Ground Pounder: A Marine’s Journey through South Vietnam, 1968-1969

Chapter Nine: The Wild Bunch

161 Chapter Nine The Wild Bunch “If citizens really wanted to eliminate war, they could enact a law that would require their political, religious, and financial leaders to personally lead them into battle.” For the next couple of months, I found myself sloshing through the rice paddies, searching villages, and patrolling the surrounding darkness . Being the middle of summer, the work was hot and rugged. Since I was used to climbing up and down the mountains, I was a little surprised to discover how tough it was to wade through a rice paddy with fifty pounds on my back.The mud wasso thick andgooey that it would literally ooze up my legs and into my crotch area. On more than one patrol, I would have to stop, strip off my gear, and walk back out into the paddy in order to get my damn boots. Between the incessant heat, humidity, and the insects, I began to appreciate what our other units had been facing in the lowlands and especially what the U.S. Army units had to endure in the Mekong Delta. There may not have been any heavy artillery or rocket barrages to dodge, but the 162 Ground Pounder living conditions were far worse than what I had faced up north. And yet in many other ways, it could be just as deadly. During this time, I don’t think that I spent a day without being completely soaked and covered with mud. But what really fried my buns was the unorthodox way in which the enemy fought us. Instead of confronting us like the NVA were accustomed to doing, the Viet Cong would sit back in their huts and let their booby traps do most of the work. Looking back, it was one of the most frustrating experiences of my entire life. While on patrol, it was quite common for us to lose half a squad without making any contact with the enemy. The surrounding trails were literally covered with booby traps and punji stakes to the point where it would take us several hours just to move a couple of hundred yards. That was one of the strangest aspects about the Vietnam War. Unlike our previous wars, there was never any continuity on the battlefield . The enemy’s tactics and the nature of the combat itself would change from district to district. It seemed that every geographical location in the country featured a unique way of fighting us. After I had transferred to the 27thMarines and moved south, I discovered that everything was different. The rules of engagement were stricter, the enemy’s weapons were cruder, and the combat was less intense. Around the populated areas, we had to deal with what was left of the local Viet Cong. They would usually come out at night to set up their ambushes or bury their booby traps. But during the days, they would rarely confront us in force. Most of the time, they were either in theirfieldsworkingawayashonestcitizensortheywereintheirtunnels makingweapons.UnlikethefightingintheDMZ,thenatureofthecombat could suddenly change from area to area, depending upon the Viet Congs’resourcesandtheirleadership.Someareaswerefullofsnipersand booby traps, while just across a river or around the next set of villages, we had to sweat their ambushes and occasional mortar attack. Hell, we weren’t fighting the Vietnam War; we were fighting the Vietnam Wars. TheWild Bunch 163 However, the enemy did employ one particular tactic throughout the country to great effect. For months on end, they would lull our troops to sleep in our base camps with long periods of inactivity. As far as our daily patrols could ascertain, there hadn’t been an enemy soldier in the area for years. The days and then the weeks would pass without so much as a hint of their presence. Due to the boredom, everyoneinthecampwouldbecomesomewhatlaxandcareless.Thus it became quite common for us to settle into a predictable routine, believing the war had passed us by. Then suddenly one night, when we least expected it, the enemy would show up around our perimeter with a battalion of troops and overrun the place as easily as falling off a log. In response, our reinforcements would be rushed to the scene only to find the enemy had disappeared into the surrounding terrain. As a battlefield tactic, there is nothing more effective than convincing a unit that they aren’t in harm’swayandthenunexpectedlyhittingthemwhiletheyareintheir ponchos dreaming of home. While I was in Alpha Company, I...