"Starting The Day With A Bang"
12 June 1968

B Company Outpost #2, Long Hung... The earlier rains had ended. It was a clear morning, no clouds, the temperature was up and it was already very hot and humid. The Battalion Tactical Operations Center (TOC) called on the field phone last night and said the local Viet Cong (VC) have just received a new supply of arms and ammunition. They wanted us to be alert because their informants said the VC were planning to hit targets within our Tactical Area Of Responsibility (TAOR). For once Battalion TOC received some valid information, and it didn’t take the VC long to put their threat into action.

     This morning we made two supply runs in our jeep from Outpost #2 to Outpost #1, both were uneventful. SP/4 John Hart drove the first run, I drove the second run. We have to make the runs very early in the morning because the engineers, 2nd Construction Platoon of D Company, 46th Engineer Battalion, 20th Engineer Brigade, are working on the new 130 foot long double span Freedom Bridges near Outpost #1. The single lane dirt roadway, rut would be a better description, is blocked to all vehicle traffic until they finish for the day.

     On schedule the small engineer convoy drove past the outpost gate heading for the construction site just minutes after I returned from the second supply run. About half way between the bridge construction site and our outpost their lead vehicle hit a land mine in a washed out section of the road.

     I was sitting on the roof of the Popular Forces (PF) Communications bunker drinking a cup of coffee talking with CPL Woodrow "Woody" Morgan, the squad leader of B Company Ambush Team #76. When the explosion went off the shock wave from it rattled the roof tiles on our pavilion. Everyone at the outpost grabbed their rifles and ran the 100 yards to the site to help.

      To our surprise, the truck driver was standing, dazed, on the roadway. I asked him if he was injured and he just stood there brushing the dirt off his uniform with a look of disbelief on his face. He was red as a beet and looked like someone had sand blasted his entire front from the waist up. He walked away from the explosion with only scratches and temporary deafness. He later informed me he was "short" and had only several weeks left on his tour. His experience had saved his life. He was not more seriously injured because he had the foresight to sandbag the floor of his 3/4 ton dump truck.

The sandbags shielded him from most of the explosion and metal shrapnel. Fortunately for him the truck didn’t flip over because it carried a full load of dirt in the back.

     During a search of the area we found the triggering devise used to detonate the land mine. It was made of two pieces of wood separated by a one half inch space in the middle of each piece of wood there was a wire, one attached to a piece of tin and on the opposite side the other bare. When compressed the two ends met and completed the circuit powered by a small battery.

     Since our two supply runs traveled through the same wash out and didn’t trigger the mine, it appears that the VC’s intentions were to destroy the lead truck of the daily engineer convoy to the bridge. The VC that set the trigger apparently waited until I returned from making the second supply run before placing it in a shallow depression on the roadway caused by the wash out. The mine must have been buried in the road sometime during the night.

     The VC that placed the trigger had to be there to see the construction convoy coming before placing it in the wash out. Fortunately for us they were looking for multiple casualties. The normal daily routine was the first truck through the roadway to the construction site would be the deuce and a half [2&1/2 ton truck] that carried the D Company work crew. This morning the 3/4 ton dump truck was in front because it was going to drop the load of dirt it carried in the wash out so the larger truck could get by to the bridge construction site with the crew.

     We assisted Ambush Team #76 in a search for VC and picked up several local farmers in the surrounding rice paddies for questioning. All the farmers were from An Xuan Village, and as usual, no one saw or knew anything.

      Later in the day the Village Chief of Long Hung reported to us that the local VC have five more land mines and are planning to use them. We passed the information along to Battalion TOC.

From The Journal of CPL Thomas T. Watson, B Company, 720th MP Battalion, 89th MP Group, 18th MP Brigade, Long Binh, Vietnam, March 1968 to March 1969.