For weeks after the operational control of the Tactical Area Of Responsibility changed hands intelligence reports from Battalion S2 had been consistently reporting large scale enemy movement in and around the Tactical Area Of Responsibility (TAOR). However, the reports if legitimate had yet to be confirmed. None of the outposts or ambush and recon teams had discovered any enemy activity of the magnitude being reported, the radio net was quiet. The intelligence reports became almost as routine as the weather reports, same shit different day. Expectations of trouble remained at normal levels at the outpost. With the major part of the security and construction upgrades nearing completion, duty at the outpost beginning to become very routine and boring.

   On this particular morning I awoke early, it was still dark and joined PFC Bella who was working the last night shift of the radio watch in the top of the watchtower. We were drinking our first cup of coffee and shooting the bull waiting for the sun to rise as another quiet and uneventful night was coming to and end.

   It was just before the first rays of daylight, around 0500 hours (5:00 AM), when a large box style truck came down the road towards the outpost from Highway 317. From its headlights we could tell it wasn't military. The roadway is part of the TAOR free fire zone during the hours of darkness. If the truck had been traveling at a normal rate of speed we wouldn't have been to concerned, thinking it just might be someone trying to get a jump on the end of the morning curfew. However, this truck was traveling at a high rate of speed and didn't appear to be slowing for the gate that blocked the roadway just beneath the tower.

   The battalion intel reports were in the back of my mind and I realized that I had an immediate decision to make. To this day I can't say why, but I made the decision that morning to disregard the intel reports and to load the M79 with a star cluster flair round instead of a grenade round.

   I aimed and fired the flare right at the truck windshield. The round hit the hood of the truck and exploded showering it and the roadway in burning white clusters. The truck immediately slowed some but didn’t stop. PFC Bella aimed the M60 machine gun at the truck windshield ready to open fire at my command. I immediately reloaded and fired a second star cluster flare at the windshield. The second round landed in the road directly in front of the truck again showering it with burning clusters. This time the truck came to a screeching stop within yards of the gate.

   The male driver immediately got out of the cab and stood in front of the truck headlights. The two PF's in the gate bunker questioned him with their weapons aimed in his direction from the gun ports. The driver told them he was from Bien Hoa, was lost and had his two young children in the truck with him. One of the PF's looked in the truck and discovered that one of the children was burned on the arm from a flare cluster. Fortunately it was only a minor injury.

   Normal procedure dictates that anyone caught out during curfew hours was to be brought into the National Police Station in An Hoa Hung for questioning. The PF's closely examined his documents, searched his truck, and were satisfied he was not a Viet Cong. The P's then looked up at us in the tower and said that instead of detaining him they would provide directions to the nearest Vietnamese hospital. Since the PF's felt he was legitimate and given the fact his child was injured I concurred with their decision and the driver and his truck were released. If the truck had not stopped immediately after the second flare I wouldn't have hesitated to authorized PFC Bella to open fire on the truck cab with the M60 machine gun. They all would have died as a result of their fathers foolishness in trying to beat the curfew.

After the incident the PF's expressed their appreciation that I didn't use grenade rounds and that a near tragedy was avoided. The Journal of CPL Thomas T. Watson, B Company, 720th MP Battalion, 89th MP Group, 18th MP Brigade, March 1968 to March 1969.