To Hell And Back

Airpower at work !

That is a superb narrative on the history of the air war over Vietnam during the period of 1964 to 1972. As a young Lieutenant in the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division from 15
November 1967 to 15 November 1968, I experienced first hand the devastating affect of the VC and NVA forces against the innocent civilians of South Vietnam . I had to take Polaroid photos of 12 civilians who were killed by enemy forces as they retreated from Hue’ during the Tet Offensive of February 1968. I saw a little girl of maybe two years old with a bullet hole to the left of her nose, and I saw an infant boy in his mother’s arms with the top half of his head blown off with his blood and grey matter splattered over his mother’s face. Worst of all, I saw the body of a young woman with her arms tied behind her back using our WD1 commo wire, her bowels lying in a bloody pile in front of her belly. She was wearing black pj bottoms and a lon-sleeved blue blouse, and she was lying on her right side with her face pressed into the earth. There were other bodies, including that of an older ma, a “venerable “ or village elder, who was lying on his back partway under a bush. I couldn’t see any wounds on him.
The location of that incident was in the village of Than La Chu, about ten km west of Hue’. I have no idea who those people were or where they were from. Their identities were unknown to other people in the area. I’ve tried to research the identity of the young woman who was disemboweled by the VC, but have had no luck. The image of that incident is burned into my memory and I’ll never be able to erase it. I pray that my brothers and sisters here on RP never experience anything like that.