on the way to Dong Ha

Something Funny Happened on the Way to Dong Ha (1968)

As happened every morning the mine sweep teams had cleared the road from Camp Carrol to Dong Ha. There was no need for armed escorts for the rest of the day. 

Bull dozers had cleared all the jungle from both sides of the road up to about 75 -100 yards. This left a lot of roots and branches on the ground that the local women picked up every day so they could use it for firewood, I was proceeding down the road in one of two M42 Dusters. We were the only vehicles in sight.

On this day tho, there are no women, but I saw a group of about 12-20 military aged men scattered out in a ragged formation walking along the road and in the cleared areas.  Dressed in typical shirts, shorts, and sandals, they are calmly walking along, not picking up firewood despite having large collapsible reed baskets that could be used for firewood. The baskets look sort of like a large folded taco shell carried loosely under an arm or held by the handle. I made eye contact with a couple of them as they calmly walked on. 

“Hmmm” I thought. “Military aged men, scattered out w plenty of space between them, in a place I’ve never seen men before, no women or kids in sight, baskets that are plenty big enough to conceal AK 47’s or grenades. WTF is this? A squad of VC? An innocent men’s club walk in the countryside?”  

We had no infantry with us and our cannons were designed to shoot at airplanes so would not depress down low enough to engage close in enemy infantry. Nobody said anything over the roar of our engines but we all recognized the unusual circumstances. I made sure my .45 was handy and noticed the machine gunner’s nod indicating he was “on it”.

While my mind was racing with defensive and offensive strategies, we, and they, kept our same speed and non-chalance and proceeded on our merry  ways.  I turned around to watch them, and a couple of them turned around to watch us. 

On that day I think I was probably looking the enemy straight in the eye. Fortunately we all survived to tell the tale.