"Captured in An Hoa Hung"
21 November 1968

We (Ambush Team #76) stopped at the National Police Station in the afternoon to take a break and get an update on the recent intelligence from TOC (Tactical Operations Command). The station had a Land Line and we used that instead of the radio which was less secure.

While in the compound our PF Interpreter, SGT Xichs, came running in from the village and informed me that he was just told by a villager that the Viet Cong we were hunting for blowing up the Outpost #1 jeep in which PFC Alicea was killed on 1 October 1968, was in the village visiting his family. We had no photograph of him but the informant had pointed him out to SGT Xichs.

The team moved out into the village and we proceeded in a normal speed and manner so we wouldn't look out of the ordinary to the many villagers on the street. SGT Xichs lead us on our walk until we came up to the small coffee hooch just past the village market on the main street, off to our left. There were approximately five or six Vietnamese males standing and sitting around at the small wooden table in front of the hooch. All were older papasan's except for one young man who stopped in his tracks when we approached. At first he froze like a deer in the headlights. Then he looked down and slowly started walking towards the side of the hooch when SGT Xichs, at gun point, commanded him to stop. The young man offered no resistance.

We took him into custody alive, and he was unarmed. I couldn’t believe that he was only a young teenager, no older that 18.

We paraded him through the village square on the way back to the National Police Station. Before we brought him into the compound, an empty sand bag was placed over his head.

When I called into the Company TOC they were elated to say the least. The young VC was put in the MP jeep kept at the National Police Station and I personally drove him to Military Intelligence on Long Binh Post where he was turned over for interrogation.

After finally avenging the death of PFC Alicea the squad morale couldn’t be any higher.

From The Journal o,f, CPL Thomas T. Watson, B Company, 720th MP Battalion, March 1968 to March 1969.