"The Death Of PFC Alicea"
1 October 1968

          The rest of the Battalion companies called us "Lucky B" because we had yet to suffer any men killed in action. A nickname we could all be proud of. That all ended today in one loud explosion and cloud of smoke in the TAOR.

     The jeep was making the supply run between Outpost #1 and Outpost #2. There were two men from Outpost #1 in the front of the jeep, and two Vietnamese females in the back seat when it detonated the land mine.

     PFC Robert Alicea died instantly, the other MP, PFC James R. Brunotte was still alive, only god knows how or why. He lost his left hand, both legs, his left eye and suffered other wounds. The two Vietnamese females, the wife and daughter of an Outpost #1 PF Sergeant, who asked for a ride back to An Xuan Village, and were sitting in the rear seat, were seriously wounded.

The mine detonated in the same area where the engineers truck struck a mine on 12 June. Since this was the second of two runs they made between the outposts it appears the VC were trying to get the seven man bridge security team truck.

The mine was to big to use just against a jeep. Click here for 12 June 1968 photographs and details.

     They departed Outpost #2 unexpectedly, just ahead of the bridge security team truck. The only thing that remained after the explosion was the rear end of the jeep, we never found the motor.

     Everyone in the company was mad as hell about it. The word passed down to us was they didn't expect PFC Brunotte to make it. The men at the outpost said Jim was in shock but could talk with them when they put him in the Dust Off, he kept asking what happened, no one would tell him. Both Bob and Jim had only been in country several months.

     We immediately responded to the call with several ambush teams and made a sweep of the area but as usual none of the villagers or farmers we found in the area knew anything about it.

     The following day information developed from the search of the blast site revealed that the mine was made with approximately 50 to 60 pounds of explosives, and pressure detonated with the same type of devise that had been used in the destruction of the engineer vehicle on 12 June. To prevent premature contact by the ground or elements, the trigger was wrapped in black electrical tape. We never found the battery used in the charge, it had to have been destroyed in the blast.

     The explosives had to have been delivered and planted at the location sometime that night or several days before, however the trigger devise wasn’t placed in the roadway until just before the explosion.

     The VC who placed the trigger had to have left the area by way of the creek that intersected that rice paddy and the roadway.

     PFC Brunotte and both of the Vietnamese females did survive.

Interviews of the men that were at Outpost #1 and #2 and those MP's working the bridge security team at the time of this incident.

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.