Cambodians with SF in RVN

[00Z5S]

SuperScout posted in a different thread: "And what were Cambodians doing in Vietnam? The Khmer and the Annamese are bitter, long-time enemies. How did you communicate with them? Possibly in French, or do you speak Cambodge?"

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Well Mr. SuperScout...... Lemmie say this about that. I didn't speak Cambodian but I surely did have two companies of Cambode CIDG at ODA-322 at Katum that I worked with on a daily basis for almost eleven months. We had 5 CIDG companies. Three of them were Saigon Cowboys and were totally useless and a big waste of oxygen. One of those VN companies was so prone to run off at the sound of a gunshot that they were nicknamed The Camptown Racers. My radio toter, the other USSF'er, the interpreter, and I walked back to Katum in the dark several times after they had fled. The Cambodians were totally different. I'd go anywhere with either of those two companies.

We did in fact keep our Cambodes and VN separated. A-322 was one of the "5-pointed star" camps with each of the five starpoints separated from the others. The Cambodes were in the two most vulnerable starpoints with the VN's in the other three. Most of the Viets would not even consider walking into one of the Cambode areas but one would make a mistake every once in a while and would pay the price for having done so.

There were also two Cambodian companies at our sister camp next door to the west, A-323 at Thien Ngon along with their 3 companies of VN.

We had Cambodians because there were no Montagnards in northernmost Tay Ninh Province where we were. Most of the camps further up in III Corps and the ones in II Corps had 'Yards and not Cambodians. Rob't P, "The Kid", may comment about Cambodes or no Cambodes at A-344. I dunno what they had for CIDG. There were great gobs and bunches of Cambodians about 6 clicks north'ards of Katum. They were, however, across the border over in Cambodia where we were not "supposed" to go. We also were "not supposed" to shoot 105mm howitzers across the border at COSVN but you know how that is .

I would dearly love to know how many of our Cambodian CIDG survived the new government once we were pulled out and left them in the lurch. If they went back across the border to Cambodia to that new government, I don't think they had a prayer of staying alive.

RTManning
Williamston, NC (and not that town by the same name in "Lower Carolina")