"VC Base Camp & Supply Cache Discovered"
23 November 1968

Information received from a local rice farmer resulted in the discovery of another Viet Cong base camp and storage area. Members of a platoon of three B Company ambush squads lead by 2LT Robert Chavis located and destroyed the camp situated several hundred meters north of the Buong River in the eastern sector of the 720th Tactical Area of Responsibility [TAOR]. The patrols recovered a hand gun, ammunition, food, and cooking supplies as well as valuable intelligence documents.

We got lucky and with a tip from another local farmer we found “Thi’s” base camp. It was unguarded and unoccupied. 2LT Chavis had three ambush teams involved in the sweep. The base camp was finally located 1,000 meters east of Hill #15, just below the Finger Of Land. LT Chavis formed the squads into a skirmish line and set them up along the edge of some rice paddies along the southern edge of the Finger of Land that bordered the swamp and wooded area between us and the river. We swept south towards the river from the Finger of Land and took up position on the outside of the wooded area that covered the stream.

The lieutenant and I then waded into the water and followed the stream into the wood line. 2LT Chavis spotted the bunker up on the south side of the stream to our right. We crawled up to it slowly and once we determined it was unoccupied I called in the rest of Ambush Squad 76. The other two squads secured the perimeter of the tree line.

The camp appeared to be only several weeks old, and the VC had it set up real nice. It consisted of one main bunker about 6’ long by 5’ wide by 5’ high with a roof made of logs and covered with 2’ of earth that had plants growing from it. If you parted the tree canopy from above with a helicopter down draft it would look like part of the jungle floor.

The sides of the bunker were also 2’ thick made of logs reinforced with mud and plants embedded in them. It also had a bath dug into the ground next to it. The bath was approximately 3’ by 3’ by 5’ deep. The mud removed from the bath was used for the bunker.

Behind the bunker was a hand dug canal, 8’ long by 3’ wide by 5’ deep that connected to the main stream. It was large enough to hide a good sized sampan. Over the stream the largest trees were bent down into a canopy and tied in place with vines. We didn’t find any tree trunks so the logs used were cut and floated in from another part of the woods or across the Buong River from the Royal Thi Army Area of Operation.

Inside the bunker there were kerosene stoves, small glass oil lamp, 5 pounds of rice, 1 quart of cottonseed oil, 2 quarts of kerosene, one 1 gallon container of drinking water, 5 pairs of chop sticks, 9mm Chi Com handgun ammo, several Communist Chinese news paper clippings, two canvas ponchos, some assorted plastic bags and assorted cooking pots and pans.

The Chi Com ammunition told us it was “Thi’s” base camp. Only NVA or VC officers carry hand guns. The Chinese news paper clippings confirmed what intelligence has been saying about him, that he has been up north (North Vietnam) or in Cambodia training. Now that we have confirmed he is back something big must be in the works.

We also found something very unusual, this camp had a flush toilet of sorts. It was located about 30 meters east of the bunker. It consisted of small tree branches cut into a bench seat that was built over a small hand dug trench connected to a swampy tidal area. The swamp was separated from the camp stream by a natural dirt berm. At high tide the water would come from the main river into the swamp and through the ditch dug under the toilet seat. When the tide went out it would carry all the waste material out into the swamp. They even had some scrap pieces of paper stuck on branches for toilet paper.

After a thorough search of the area we gathered up all the supplies and 2LT Chavis called for some C4 (explosives) to be delivered so we could destroy the bunker. I don’t know the specific amount he asked for but the chopper delivered a 60 pound case. The lieutenant set the charge, all 60 pounds of C-4 explosive (he said why carry out the rest). It was placed inside the bunker, some rocks were placed on top of the case, and he set a 3 minute time fuse. The tide was moving out and the water was down about half way so we got into the stream which was waist high and hauled ass away from the bunker south towards the main river.

When it blew we were only about 50 meters away. Pieces of trees, large bunker logs, mud, muck, and water rained down on all of us. We were very lucky someone didn’t get hurt from the falling debris. We went back to check on the destruction and found a small lake where the woods and bunker once had been. The other squads on perimeter duty had already been removed so we started back down the stream towards the Buong River where the PBR's were going to pick us up.

Second Cache Discovered

I was on point and about 100 meters south from where we found the first bunker. Just before I neared the river junction I glanced up towards a small rise of dry land to my right and observed a rusting 55 gallon drum sitting on small bamboo stilts under some bushes and trees. It was situated so that you would only be able to see it from the stream during low tide. I alerted the LT who put the squad on alert while I went up to inspect it. The stream bank was steep and slick due to the low water and I had to crawl up. I immediately cut my hand on a sharp metal object embedded in the mud. I backed away and splashed some water on it to wash away the mud. The object turned out to be one of two halves of a metal bomb container that had been cut into points similar to a crown. The points were filed to a sharp edge and the base of the two objects was buried in the mud so the points were facing the water.

If you jumped out of a boat at high tide you could impale yourself on them causing serious injury. I warned the others about the hidden booby traps and continued back up the bank. I carefully inspected the drum for booby traps before I lifted the lid, a piece of tin that was covered with a poncho to water proof it. Inside the drum I found a better bonanza than we found at the bunker. There were 320 rounds of AK-47 ammunition, 420 rounds of M-16 ammunition, one Chi Com stick grenade, one NVA map case with maps, fifteen 6”X 8” paper VC flags, first aid equipment, 6 blasting caps, 15 to 20 pounds of rice, one quart of cotton seed oil, ammo magazines for an M-16, clothing consisting of a civilian shirt and pants, a wallet with a counterfeit Vietnamese National Identification Card, and best of all two pictures of “Thi.” They were small ID card size and matched the one on the counterfeit ID card. No one knew what he looked like before this. I kept one of the photographs for later use in our village sweeps.

VC Platoon Leader Thi

Once we finished the search of the immediate area 2LT Chavis called in the boat squad who were waiting off in the main river. They moved one of the PBR's in to pick us up, the second remained a distance away as support. We loaded up the boat with our seized supplies, minus the 55 gallon drum that I blew up with a hand grenade.

In all it was a very good day.

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