Two or three times a week I had to go into Di An, the base camp for the Big Red One...1st Infantry Division. There were two ways to get into Di An, both of them were scary. The old Hwy 1 ran north out of Saigon into Bien Hoa, it was in poor repair and crowded and had little military traffic on it. Hwy 1A was newer, better repaired, more traffic, more military traffic, and fewer VC incidents...but it ran parallel to Hwy 1two to three miles east of the old Hwy and didn't go past Di An.
There was another old hiway that sort of paralleled 1 and 1A...Hwy 13. Really bad choice. Firmly in injun territory, rutted and dipped, muddy in rainy season with dips that filled with water so deep it would run in over the sides of the jeep's footwells. I didn't like the dips cause I like to see what I am driving over and you can't see through muddy water. A fear of things that go boom in the night...or day.
Having said all that, what would make a person choose 13 over 1? The plantation. Turning off of Hwy 1 to get into the base camp, you had to drive for a few miles through the rubber plantation. This was a seriously scary place. In the hottest weather it was 10 to 20 degrees cooler but steamy...dark in mid day...thousands of rubber trees and no ground cover...a thoroughly spooky place. And the V C loved it. I didn't.
But the rules of Roger's Rangers dictated that you change up your routes and times...don't get predictable...so as often as not, I would go into Di An from 13. I was supposed to take a shotgun rider with me whenever I was off the main route, 1A, but there was rarely anyone available when I needed to go and leaving too late meant returning after dark...no thanx.
So on this particular day, I opted for the Hwy 1 route and the pleasant drive through the rubber trees. As soon as I turned off of Hwy 1 I started having those prickly feelings on the back of my neck. I had learned to trust those feelings and got real alert. I saw several people moving from tree to tree like drifting shadows. There was about twenty of them and they were good...but I was in a jeep and I was faster. By the time I got to the gate at Big Red One's camp, I was thoroughly spooked. I got to the gate going a little faster than was normal. I explained to the gate guards what I had seen in the plantation. They got a good laugh out of the "Saigon Warrior" being afraid of shadows. (You gotta know that "REMFs" get no respect from the grunt classes...refer to earlier thread at LW"s house). I got mad but it didn't give me any more credence. They told me the plantation was always alive with Charlie. I didn't tell them that I came in and out of there on a regular basis and was pretty familiar with activity around their home...which THEY couldn't leave without and armed escort...I just got teenaged embarassed and mad and went on in to conduct my business.
I only had to be there for about a half hour, did my business and started back out. I was already thinking that the back road was probably a safer bet...getting to the gate behind the pass bus to Bien Hoa and Long Binh cinched it for me...no way I was gonna follow that lumbering, smoking slow poke down the plantation road...they turned left, I turned right. I got back to Gia Dinh (my home base on the outskirts of Saigon) before dusk. My boss was glad to see me...for a change...because he had heard from our switchboard in Bien Hoa that the 1st Infantry pass bus had been ambushed in the rubber plantation...not sure how many dead but it wasn't pretty. The pass bus was a regular 51 passenger bus that had heavy screens welded over the windows to keep grenades out...unfortunately it kept the soldiers in, too. I wanted to drive right back to the Di An main gate and get into the faces of those laughing guards...but it was dark, I was scared of the dark, and I would have undoubtedly gotten my narrow butt handed to me, anyway...but I just wish...you know...I just wish they had listened to me."