The Lieutenant called me over to his track one afternoon in the middle of May of '68.  He told me to get an ambush ready for that night and to report back at 1800 for a map session and maybe a chopper ride to look things over from a distance.  We had the brief at his track, no chopper ride was needed.  We would break the perimeter around 2100 hours, bend around the southern edge of Hoc Mon, and set up outside a little no name hamlet.  I went back to my track and called the guys over.  We spent about a half an hour dividing up into the three three-man groups.  Bird wanted to walk point which put Whitey as the next most experienced guy walking trail.  I'd walk behind Bird with the RTO to make up the first three man team, Whitey had two riflemen as part of the trail team, and the team with the M-60 filled out the middle team.  Pretty standard stuff.  We went over the usual 'what ifs'; the newer guys always had questions or were too shy to ask, so Bird or Whitey would do an ask and answer thing.  Afterward, there was chow to eat, weapons to clean, magazines to load and check, and claymores, grenades, and ammo belts to share out so everybody was carrying roughly the same weight.  Then we waited for 2100.

 

     We set off on time, Bird was using the 'star light scope' for around 15 minutes before we left, slowly going back and forth, checking side to side, taking his time.  We moved out about 150 meters, our longest jump of the night.  Bird raised his hand in a 'stop' signal and we all got down while he scoped out the next jump.  Always careful, Bird checked out everything.  An hour out and about an hour short of our ambush site, I crawled up to Bird on one of his scoping stops and told him to sit tight, it was time for a SITREP.  I crawled back to my RTO and waited with the hand set glued to my ear, and watch in front of my eyes until, on the hour, the tracks and tanks reported in to the Lieutenant.  "Saber-Alpha two zero, this is Saber-Alpha two one, negative sitrep, over"  One by one, the vehicles checked in that the situation report was negative.  All was well.  After the vehicles, Two-zero called us.  "Saber Alpha Two Eight Yankee, this is Saber Alpha Two Zero, if you have a negative sitrep, break squelch twice, over"  I clicked my handset twice, listened while he confirmed, then crawled up to the Bird and told him it was alright to resume.  We leap-frogged in this manner until we were in starlight range of our objective, that's when the fun started.

 

     Ten minutes until check in time and Bird had already spent 15 minutes on the scope for this, our last jump.  I told the RTO to hold tight, pass back that same info to the rest of the squad, and crawled up to Bird.  I was a little annoyed but had to squeeze it out of my thoughts.  Can't blame a guy for being too careful, can you?  Bird felt me crawl up to his position, but used the scope for another minute or so, before whispering "there's two of them out in the open on this side of a screen of vegetation, and more on the other side".  My heart started to trip hammer as time slowed down.  I whispered to Bird to keep observing while I went back to report in.  I whispered even lower to the RTO, told him to pass it back, and told him to also pass back to Whitey to join on the RTO.  He whispered the info back, and returned to me just as the next sitrep radio calls started.  When I was called, I clicked the hand set only once.  Steve Alvarado was in the TC hatch on One-Zero and after confirming that all was not well, shook the lieutenant awake. 

 

     Whitey had reached my position by this time, I filled him in and ducked under a towel to whisper the info to Two-Zero.  I then asked Whitey to orient the squad onto what I thought was the axis of greatest danger.  The thing about an ambush like ours is that the safest spot to be in was the ambush site itself.  Nine men can't set a moving ambush at night. They just can't.   That's about the quickest way I know to get your people killed. Get yourself killed too!  Slowly, really slowly, I crawled back up to the Bird.  It didn't get any better.  He told me that 3 more were now on our side of the hedgerow and there were definitely more of them on the other side.  I crawled back, told Whitey the good news and ducked under the towel to talk to two-zero.  I told him what I knew and he said that the perimeter was completely silent and everyone was awake and ready to roll into Re-action whenever I felt we needed it. Always the best thing about the 3/4 Horse was the speed of reaction and overwhelming firepower.  What two-zero didn't have to say, was that the rest of the Troop was alert and standing to, Centaur ships were probably turning over engines back in Cu Chi, and the Colonel was probably already in hes chopper to ride out with our Gunships.  All of that is comforting to a point, but the first minute of a gunfight at night is the most critical. 

 

     The tight spring of fear wound another click into my belly as I once again crawled up to the Bird.  More of the same with movement back and forth over the hedgerow.  He said he was pretty confident they were getting ready to bed down.  Great I thought, they were going to rest up while we sat at the point of the lance, sweating bullets. Just great.

 

     Back under the towel, two-zero and I whisper back and forth, we decide that any step taken by any element will be initiated only by the two of us.  Our first step will be the squads proper deployment, followed by a start of engines back at the perimeter.  I sign off and come out from under the towel and repeat everything back to Whitey.  He tells me the squad is in the best position that he can figure out.  I tell him to stay with the RTO and crawl off to check on each man.  Everybody is tight, nervous, wide eyed.  I spend a minute or so with each man, tell them what we've got, tell them help is just seconds away if we need it.  I'm doing this hoping I'm not shaking as hard on the outside as I am on the inside.  Its around midnight now, we should have been in position an hour ago.  I crawl over to Whitey, tell him everyone looks good.  He gives me his most serene look, I've never seen Whitey scared, God I wish I had that kind of grit in me.  I crawl back up to the Bird.  He tells me only two of them are standing, the rest have bedded down for sure.  I crawl back to Whitey and the RTO.  Sweat is just pouring off me, my tongue so thick I can't spit.  Under the towel, two-zero and I agree on an engine start in five minutes.  Sometimes this will so alarm a small enemy unit near one of our laager that they will beat feet.  I send Whitey up to the Birds position to let him know whats going on.  He only gets around halfway back to me when we hear the diesels kick over in the distance.  It sounds too close, but is almost a mile off.  I'm under the towel again, two-zero wants to know if the noise had any effect on our friends.  I tell him I'll let him know, pull out from under the towel and I stunned to see Whitey strolling toward me.  He's standing in a half crouch instead of crawling, and my head reels.  Whitey gets to me and he actually chuckled, "You didn't know, did you?" he asked, speaking very low but no longer whispering.

 

     Two-zero agreed to scrub the ambush, he was embarrassed; I was embarrassed, the Captain was probably embarrassed.  We got back to our perimeter in less than an hour.  Whitey took the point and I made Bird walk the trail.  He wasn't embarrassed, no not him.  If anything his feelings were hurt, the poor thing.  Rough, tough, little Bird, scared to death of water buffalo.