Chapter Three
Excerpt from the book
In Country: Da Nang
The 1st Regiment of the Marines in 1966 were stationed in I Corps, the northeastern part of South Vietnam. Pronounced "eye" corps, the area comprised the five northern-most provinces and contained the port city of Da Nang, just south of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) at the 17th parallel. Fighting had been heavy in that zone throughout the year, and in October, U.S. Army combats units were introduced to provide reinforcement. The enemy had more than doubled in size, from 23 battalions in midsummer to 52 by the end of the year. During this era, refugees swarmed into Da Nang from the embattled countryside. Tommy J.'s first encounter with its population would be in the form of children, who begged for (and were given!) his dinner before he could eat it.
The next encounters he would have were not so innocent. The area surrounding Da Nang was heavily infested with Viet Cong, who were conducting a form of combat almost unheard of at that time. Prior to the war in Vietnam, American soldiers fought in an orderly manner, on battlefields, and in rows of troops. That was how it had been done in World War II and in every other war prior to that. But in Vietnam, everything changed.
Guerrilla warfare against American troops used three main tools: ambush, sabotage, and espionage. The jungle and mountain terrain in Vietnam facilitated this approach, making hiding and ambushes easier. Sympathetic villagers hid and protected the Viet Cong, allowing them to set mines and hide rice caches and weapons nearby which were the life blood of the guerrilla fighters. Battles were almost always sudden and unexpected. The North Vietnamese objective was to destabilize American troops through extensive, low-intensity confrontations-to tie them up in unexpected battles for no real reason-a tactic that lowered morale, caused psychological terror, and gave the NY A the upper hand.
Finding the enemy was one of the biggest challenges to the American forces. The Viet Cong had created extremely complex and intricate tunnel systems over vast regions of South Vietnam, built over a period of 25 years, beginning in the 1940s when they fought the French and Japanese. The tunnels allowed the Viet Cong to control a large rural area, and formed an underground city with living area, kitchens, storage, weapon factories, hospitals, and command centers. They could be several stories deep and house up to 10,000 people.