Death in the Jungle Gary Smith (mobi reader txt) 📖

and gazed at the weapon. Of course, the rifle did nothing but lie there, unfeeling. Allowing my arm to rest against it, I found that it was as cold as ice. Just like war, I thought. Just like war.

I shut my eyes and dreamed of home, where love and warmth awaited me.

EPILOGUE

Eight days later, on 3 February 1968, I was back at Nha Be, where I found that my good friend Frank Toms had returned to Nam again. Frank had just arrived with Delta Platoon a couple of weeks previously while I was operating on Dung Island standing security duty at the navy’s Binh Thuy base during the worst of the ’68 Tet offensive. It seemed that one of the few ways I had occasion to visit with some of my teammates was at the crossroads of South Vietnam. Delta Platoon members were as follows: Lt. (jg) Tony Freedly (OIC), ENS Manuel “Manny” Isaacs (AOIC), CPO Clarence Betz, SH1 Claude Willis (LPO). PO1 “Deep Divin’ ” Dietz, PO3 Frank Toms, PO3 Dennis Frank. Billy McKinney, Wayne Bergeron, SM3 Jack Lee, SN Dwight “Dee” Daigle, Bob Searles, L. B. Scott, and Chuck Turner (who was later relieved by Mike Ambrose after being wounded in the T-10 area of operation).

Shortly after I departed for CONUS, Delta Platoon and a couple of SEAL-2 members went on a series of operations from one of the navy’s Task Force 117, Riverine Assault Force troop barracks ships near the Dong Tarn base where units of the U.S. Army’s 2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division were located five miles west of My Tho, Dinh Tuong Province, IV Corp. It was during one of those Delta Platoon operations when they demonstrated their wisdom in devising and determination in execution.

Some time later, Frank Toms, Jack Lee, and Dee Daigle filled me in on the details. According to their story, Delta Platoon departed their troop ship by PBRs one particular night with a Vietnamese SEAL LDNN and Hoi Chanh guide (an ex-VC who had come over to the South Vietnamese way of thinking). Their mission was to locate and destroy a large VC/NVA weapons and ordnance cache. After insertion, the SEAL unit patrolled a couple klicks along a secondary stream off My Tho River to the VC weapons and ordnance cache concealed in the bottom of an old, dry water well. According to the Hoi Chanh’s testimony, the cache consisted of large quantities of small arms and ammo, all forms of anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines, recoilless rifles and rounds, mortars and rounds, RPG-2s and RPG-7s, etc. Moreover, the Hoi Chanh warned that the cache was roughly surrounded with nearby bunkers manned with depleted platoon size VC/NVA units who were still licking their wounds from their devastating defeat that took place throughout South Vietnam during the Communist Tet ’68 offensive.

After the SEALs inserted, they moved slowly with their supposed ex-VC guide through the sometimes dense jungle and occasional rice paddy dikes to avoid booby-trapped trails. They eventually made it to a designated rally point near the target. From there Lieutenant Freedly (the patrol leader) sent his point man, Seaman Daigle, forward to recon the cache area for the exact location of the security guards. The Hoi Chanh wasn’t allowed to accompany Dee until he had proven himself on more than one mission.

In less than an hour, Dee returned with the critical information that every patrol leader wants to know about the enemy: how many security guards were there, what were they armed with, and where were they located. Dee had spotted four guards with AK-47s and SKSs within twenty to thirty meters of each other in the immediate vicinity of the covert well. So far, the Hoi Chanh’s information had been accurate.

Once the information was passed to each man, everyone knew instinctively that stealth, concealment, and noise discipline would have to be rigidly maintained throughout the remainder of the mission. If the VC/NVA security forces were alerted, the SEALs would not only be outnumbered but possibly outgunned—not to mention that it could be a long, dark, difficult, and hazardous retreat back toward the My Tho River for extraction. There was only one way the mission could be pulled off: the four sentries would have to be taken out silently with K-bar knives. Only then could the cache be quietly pillaged and plundered with the remainder being covered with C-4 plastic explosives and set to detonate shortly after the SEALs departed the bogus water well.

For maximum firepower, ten of the SEALs set up a skirmish line facing the target. Once everyone was set, Mr. Freedly and Daigle would take out the two right flank sentries while Frank Toms and another mate would eliminate the two sentries located on the left flank.

Later, Dee Daigle explained to me what happened. “Mr. Freedly and I moved silently forward until we were just a few feet from our first sentry. Both of us moved very slowly and carefully until, within range, we leaped upon the unaware VC. While Mr. Freedly held the VC with one hand over his mouth and the other holding him firmly on the ground, I stuck him through at the bottom of his sternum with my K-bar knife. The VC’s chest deflated like a punctured football. It was quick and silent. Again, we moved on toward the second sentry where Freedly grabbed the unsuspecting fellow. However, all did not go well—the Communist SOB would have none of it and started struggling violently. While Mr. Freedly continued wrestling with the guy, I quickly thrust my K-bar hard into the thrashing sentry with great force. Because he was a thin and wiry fellow, my K-bar penetrated completely through his body and entered Mr. Freedly’s leg just above the knee. Fortunately for us the sentry wasn’t able to scream nor was Freedly’s stab wound a dangerous one.”

Frank Toms and his partner were also successful in eliminating their two sentries but not without a hitch. When the two of them jumped their second sentry, the terrified VC