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Another Viet Cong (VC) base camp was reported to Battalion by a local Vietnamese fisherman. He said it was located along the Dong Nai River, just south of An Xuan Village where Outpost #1 is located.

Blue outline is Battalion Tactical Area Of Responsibility, An Xuan Village (red circle), Viet Cong Base Camp (red arrow)

We started the sweep of the area in the morning on the premise that any VC using the camp would have returned to it from the village before sun up. We approached from the east sweeping west towards the river from the village in an attempt to contain any VC in the base camp area. Their only escape would have been into the river and the river patrol was on station for just such an event.

Unfortunately for us the tide was high when we started our sweep. Due to the thick brush and deep water we couldn’t move on line to sweep the area and had to go single file. It took almost an hour to hack our way through the waist deep mud, water and thick brush to the area described by the fisherman.

Unfortunately it was also a typical day for the weather, no cloud cover, no breeze and before long the morning temperature was in the high 90’s. In the brush there was 100% humidity and the overpowering stench of the stagnant brown water that was always covered with green slime that clings to you like the leaches.

Visibility was at best only several feet in either direction. During the approach we disturbed the fire ants that were in the brush above and around us. Thousands of the ants dropped down onto us and for a moment stopped us dead in our tracks. When they started biting it was pure hell, we tried to brush them off without much success. You could knock a few of them off, but the ones that didn’t bite onto your hands would float on the waters surface and climb back up onto you and continue to bite anything above the water line. Everyone ended up with red welts on their heads, faces, arms, necks, and hands. Their bites would continue burning for a long time.

We changed direction around the ants and continued on cursing. Finally the water became shallow and the ground became hard and was above the tidal water line. We thoroughly searched but still couldn’t find any trails or entrances into the wall of thick vines and brush where the base camp was suppose to be hidden. We continued on, chopping our way into the tangled mess towards the river and finally found it. An immediate search was made and no VC were found.

With the area secured t he first priority now shifted to getting as much clothing off as possible to remove the fire ants and all the leaches we collected during the search. The ants you could now brush off because we were out of the deep water, the leaches had to be burned off with a cigarette or forced off by sprinkling salt on them. You learned early out here that salt wasn’t just for seasoning your C Rations, it was saved for removing leaches. If you were out of salt, a couple of drops of your insect repellent worked just as good. Trying to just pull them off was tough because they were covered with slime.

The thick overhead cover of the trees shut out much of the daylight in the base camp. It also appeared to have been there for several years. When first built, the Viet Cong used cut vines to tie together many of the tree tops so they would grow together like a dome. They then cut down the large trees in the center of the dome to use the logs to build their bunkers. The fortifications under the dome consisted of three, four man log reinforced bunkers covered with the gray clay the dug up from their fighting trenches. The clay was placed around the sides of the bunkers for additional reinforcement, and on the tops for camouflage. If a helicopter draft parted the tree tops all the crew would see beneath them is gray clay. The bunkers were surrounded by connecting trenches that had approximately fifteen individual fighting positions cut into them.

The camp appeared to have been in use recently but by a smaller number of men than it was designed for. Fortunately for us, it didn’t appear that they were expecting company because there were no booby traps found. In one of the bunkers I found a full ammo can of US M-60 ammunition and a spray paint can that was converted to a homemade hand grenade. One of the other men found a 10 pound bag of rice and a small oil lamp that still contained oil and a fresh wick, dry with soot still on it. There were also several small cans of cooking oil, some pots and tin cups. We searched for other hidden weapons, supplies, or a tunnel without success.

We were still stumped as to how the VC got in and out of the camp because there were no visible trails or entrances large enough for a man, even a small one. By the time we finished and were ready to leave the camp the answer to their hidden entrance appeared before our eyes as the tide went out. The VC had dug a small two foot by two foot trench that snaked from the camp through the thick brush out towards the rice paddies. Only at low tide can it be seen, and then from outside it would just appear as one of the many small natural culverts in the water and mud. If you crawl on your hands and knees you can get in and out of the base camp with ease.

We blew up the three bunkers with C-4, and left the area for the shelter and shade of Outpost #1. The tide was now low and we were able to make our way safely past the fire ants without having to disturb the brush they were sunning themselves in.

The Journal of CPL Thomas T. Watson, Squad Leader, Ambush Team #76, B Company, 720th MP Battalion, 89th MP Group, 18th MP Brigade, March 1968 to March 1969.

Project Managers Note: This incident is briefly described in the book, "Combat Police, US Army Military Police in Vietnam," by Rick Young, Senbraak’s Writings, May 1997, page 117 paragraph 2. However, Young lists the date of the discovery as the 23rd of September which was wrong according to my journal. On the 23rd we returned to the camp to completely destroy it with an air strike.