Yesterday morning involved meandering through Hue’s
“The Forbidden City”, which was a short walk from the hotel. I had been there on
the 2010 and 2011 trips, but their continual restoration leaves it always “new
and improved”. With 95F temps and
saturating humidity, it was a real sweatfest. I ended up leaving about noon,
while Danny stayed to watch birds. Around 1700 hrs, Khanh and I jumped on his
bike for a ride to the train station to secure tickets for today’s trip
north. That evening we enjoyed lunch with
Khnah.
Nhi Ha looms. In 2011, with the help of Thong,
I found the location of my hastily-constructed bunker…would had been built May
5, I think. After several days of
assaulting the NVA entrenchments, bolstered by steady artillery fire and
strategic air strikes, we finally had “taken” the enemy’s position. In reality,
to no surprise to me, they had withdrawn during the night to a new
position….waiting on our arrival. On May 6 we accommodated Captain Tha and his men, who were the victors
that day. But, we had dug holes, built
bunkers, and connected them with a trenchline. Now it’s the enemy’s turn to go
on the offensive. They did so in multiple night attacks in an attempt to knock us,
3/21 196th Light Infantry Brigade, out of the picture. Their
assaults were large-scale and aggressive. However, the NVA took heavy, heavy
losses. The area was littered with dead, the stench of which filled the air.
Such was Nhi Ha.
Anyway, as mentioned, I had found my old bunker
position, but not the location of the May 6 battle with Captain Tha’s unit of
300. Of course, I had a pretty good idea
as to where it was, but didn’t make an effort to pinpoint its exactness. We
hadn’t walked too far north from our bunker perimeter on May 6 when all hell
broke loose. However, now that the Vietnamese have built a monument to that
particular day’s engagement on-site, the uncertainty is erased. Standing at that
spot, it will impossible not to recall the gripping horror of that day and the
recovery of our decomposing KIA comrades two days later. The memory forever endures.
Danny and I are on a train destined to Dong Ha,
the site of a large Marine base during the war. It was there that we landed May
1 to jump into the fray. May 2 brought heavy 3/21 losses. It was to be a grueling, gut-gripped couple of
weeks. Anyway, we’re on our way.
To be continued……Neil
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