1st Battalion 22nd Infantry Kuhn's Story Page 2

1st Battalion 22nd Infantry

THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS
May 1971

The Central Highlands, II Corps, Republic of Vietnam

The area that we were working in around An Khe is called the central highlands. It is a mountainous rain forest
with rough terrain. I took the above picture from a helicopter on one of our trips to or from the field.
The tracks could only take us out so far then the rest of the way is on foot. We “humped” up and down those
mountains the whole time we were out in the field. This is where I learned that you don’t just walk through the jungle;
you cut your way through with a machete’. We rarely walked on any trails because it was just too dangerous.
The risk of being ambushed or of hitting booby traps wasn’t worth it. So more often than not we hacked our way
through the vines and the bamboo. It was physically exhausting and the point man was rotated frequently as was
the point squad. As the new guy, I got a turn to walk point more than I cared to. Infantry men are called “grunts”.
They say the term comes from the sounds that a soldier makes when humping that heavy rucksack.
It must’ve weighed about 80 lbs but it felt like 300. The weather was EXTREMELY hot and humid and we sweated profusely.

We had to drink our water sparingly since we never drank any water other than what we carried with us.
Most guys carried at least 4 canteens (4 quarts) which is not a lot since we were only re-supplied every 4 days.
Every night just before dark, the CO would pick out a location for us to set up a night time perimeter. It always felt good
to stop and take off the rucksack and sit and rest for a little while. We spread out and formed a big circle
where we would then set up our little tents that we made out of rain ponchos. We snapped together a couple of ponchos
and draped them over a tree branch or a rope and that is what we slept in. After setting up our tents we set out
trip flares and claymore mines in front of each position. There were 2 or 3 guys per tent. Only two guys would really fit
in the tent, but one had to be stay awake and sit up outside each tent at all times while the other guy slept with his rifle.
We took shifts guarding the perimeter. We alternated 2 hour shifts taking turns guarding and sleeping.
It gets so dark in the jungle at night that you literally cannot see your hand in front of your face. So you just sat there and listened.
Fortunately the first week was uneventful as far as enemy contact goes, which was fine with me.

Poncho Tents
Source: http://1-22infantry.org/pics/belispageone.htm

Our 2nd week in the field seemed even harder than the first since it rained a lot. I remember being wet 24 hours a day
for days at a time. We humped up and down more hard steep mountains even steeper than last week.
I hated sleeping in wet clothes. One day we came across a small grass hut village. I couldn’t believe that people actually
lived out there! The hooch’s were made of bamboo and thatch. They were well built and up off the ground.
I don’t know if they were Montagnard’s or VC hoochs. There were no people around. I guess they had all disappeared
into the jungle. After checking for booby traps we took whatever belongings the people had left behind and sent them back
on the re-supply chopper for the intelligence personnel to look at. They guys wanted to burn the grass hoochs
but the LT (lieutenant) said no. As we left the village I looked back and saw some of the
huts on fire with huge flames and lots of smoke.

Maybe they were VC (VietCong) hooch’s because that very night Charlie (VC enemy) tried to get into our perimeter
at my guard station. It was my turn to sit out in front of the tent that I shared with Chief that night. I liked Chief.
He was a Native American Indian. I don’t know his real name but he had been in country a long time and I was
the new guy in the unit. He taught me a lot out there that first month in the field. In front of each position we always set up
claymore mines and trip flares because you can’t see anything in the jungle at night. Especially when there is no moonlight it is
absolute blackness. You try to get your eyes to adjust but there is no light to adjust to at all. Then your mind starts playing tricks,
making you think you are seeing things. You listen carefully and your senses seem to become heightened or enhanced out there in the dark.
It was scary!

Suddenly there was a really bright flash of light directly out in front of me and I could clearly hear the sound of someone running.
My trip flare had been tripped. The area was lit up as the flare burned brightly. My training kicked in and I instinctively knew
I had to blow my claymore mine. This was my first contact and I was scared. EXTREMELY scared! I remembered
in training that they told us to take cover before blowing your claymore mines because Charlie can sneak up in the darkness
and turn them around facing you causing you to blow yourself up! While I was lying down to fire the claymore my hands
were shaking so bad that I could hardly hold the clacker. I was so scared that I accidentally pulled the wire
out of the clacker and had to fumble around to put it back in. Finally I squeezed the clacker and the explosion was so loud!

I was trying to see who was out there when Chief came scrambling out of the tent shooting, firing his M-16 into the jungle.
I didn’t see anything. I felt so incompetent and green and started blindly firing as well, following Chief’s lead.
We stopped shooting after just a few minutes and laid there listening. The radio was chattering wanting to know
what was happening. All was quiet then and the Sarge and the LT came over to see what had happened.
" Get a body count in the morning! “

I didn’t sleep the rest of the night. The next thing that I was afraid of was going out there in the morning and finding
a body or bodies. I didn’t want to deal with that. I didn’t want to see it. The next morning while rolling up my claymore wire,
I searched the area, but not too hard though. I reported back that there was nothing there, there was no body.
Chief did ask me later though why I wasn’t firing before he came out of the tent. I told him it was because I didn’t see anyone.
He said “You never see them. If you ever hear or even suspect movement out there, KILL EM!
Then we will figure out who or what it was. Never hesitate!”
We packed up and started out on patrol again just like any other
day, except today everyone was highly alert.
Now we knew for sure Charlie was out there somewhere.

CLAYMORE MINE

A week later I was glad to get back to the firebase. The exhaustion I felt was EXTREME. The physical hard labor
of working the field and being wet all the time, the psychological stress of constantly being alert and aware
that we could be hit at any time out there, and those 2 hour sleeping shifts night after night do catch up with you after while.
The picture below is blurry but I think you can see how tired I was as I just collapsed the moment we were inside the firebase
perimeter. I was filthy dirty, tired and needed a shave. I sure looked and felt like a “grunt”

Exhausted

The fire base was nothing but a barren dirty mud hole for the most part. But they had lots of big guns and tanks and it just
felt safer to be there. They gave us a day off and we spent most of the time sleeping on cots in big tents. It felt good to
be up off the wet ground and on a dry cot. The rest of the week we went out on occasional day patrols or night ambushes
from the firebase but we didn’t go out very far or search very hard. Everyone was anxious to get back to Tuy Hoa.
You would have thought we were going home.

Resting and playing cards on our day off in the tent

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