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At night we went out and sat
in ambush along trails and roads in the area where the enemy was suspected
of being. The location of my first night on ambush is seen in this photo.
We set up in the elephant grass along the small road between our hill top
and the Razorback. I was shown the
radio (a PRC-25), and given instructions on standing radio watch. Even
though my squad leader said it was "OK to sleep" as long as you
were not on watch, I didn't get much sleep that first night. I took my turn
on radio watch with the radiomen and squad leaders, and slept the rest of
the night. On ambush we were required to maintain radio silence, but
periodically we would get a status call from the Command Post as follows:
Radio watch
Every night the ambush site
was changed. Relatively few have experienced the cold, wet nights of
January and February in the highlands of Vietnam. The cold is intensified
when you are soaking wet and not able to move about. We had no field
jackets, so I wrote home and had several sweatshirts sent in a care
package, which I wore in layers.
The next several weeks were
spent alternating between ambushes at night and patrols during the day. It
would take most of the day to patrol through the jungle at the base of the
Razorback.
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