Night walk

[39mto39g]

Just about every Inf. unit had some kind of night patrol/ambush thing going on outside a base camp/firebase.
I can remember going out on a night Patrol. I thought to myself, this can't be good, I gess they got the idea from the NVA cause thats what they did,
We were walking some jungle/wooded area at night, 5 or 6 of us, Now it was so dark we could hardly see each other directly in front of us, If one guy would have fell off a cliff the rest would have fallowed. We were to walk 1 mile out and turn for 1/2 mile then turn and walk back, We didn't even make it the first mile before dawn.
That was right up there with the dumbest things the Army did.
Did you know that 2,000 steps, in the woods, is close to a mile.

Ron

Didn't count the steps Ron, I just wanted the damn Patrol Over. Wasn't to found of day time patrols, and sure as heck didn't look forward to my turn on the night ones. Your right though it would get so dark you could barely make out the guy in front of you.

[39mto39g]

Night patrol that is, Once with 5 or 6 guys and once with a platoon. The platoon one was truely a dumb thing, Guys falling down, tripping, cussing, clanking stuff, talking, I felt like turning around and yelling, SHUT UP.

Ron

[82Rigger]

Ron,

Yeppers! A mile is 1,760 yards so if your step (pace) is a little shy of one yard...and most folks' is....then 2000 paces to the mile is real close!

[DMZ-LT]

sop was EVERY night I put out a 3-6 man ambush on the most likley enemy avenue of approach . Worked a couple of times.

[rotorwash]

We worked with the Marines for a short while and were continually pulling casualties out of one company. We had the occasion to land at their CP and shut down for a while. My AC, who had been in the Cav in a previous life chatted with a platoon leader for a while. When we took off, he told us what he had found out. The Marine company had been in this same location for over a week. Every night they sent out ambushes and every morning their ambushes came back, regular as clockwork. And every day they took casualties coming back from the ambushes. Let's see. Ambush patrols going out same time every day, same trails, back in at the same time on the same trails. I felt sorry for some Marines, individually they were great guys, but I wasn't impressed with the leadership in this unit.

Rotorwash

[Bill Farnie]

Whether it was going on LP or a night ambush, I hated moving at night. The scariest thing we did at night, for me, was our whole company leaving our NDP and humping to a LZ to do a night CA, as the RRF, into FSB Currahee while it was under attack.
Right before I left my company to DEROS we were training for night operations in squad size units. They gave us a small strip of reflective tape to put on the back of our steel pots. Good idea in theory, but the reality was you couldn?t see six inches in front of you anyway because it was so dark in the triple canopy jungle. I?m glad I left the field before the company actually started these night patrols.

[exlrrp]

I Don't seem to remember much night patrolling in the 101st. We NEVER moved at night in the lrrps unless it was absolute Alamo.THe one I remember, as a cherry, my platoon got ambushed on the way to help another platoon that was catching toco. THis was in DUC Pho, Ron. Pighumper was there too, this was his first action.
We got it crossing a paddy, taking fire from a treeline bout 50 yds away.. The gunboats were already there because of the other platoon.
I'm lying behind a paddy and the word comes: WE're charging the treeline after the gunships are done.
The gunboats were going right over the top of us--we'd get a shower of brass everytime.
IT was dark but we were getting illumination. I was lying in a muddy ditch thinking:"Oh wow, I'm going to charge a treeline!" It didn't look near as much fun as I hoped itt was going to.
The spade dude next too me pulls out a reefer and waggles his eyes at me. What the fuck, I think, I"M going to be dead in a few minutes anyway.
Toked off the reefer but not sure it did much good (THIs was not my first time) Lying on my back in a muddy ditch watching the light show above me, thinking boy is this where it ends?
but I got out of that ditch and ran into the tree line quick enough. Didn't bother me in combat at all. THAt was the only time I tried it in combat. I"d much rather have a couple nips JACk Danny, its fighting stuff.
BUT you take what you get when youre looking at the end.
Hope this didn't lose the war, I know you other guys tried hard.
Stay good
James

[Beldan]

Night patrols were ornery duty . Stay off the skyline, stay the hell off paths and roads , stop, listen and look a lot . Our own H & I plus those recon planes dropping flares before they photographed could leave us exposed.

[Beldan]

I have noted a certain amount inter-service rivalry around here. Some people are better in the bush than others. But we were constantly learning . One of the guys had a subscription to the Army Infantry Journal which taught us a great deal . We kept an open mind .