MP's and Engineer's

          During my tour we were not assigned to security for the engineers on Hwy 4, it just happened that way. There were occasions when the engineers would be taking enemy fire and the MP patrol was in the area on patrol, during my tour it was usually between Vinh Long and Can Tho. I had those checkpoints memorized so I could call in and get support. Normally when we starting taking fire we were trained to keep moving, fast as possible, and get on the radio for support. We could get artillery, 105mm from both our guys and the ARVN’s, gun ship support from the choppers at the Vinh Long air base, and, I was told, we could get a Phantom out of Saigon with napalm (this didn't happen in my tour). My personal preference was chopper support since it was so fast. In fact I remember the call sign if we needed help: "Swamp Fox". So my call on their frequency would be "Swamp Fox, Swamp Fox. this is Ripper Kilo #? (one of our call signs) and I would get a response "hello Ripper Kilo this is Swamp Fox, what do you need and where are you?" So, if the engineers were taking fire we would stop and lay down supportive fire as best we could with the M60 Machine gun, M79 Grenade Launcher we carried and our personal weapons (I drove the gun jeep and operated the radio I wasn't a shooter).

         A tradition developed with the Engineers that in the evening when we all got back, they would come over to our club with a case of beer and usually a bottle of some sort and we would party. I had an incident once while on town patrol when my partner and I were in trouble in a bar, there were 5 of them, I was out of radio contact so I couldn't get backup and they wanted to fight. A nearby table of engineer NCO’s saw what was happening, got up and walked up behind us to make it clear they were backing us up, and told the guys we were having the trouble with that:"...we don't f_ _k with the MP’s in this town!" The evening ended quietly.

SGT James A. Davis, 148th MP Platoon & 188th MP Company, 92nd MP Battalion, 89th MP Group, 18th MP Brigade, August 1968 to August 1969.