The Cambodia insertion that never happened | Eastern North Carolina Now

My memory is cloudy on this exact dates but sometime around March or April 1968 we made an incursion into Cambodia.

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   This is an excerpt of my Vietnam diaries, which I am writing just for a historical family record. Some have asked why anyone would dig up the old memories and the answer is, you don't dig them up. They are there 24/7/365. Both the good and bad memories are just as vivid for many veterans as the day they happened. One thing is for sure, ignoring the memories is not a prescription for peace of mind nor is it possible to do so. Since I am lucky enough to have survived and now have the perspective of age, I wanted to document some of the stories for the family history. Occasionally, I feel some of them would be of some interest to the readers. Here is one. Bobby Tony RVN 1968 -Click to Enlarge picture.

    During most of my tour in Vietnam, I only had a passing knowledge of the specific battle plan. As a new replacement infantry grunt, there was no need to brief me or others on the minute details of a battle plan. We just boarded the helicopters after a short briefing and followed orders. At best, I had a general knowledge of where we were and what the broad parameters of the plan was. Most of the time we just were inserted into an area and performed cloverleaf operations of Search and Destroy. Huey's would then pick us up and move over to a new area to repeat the procedure. S&D missions are designed to flush out the enemy and start a fight. During and after the 1968 Tet Offensive flushing out the enemy was not hard to do. They were everywhere.

    My memory is cloudy on the exact date but sometime around March or April 1968 we made several incursion into Cambodia. I know this because of simple math. The UH1 Huey Specifications list a TOP speed of 130 MPH. We boarded Huey's just outside of Tay Ninh and flew due west. According to Google Earth, the Cambodian border is 16 miles due west of Tay Ninh. Flying by helicopter due west from Tay Ninh for 30-45 minutes had to put us in Cambodia if you assume cruising speed well below top speed with full load. Maybe Alex O can correct me if I am wrong on the Huey UH1 cruising speed, etc.

   With all due respect, to Albert Einstein, and his theory of special relativity, I can confirm his formulas. As a result, he found that space and time were interwoven into a single continuum known as space-time. Events that occur at the same time for one observer could occur at different times for another.

   The longest hour you will ever experience is the 30 minutes on board a Huey waiting for insertion into a Landing Zone and the 30 minutes you spend on the ground waiting for the Wop Wop sound of Huey's coming to extract you from a landing zone. That is when your fear is the highest level of anticipation. Time is indeed relative depending on the space you occupy.  (Theory of Relativity) .

    In 40 minutes we would have at least flown 60 miles which would put us directly in Cambodia. When we landed one of the guys remarked, "What mechanized unit are we working with today?" when he saw the tracks on the ground. The answer came back: "We are not working with a Mech unit." That increased the Pucker Factor factor of 20 plus on a scale of 1 to 10. Having seen the damage that tanks and APC can do with their 50 caliber turret mounted guns is enough to wake up even the most clueless of FNGs.

    Fortunately the mission was not a search and destroy but mainly a Reconnaissance-in-force (RIF) mission to determine the damage from B52 strikes. We inserted and extracted without incident but it was an intense time for the grunts of the 25th Infantry Division. My subsequent research has found evidence that we actually used B52 attacks in Cambodia in 1968 during my tour. ( US Secret War in Cambodia) . I do know for a personal fact that we did use them in Vietnam as I remember the ground shuddering and thunderous noise as well as seeing the high altitude light trails of squadrons of B52's overhead. Allowing for a somewhat faulty and exaggerated memory, I can only attest to the personal experiences of a lowly grunt that could read a compass and had a wristwatch. I did find some reference to the incursion, which indicates that my memory, though it may be embellished, was somewhat accurate.

        To accomplish this, President Lyndon B. Johnson authorized covert cross-border reconnaissance operations conducted by the secret Studies and Observations Group in order to gather intelligence on PAVN/NLF activities in the border regions (Project Vesuvius).


    Later in May of 1970 the USA invaded the area. (1970 Cambodian Incursion) I have since lost my absolute blind faith in my government always telling the truth. To be clear, I do not see this as a fundamental flaw in our government, but as a sign of an ember of maturity on my part. Everything in life is based on a "need to know" basis and anyone who demands complete and utter transparency is naive and delusional. Our current President and his administration has taken the "need to know" to heights never imagined by Nixon and his cronies. Since that time, I have never subscribed to the "my country right or wrong" philosophy but have until recently given our leaders the benefit of doubt. Below is a map from Wikipedia that describes the 1970 mission. I have labeled it Déjà vu. because it looks eerily familiar. Click here for enlarged version of the map.

    Below is a map from Google earth with annotations by me which illustrate the AO (area of operations) of the 25th Infantry Division during my year in RVN. The Circle is a 30 mile radius and we often worked the area between the Parrot's Beak and the Fishhook which is noted on the map. Our AO also covered the area to the NE of Saigon. That is one of the wonderful things about the UH1 Huey helicopter. It expands the area that an infantry unit can cover.

2016 Map from Google Earth with annotations by Bobby Tony

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( July 4th, 2016 @ 8:19 am )
 
Our squadron lost pilots over Laos. Duke U. Study of Lies should include the Military Industrial Complex.



A renewed appreciation for living in the USA Vietnam War, War, Small History, In the Past, Body & Soul It's So Sad To Lose Old Friends.


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