I was on a S&D with the RFs. We were moving along a heavily vegetated canal with open rice paddies to our flanks. The VC were waiting for us and we got into a sharp firefight. It was head-on and we could not maneuver against them because of the paddies. To our front, a small finger of vegetation stuck out from Charlie's positions, so we decided to assault it in an attempt to flank them.
As the assault squad moved in the open towards the tree line of the finger, an RPD opened fire on them. Our troops went down like they had been cut with a scyth. Geez, what a terrible sight. What the heck will we do now, I thought.
About a minute later, much to my surprise, the entire "dead" squad arose and ran back to the jump off point. It seems that the VC machinegunner had merely fired over their heads to warn them off. Brother vs. brother? It was a strange occurrance, but shows that compassion can exist on the battlefield.
Note: by Don Steiner
Comments
Stranger things happened in the bush but what got me was the fact that the local's we had as scouts etc never worked after 4-5pm.
When that time came they were done for the day..patrol or no patrol.
Roy Branch
deltamedic
This was circa 1968-1969. Over-all, in RVN, the RFs amounted to only about 5% of SVNs fighting force, yet accounted for about 25% of the casualties inflicted on the VC and NVA.
Needless to say, I am proud to have been associated with both the US 2/28 Infantry and RF Mobile Group 61.
I still remember the time we were taking an ice cold shower. Incoming started, and before we could get out of the shower tent. The shower tent was burning all aroundy around us, and we stopped and said WTF, and ran out.
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