Around December 1967, as the "new guy on the block", I was looking for a steady job and a steady shift, so I talked with the NCOIC of the night convoys, who was getting short and he described the night convoy work as a "piece of cake". He said you worked nights and the company didn't screw with you during the day (details, etc.). He also said that there were times when he fell asleep in the jeep on the way up and back. This sounded like my kind of job. I went out with him one night and it was OK. So I told 1SG Shields that I would like to take over the night convoy escort detail. (I forgot what my father, a WWII Army vet, told me the day before I enlisted in the US Army in '65.....DON'T VOLUNTEER FOR ANYTHING!!!) Well I got the job!!!

        The MP escort make up of the convoy was: one V-100 (usually with the convoy commander, a Lieutenant (LT) riding in it) as lead vehicle. About 4 or 5 gun jeeps (one driver and one M60 gunner each) spaced through out the convoy. The last vehicle in the convoy was a gun jeep with the NCOIC, driver and M60 gunner. (Just in front of the NCOIC jeep was supposed to be a tow truck to assist any broken down vehicles.)

         Everything went well until the week before Tet '68.

        As we went north through Ho Nai, I saw two Vietnamese men standing in an alleyway there, one with a radio and the other with a pair of binoculars. It appeared that they were counting the vehicles in the convoy and radioing that information to someone. I radioed ahead to the LT in the V-100, explained what I observed and asked him to be on alert because we would probably get hit this night.

        A little farther up the road, a 3/4 ton QC (Vietnamese Military Police) vehicle pulled up to the back of my jeep. I pulled over and with my broken Vietnamese, found that they wanted to tag along with us to Xuan Loc. I told them to stay behind my jeep and it would be OK. Up Hwy-1 we all go.

        Just south of Xuan Loc, the main body of the convoy gets hit with a command detonated Claymore mine. By this time I'm about 30 minutes behind the main body, with a broken down Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) that can only do about 5 miles an hour and an empty ambulance on the tow truck. The next problem I have is a flat bed with a broken rear axle. We chain the rear axle up off the surface of the road and get ready to proceed.

        Guess what? We now get ambushed!!! The SOB's are throwing grenades at us and small arms fire. (I could write a whole chapter on this short time period!)

        We finally proceed north on Hwy-1 toward Xuan Loc. As we approach Xuan Loc, there was a sign on the east side of the road that said in Vietnamese, something like..."Welcome to Xuan Loc." Well this sign is plastered with something like "bumper stickers" of the VC and NVA flags. Standing next to the sign, I see two Vietnamese males in black Pajamas with ammo pouches on their chests. I pull my little convoy over to the side of the road when we get inside Xuan Loc.

        Now rather than go back and engage the suspected Viet Cong, I decide that my mission is to get these crippled vehicles to Long Gaio. By this time I'm about one hour behind the main body of the convoy. I put the crippled APC as the lead vehicle, figuring that is the slowest vehicle and we will have to travel at that speed. Now I have an APC, a flat bed, two tanker trucks, an ambulance on a tow truck, one other MP gun jeep and me. We then proceed north on Hwy-1 to the Long Gaio cut off and proceed through the Michelin plantation. Part way down that road, I get a call on the radio from MACV in Xuan Loc wanting to know if I can turn around and proceed back south of Xuan Loc to rescue the guys in the QC 3/4 ton truck. (remember them???) Apparently they were ambushed also. I determined that there was no way I could turn the convoy around on this dirt road through the rubber, to go back and help them. Right after that the APC hits a land mine placed in the road after the main body of the convoy passed.

        (Needless to say, I'm not having a good night. All I can think about is that lying NCO "buddy" of mine who told me this would be a "piece of cake".)

        I call in a Dust Off (Medical Evacuation Helicopter), secure an LZ (Landing Zone) with my MPs, extract the wounded from the now burning APC and call ahead to the LT for assistance.

        Now here is the kicker. While all of this is going on, I find out he is sitting in the mess hall, having coffee.

          I finally get the rear element of the convoy to Long Gaio. By this time I don't want to even see the LT, so I go to sleep for a couple for hours in the back seat of my jeep.

        When we all get back to the company area the next morning, after sunup, I march into the 1SG's office and TELL him not to send me out there with that LT ever again.

         Funny part of the story: The next night I take my MPs to the rally point for the next convoy. (No LT in sight). I have one ambulance (no blood to transport) and one bob-tail, without a tow chain. I ask the guys where the rest of the folks are and they say that nobody wants to go with us. The next thing, I get a call over the radio from our Battalion CO, who asks me how many vehicles we have. I tell him "two", and he says to cancel the convoy for the night. (we had more MP vehicles than convoy vehicles!) We did not have another night convoy to Xuan Loc after that until some time after Tet '68, that I know of.

        The one thing about this incident that I regret, even today, is not being able to go back and help the QC's in their 3/4 ton vehicle!!! Although they were not an "official" part of my convoy, they were fellow MPs.