Search and Destroy
Sgt. Terry Foote
Company C, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 12th Cavalry
This was the term given for our sweeps through areas in Binh Dinh province. We
covered the Bong Son plains, the An Lo valley, the An Do (pronounced An Doe)
valley, the Kim Son valley and the mountains surrounding the province. When we
searched the villages it wasn't like the things you have seen in movies like
Platoon. We didn't go through the villages like storm troopers. Yes we searched
the hooches looking for an over abundance of rice, weapons, or any other thing
we thought might be suspicious. I know this seems intrusive and it probably was
annoying to the villagers but there wasn't a lot of privacy for them anyway. Not
trying to justify it, just something we had to do because the main force Viet
Cong would live in the villages by day and fight by night.
We didn't really have to worry about booby traps in the villages. We seldom ran
into them in populated areas. One thing we did have to worry about in the
villages were ambushes. In all except one major fire fight I was involved in
they were in villages. If a village didn't seem as populated as it should be you
really had to be on your toes. There were a lot of smaller ambushes in the
villages. Mostly from snipers. I know it is crass to be going through people's
belongings like we did but that particular province was most definitely "Indian
County". That province was a hot bed of communist activity. They wanted control
of it bad. They knew they would never get control as long as the Cav was around.
We did not practice burning down villages that were "suspect" as portrayed in
Oliver Stone movies. We did burn hooches standing alone or with 2-3 others on
the edges of the jungle leading into the mountainous areas. Those hooches were
definitely communist holding areas. The Vietnamese people didn't live alone.
They always lived in groups which meant single hooches like that were simply
shelters or holding areas for rice or weapons so they were burned. If we found
rice paddies in mountain draws that were only large enough to hold one or two
rice paddies we destroyed them by calling in artillery or gunships. These areas
were definitely enemy food supplies. As far as indiscriminately burning villages
and herding the people off like Hollywood portrayed us simply didn't happen. The
Bong Son plains were full of many villages. The people of the province didn't
live in the mountains. The mountains belonged to Charlie. That was where all the
booby traps were. That was where platoon size and larger ambushes were. That was
where you found the bunkers and tunnels. You could be walking through an NVA
battalion and never know it. They only fought when they thought they had the
advantage.
I'll never forget the time we were point squad humping the mountains and ran
across a hole. At my size Sgt Bazia asked me if I wanted to check out that
tunnel. I said "sure Sarge", pulled the pin on a grenade and screamed "fire in
the hole" and dropped the grenade in the tunnel. I just looked up and said "I
checked the tunnel". Sgt Baiza just looked at me and laughed and said he knew I
was going to do that because he knew I was too smart to crawl into one of those
damned tunnels. That was voluntary and I wasn't about to crawl into a hole like
that.
We spent a lot of time in the mountains around the Kim Son valley at that time.
There was a river running down the middle of that valley with wide trails on
each side. We must have walked those two trails coming in and out of the
mountains more times than I could count. Charlie wouldn't dare start a fight
there though. Too close to three artillery fire support LZ's and way too many
gunships in the area.
We patrolled those areas during the monsoons and stayed soaked all the time. If
it stopped raining you stayed wet from sweating on the valley floors. We got
caught in a typhoon that had moved inland somewhere in the area. The winds
weren't so bad but the rain was like someone turned on a hose. We were on the
side of the river opposite the mountains. The river began to rise so the CO
decided we needed to get across the river and to high ground before the water
really came up. We made it across the river and the water was beginning to run
pretty fast and rise quickly. Normally ankle to knee deep water was waist to
chest deep by the time we got across. It was running out of it's banks while we
were crossing the rice paddy dikes to get to the higher ground. It got so bad we
had to make sure we followed the man in front of us step by step because the
dikes were under water by this time. By the time we got to the trail on the
other side of the river the water was chest deep. We lost two men that were
swept away near the end of the column.
Webmaster Note: It was October 29, 1966 when the drowning occurred.
We finally got to a place we could climb
up to a place to be extracted. The choppers got us out and down to LZ Pony. The
valley was completely flooded by this time. It made us wonder how many civilians
had been drowned in the flood.
After the rain stopped it took close to two days for the
waters to recede. Choppers went out on a search for our two missing men. They
came back with the two men. I'll never forget them. Their bodies were bloated
beyond recognition and had leeches hanging all over them. It was one sight a
person will never forget. Funny thing about death in war no matter whether it is
combat related or not. Men tend to just look, turn around and go about their
life of survival thinking "it really doesn't mean a thing because it wasn't me
and men die in war". Such a callous outlook but you had to be that way or you
wouldn't make it through.
After the water had receded completely they sent us out on patrols along the
coast line of the South China Sea. I'll always remember that because the water
was absolutely gorgeous. It seemed funny to be walking along side a beautiful
beach like that loaded down with gear for killing. It seemed like there should
have been people lying on the beach basking in the sun.
The battalion commander gave us a break and we set up security with half the
company and the other half of us went for a dip. Naked of course because you
simply didn't wear shorts under those jungle fatigues (gave you horrible crotch
rot). But who cared, we got to swim in nice warm water clear as a bell. A navy
swift boat was patrolling the coast line and came in within about 50-75 yards of
the shore and called to us on a bullhorn to swim on out. The CO told us to go
ahead since the area was about as secure as it could be. About 15 of us swam out
to the boat and they took us for a ride about a mile out and back. They then let
us dive off the boat a couple of times before we had to swim back in. Before we
dove into the water to swim back in they said "oh we forgot to tell you, the
South China Sea is the most shark infested water in the world". I thought "shit"
thanks for telling us to swim out". Fortunately we all got back to shore without
being eaten but it sure made us think. There isn't a place in the country safe.
Well, by the time we got back we had orders to move out and sweep a village some
recon chopper had seen a couple of NVA in and the rest of the company didn't get
to take a dip. Boy were they pissed. So we got dressed, rucked up and moved out.
I really hated humping in that sand too. It was really tough, worse than the
mountains.
We swept the village and found nothing as we expected to find since the
intelligence was a few hours old by that time. We were still on the coast so the
CO said the rest of the company could take a swim if they liked but everyone was
too tired by that time so we just set our perimeter and our defenses out for the
night. There was no digging in in the sand. It simply wasn't possible.
The next day we were to cross the valley and it would prove to be the first time
I killed a man. We were approaching a small village and saw a man dressed in
kaki running from the village about 200-250 yards. In that area if he's running
away he's running for a reason. I was in the point squad that day and Sgt Grant
told me to fire a round. The purpose was just to let him know we were there but
I put the round about a yard away from him. Lucky shot, but he went down. What
makes that so bad was the fact that my thoughts at that time was "I finally got
one". We all just laughed about it. They sent a squad over to check him out. It
was a dead NVA. I had nailed him with one shot from the M-79. That impressed
everyone so I felt good about killing that man. Kind of a strange feeling. I
should have felt bad but in that situation, I felt good. It's the situation,
that's all