steps, then listen and scan the ground, the flanks, and couple of sights with the compass and confirm our posithe trees for anything out of the ordinary. Move a few tion. We called in the co-ordinates of the base camp
steps, look and listen.
and requested an artillery fire mission for just before
We moved about 2,000 meters and gained dark when we would be out of the area.
about 1,500 feet in elevation the first day and found a
sheltered thicket to spend the night. We were now in
our Recon Zone and could begin searching in earnest
for evidence that NVA had been through the area. Our
briefing two days before had reported the presence of
an enemy regiment somewhere in this area, and it was
our job to find them.
We moved about 1,000 meters north and
found a harbor site just as the cannon-cockers fired the
mission on the base camp. There were probably some
irate NVA back there.
At first light we continued through our RZ, not
finding any fresh sign. We were moving north and west
in the direction of Camp Rock Pile, knowing the mission would end the next day. Chester signaled for us to
stop and waved me forward. He had found a small trail
that had recently been used by a few men. The men
were moving north and were probably in an OP watching Camp Rock Pile. We knew there were NVA all
around us but not where or how many.
Before noon of the third day we found a small
recently-used trail and Chester soon found a spot where
we could observe the trail without being seen. We
watched three groups of four to ten men moving east
along the trail. We decided to follow the trail a bit and
see where they were headed. We never used trails because many of them were booby trapped. Plus, we
We continued moving north and west and had
could easily bump into NVA coming the other way. traveled nearly 500 meters placing us near the crest
Instead, we moved parallel to the trail, silently moving above Camp Rock Pile. The jungle had become quiet,
between trees and brush and rocks.
which usually indicated the presence of humans altWe followed the trail about 1,000 meters and hough our slow movement and lack of noise seldom
stopped when Chester heard voices. We found a de- alarmed the local fauna. The terrain had steepened and
cent observation post above the voices where we could we had to ensure each step we made was stable before
see a little piece of the trail. It sounded like a base we placed weight on that leg. We entered a flat area
camp below us. Sounds of laughter and wood being with little ground vegetation and a ten-foot high rock
chopped for cooking fires indicated that our presence outcrop to the right. Chester stopped to scan the area
wasn’t known. We watched four more small groups and decided it was safe. He moved along the base of
moving east along the trail, all carrying AK-47 rifles the outcrop to where the foliage began to thicken.
over their shoulders.
Once we entered the thicker brush we
It was miserably hot, what we called the 99s–99
degrees and 9