By Paul Churchill
July 29th 1966
We left our old area on the 19th. It was hit hard on the 22nd, I think you will have heard of it already as Johnson was supposed to have made a speech to the nation about it. Five patients in the hospital were injured.
Since leaving there we have been pretty busy. I have made 23 patrols and ambushes and gone on one convoy. Four of the patrols were all day affairs going to within 6 or s miles of the Cambodian border. One of them van into the night as a tracked vehicle broke down and we had to guard it for the night. The seven of us on that one set in around an Ontos and sat there too scared to doze off. At about 2:30 a column came out to relieve us. When we got back to the hill we are on now we immediately boarded the convoy which went to within a few miles of North Viet Nam, Dong Ha to be exact. It ran through about 70 miles of mountains where no one took his eyes off the trees and into about a hundred miles of rice paddies, hills and sand. Two men were hurt when one of the trucks turned over on them. We got to our destination at about 6:30 P.M. where a plane was waiting to take us back. It took about 30 minutes to get back to Da Nang and about an hour and a half to get back here. Needless to say I dropped in the nearest place I could find and slept until my next patrol.
We were to be the security (called rough riders) for this convoy. They weren’t called that without reason. The convoys went at full speed ahead no matter the road conditions to make it harder to catch us in an ambush. Our job was to provide firepower to hopefully get the convoy through any trouble that might occur. Fortunately this one went without enemy contact. We were broken up into groups of 4 to 6 and loaded onto every third or fourth truck throughout the convoy. The truck beds we rode in had sand bags layered in them to help protect us from the affects of a blast should we hit a mine. This only left a few inches between the top of the sand bags and the top of the side rails. As were rounding a bend in the rough mountain road one of the guys was thrown over the rail and bounced 40 or 50 feet down the side of the mountain. When we got stopped and went down to get him he was fine except for a few bumps and bruises. The guys in the roll over mentioned in the letter also only had minor injuries and did not need to be med- evaced. Miracles really do happen.
After we got out of the mountains, which were beautiful, we went thru Hue City and Phu Bai.
The city of Hue with its old government and university buildings with manicured lawns and gardens were also quite beautiful to see as we rode through. It was an amazing contrast to the Jungles and rice paddies that we were used to seeing only a few miles, yet centuries away. The Tet Offensive would see much of this city destroyed. So sad.
We continued north from here through miles of terrain alternating from sandy low hills to rice paddies and on our left and at times glimpses of the South China Sea on our right until we came to Quang Tree City, more like a very village when compared to Hue. The main (only) street was a narrow dirt road (still a part of Rte 1) lined with tin and plywood shops. We had to slow to crawl going through here because of all the foot traffic on the road. At one point we had to stop for a few minutes and the kids immediately crowded up to our trucks begging for C- Rations or anything else we might have. Somewhere along the way we had come up with a play money $100,000 dollar bill. I held it up over the side of our truck and waited a few seconds for them all to see, then dropped it. Instantly there was a pile of kids diving for it. It looked like a bunch of football players fighting for a fumble. It wasn’t long before a little guy slipped out of the pile and took off like a shot. It took the rest a few seconds to realize that the prize was a couple hundred yards away and moving fast before the chase began.
About the worst of the patrols was one of the all day affairs. About 4 hours after we started the men started dropping like flies heat stroke and exhaustion. Three had to be med-evaced. About 15 had to be dunked in the river, including our lieutenant. This left about s men to keep the rest of the men covered while I worked on them. I thought the chopper would never come. I thank God that the VC weren’t around that day.
We were a part of what was being called Operation Rice Bowl. I don’t think it actually had an official name but we were supposed to be keeping the VC from interfering with the villagers harvesting their rice. It was a platoon size patrol and for some reason we had 60 millimeter mortars with us and we were humping up a river bank with a mountain to our right. It was hot. Our lieutenant took it upon himself to start working up and down the patrol handing out salt tablets and telling the men to take them. I advised him that this was a bad idea and he was going to cause a real problem but he kept it up every hour or so. I talked to the guys I could without being too obvious and told them not to take any of the tablets except when we broke to eat as taking the tablets as the lieutenant was giving them out would have the same effect as drinking salt water in a life raft.
The first man to start having trouble was one of the mortar men who was humping (carrying) the base plate for the mortar tube. It weighed about 60 pounds and was in addition to his normal gear. With the heat, fighting the brush and loaded with salt tablets he was going into heat stroke. He started to trail off to the right away from the patrol toward the mountain and fell to the ground. I got to him and knew right away what was wrong. He was already delirious and was asking why he couldn’t have his twenty cent orange drink. I told the lieutenant we had to get a med-evac for him or he wouldn’t make it and started an IV on him.
While all this was going on two more men went down. I said we need med-avac now. The lieutenant said that would really make him look bad. I said, “Sir, you’ve already done a fine job of that yourself. While we waited for the chopper more men were getting sick by the minute as the excessive salt and heat continued to take effect. I had the men I had been able to convince not to take the salt split up and guard the trail in front and behind us and started getting the rest of the sick into the river up to their necks to cool them down. The lieutenant was not doing well himself as he had been taking the salt right along with the men. I looked at him and told him if he didn’t get in the river with the rest of the sick men he would be going out on the chopper too.
After the chopper picked up our worst cases we waited about an hour, aborted the days mission and hiked back to our home on the hill. Two of the guys med-evaced were back in a few days but the man humping the mortar was never able to return to the field.
As for the weather here it is moving steadily into the rainy season. When it is raining you freeze, when the sun shines you roast. I shouldn’t complain though because there are people worse off than I am and some of them don’t have the friends that I do, nor the knowledge that God is on their side. I can’t tell you how much both help.
P.S. We are supposed to move again Monday. I’m finally getting to see the world, at least this part of it. I have to admit that it is beautiful here by the mins.
Paul
