Spectral sentry

[revwardoc]

This is a story I read about a Marine (James E Gentry) who served in 'Nam in 1965 with the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division at Chu Lai. He said that, as part of Operation Allegheny, his unit had moved into an old abandoned French fort to await orders and replacement.

During the first night, one of their sentries was killed by a knife wound to the throat. The fort still had its full complement of sturdy walls and no one could figure out how an enemy soldier got inside.

On the 2nd night, Gentry was on guard when he suddenly saw a man casually standing with his back to the wall inside the compound. He was dressed in what appeared to be a foreign jungle uniform that had a white diamond insignia patch on the sleeve. Gentry was just about to issue a challenge when the guy pointed to the wall beside Gentry. The Marine looked over and a stone began to moveforward and a VC, knife in hand,started to crawl out. Gentry shot him, then emptied his clip into the opening in the wall. When he looked up, the soldier who had pointed was gone.

They explored the tunnel the next day and found it to be several hundred yards long with the entrance out of sight of the fort.

Gentry went home in November of '66 and, several years later, started doing some research on French units that had served there. During the search he found that all the French Foreign Legion soldiers wore a white diamond patch, but the Legion had been thrown out of Vietnam by late 1954. So who was the Legionaire in 1965?:cd:

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Have any of you heard of such stories or do you have a ghost story to share?