  on the river become part of their lives Far below the unfamiliar  stretches from horizon to horizon, a deep-seated rise in another world, one of uncertainty and danger.

The job has begun. Officer Chanhut, report. A war does not depend on ceremony. Yet even in this place, a few short guards from Viet Cong territory, they’re at time for morning quarters. Here on the ship, you get up to Reveille and  stand in line to get your food. You live and work with other men in  the crowded space of an iron hub, and you adjust to the  formalities of shipboard life.

But for many, formalities end when their work begins. Their job is on the rip. For the next 16 hours, their home will be a small, armed, fiberglass boat, which will carry them far from the  safety and comforts of the ship. Their mission is to search, to control the waterways and canals of the Delta, to keep the enemy off the river.

In the Mekong Delta, the river is key to the land. To the Vietnamese who live  here and use it every day, it is the heart of their existence. It nourishes their crops, provides a route to the marketplace, and sustains their families. These waters are the highways of commerce, and there are over 5,000 miles of natural  and man-made canals that wander past cities, villages, and hamlets.

But if these waters provide  a way of life for the people, they also provide a means of  transportation to their enemies. The Viet Cong use the rivers to carry arms, ammunition, and supplies, and to extort taxes. The Viet Cong have used innocent-looking sampans   and even children to lure  the patrol boats into ambush.

the men have learned from bitter experience that  they cannot relax for a moment hidden hand-grenade   concealed rifle these are the hall-mark of the  enemy and the stamp of guerrilla warfare until boats are thoroughly searched  every one must be suspect you cannot always tell of yad khan by looking  or even talking to him they wear no uniform   only the black clothes of a peasant though  all boats on the river must be stopped some dangerous job two hundred three hundred sampans   are checked every day to talk with  the people listen to their gossip

Try to get information that may lead to the enemy. Quite pleasant. A man with an identity card  from a food-eating shop, or a woman with too large a load  of rice for a judge or family. You may not speak their language very well, but you see things, find clues, and try to put them together. You patrol until time by not many hours,

but 16, 18 hours a day. Far from home and far from the scene, you cover endless miles of water accompanied  only by the constant fill of water. From the ports of call, the men labor at the task of keeping  a ship fit and their weapons ready. Technology has provided  the tools and the training, but men provide the work.

Equipment must be cared for and maintained. Each hour of patrol means additional  hours of teachers’back-breaking work. There is no room for error. In the days that follow, the lives of others will depend on the  performance and patience of these men. Dick and Ed passed their rare  free time by playing cards,

answering a long overdue letter, or reading an outdated magazine. But the vigil continued. Modern naval vessel is more than guns and bullets, eel and black oil. The men aboard her have been trained to  perform all the services of a small town. The Navy corpsman is the doctor here. Drugs and medicine are the  tools of his profession.

But to a people like the Vietnamese, a people who live in the  shadow of poverty and disease, medicine and men like the corpsman  are the tools of his profession. Men have come 30 miles to the village  of Hung My on the Co Chien River.

Most Vietnamese live in a village like this one. A community of 2,000 who work the land, raise livestock, and supply their local trade. But their otherwise simple lives are  complicated by disease and infection. The corpsman has set up a clinic in  the playground of the local school, where patients have already gathered.

water and we haven’t spread this on the area   that is itchy yeah so that you’re right  how many times how about twice a day Yeah, it was. That bottle was the way it was given. We do end up with two bottles. Two every four hours. Oh, I see. Does she have a bottle? Does she have a bottle of wine for us? Yes, sir.

There are no monuments to  what is accomplished here. There is no glory. But in this war, the work done here has become an as important as any battle. Weeks give way to long months. A new season comes to the Mekong Delta. Monsoons begin in the east, westward, and soak the land in torrential rains. Wind and rain intrude into the life of every man,

soaking everything, wearing away at the nerves. Fog, motor sails, ammunition corrodes and comes rushing. For days there is no pause, only the constant sound of rain against me. But the work of war goes on. The enemy has used the reins to his advantage. Two companies of Viet Cong have been  discovered on the shores of the Ba Lai Canal, digging bunkers for an ambush.

Patrol boats will transit the canal and act as  decoys to force an encounter with the enemy. Its helicopters will remain on board, fueled and armed. Ready for action. Charlie will expend a little  more energy than he has been. So I want you people to be  extremely cautious on the rivers. The risks of entering a narrow canal are great.

These shallow zones of water  are the haven of the Viet Cong. boats are forced to move slowly becoming  easy targets for enemy fire unforeseen circumstances often dictate  strategy despite all their   preparation and planning the men must turn back The water has become too shallow. They are forced to find another route.

All right, this is Juliet, this is Ironhead 2, roger out. Bridge, this is radio, scramble the helo. Okay,

Bill. Check fuel boot pump. We’re clear! Coming hot! 403,

how do you read? 403, read you 5, Bob. What’s the story? This is 403, I’ll give you the attention this time. We are… We’re still receiving auto peak  weapons fire from the beach there, Rob. This is 4-3, do you have the smoke on the beach? I have it on the beach. Roger, that’s the target area there. Roger that. This is Kilo, we’ll make a final run on it.

Kilo, this is 4-3, let me know when you commence your run  and we’ll come in behind you there. I’m going to go ahead and get my phone. This is 43 Roger. They have my smoke in sight here. We received automatic weapons fire from  the East side and also from the tree   line on either side of the smoke  running from north to south over So this is 43.

Be advised they have a 1573 coil that’s in there The deal of this battle is over, but the victory has not yet been won. There is no rest now for these men. The enemy has shown himself. They must act quickly, decisively, to deny him his sanctuary. New targets out of reach of the PBRs have  been located by the Vietnamese command center.

Enemy gun emplacement, bunkers, supplies and packs. This engagement,

one of the helicopters was shot  down by a sniper in a sampan. This is the price a few will pay in any war. The cost of involvement. And for the remainder of their tour in Vietnam, these men will pay this price time and again. They have faced the enemy. have endured the ordeal of battle they  have won their badge of courage the man comes in on a stretcher another call to battle The blaze of the blaze is cutting  the stillness of a twilight sky,

stabbing at the fleeting  shadow of a faceless enemy, the smoke and flame of burning cordite, and the darkness of men at war. The fight will go on. But these sailors, these worn and weary men, have kept their faith.