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| ALL ALONE IN INDIAN COUNTRY |
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| By Tim Duffie, CAC/CAP Marine |
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| ALL ALONE IN INDIAN COUNTRY That was how we described it when we talked among ourselves in 1967. While not politically correct in the 1990's, it summarized how 5,000 select Marines and Navy Corpsman felt as they stood for the first time in an isolated Vietnamese village, surrounded by jungle, terrifying booby-traps, and thousands of supposedly hostile Vietnamese civilians. They were part of the Marine Corps' COMBINED ACTION PROGRAM, a program that placed a squad of Marines and one Navy Corpsman in select villages across I-Corps area of South Vietnam. Images of fanatical Viet Cong pouring out of the jungles and rice paddies hovered in the minds of each of the Marines who hunkered down for their first night of sleep in such a hostile territory. That first night, each new Marine or Corpsman counted the friendly faces of as few as 14 Americans, then looked with mixed emotions at a poorly equipped platoon of Vietnamese Popular forces. A PF platoon made up of Vietnamese boys, usually. Some as young as 14 or 15 years old. Each Marine and/or Corpsman certainly pondered the distance to the nearest American military base. Each calculated how long it would take for help to arrive. Each knew that, when needed, help could not possibly arrive in time. Tim D. As I read what Tim wrote. It sends chills across my skin. For the truth was never so well spoken here. What amazes me the most about what he has said. Is that all of us, somehow, managed to throw those thoughts out of our heads. Soon, we'd walk about throughout the area. I think in time, in our minds,we had made this our home also. So we'd defend her to the death if necessary. I often said. We fit the description...Sitting ducks! Surely, for many of us who are alive and can talk about it. Powerful forces were watching over us. For those whose names grace a granite wall in Wash. DC., you will never be forgotton as long as I am alive! -Tom F. No man is a Hero, because he is valid to himself! To obtain a copy of "A Voice of Hope" 184p.p. ISBN# 1-56167-133-9 Send $6.99 to the address below. Price includes shipping & handling. |
| Port Richey, | Florida | 34668 |
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