The Ambush at Nhon-Nhin-Three

Good morning and Happy 4th of July!

Note to my readers. Sometimes a good story just doesn’t seem to fit in a novel. It either adds to many pages to a chapter or requires the reader to shift gears to understand the placement of the story. This happened to be one of those forgotten stories. I am posting this Short Story in two parts. On Wednesday I’ll post the ending. I hope that you’ll enjoy this story and stay tuned for its conclusion. Regards

It was one of those sticky and miserable nights in that unpredictable period at the beginning of the monsoon season in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam. It had begun to rain at about 1900 hrs., but not in earnest. It was a wet and miserable few hours as they stealthily moved into their ambush position outside the small hamlet of Nhon-Nhin-Three and established their fighting locations along the berm of the Grand Canal.

The rain aided in covering their covert movement into their positions and their defensive site preparations. It temporarily kept the pesky mosquitoes at bay. Some of the villagers were safely ensconced in their thatched roof huts preparing for another night. The distinct pungent aroma of the local fish sauce wafted in the heavy mist towards the platoon of South Vietnamese soldiers and their two American advisors.

Second Lieutenant Paul Tyler, ‘Mr. Slim’, his Vietnamese interpreter and Sergeant First Class Bob Bennet centered themselves on their ambush position. Next to Lieutenant Tyler lay Trung úy (First Lieutenant) Suan, his Vietnamese counterpart, commanding the twenty-two-man platoon that he had meticulously placed in their positions covering the trail across the canal.

Their mission tonight was to interdict the movements of a very important cell of communist cadre that were reportedly moving through their province and trying to infiltrate deep into the Delta to link up with their comrades.

Across the canal from their position, they could hear the half-hearted cheers and applause that the villagers were giving the fourteen men who were holding a forced political meeting in the village. They were touting the invincibility of the Việt Cộng, and their ability to drive out the Americans and their puppet government in Saigon.

Ông (Mister) Day, the old alcoholic village chief, had been ordered to assemble all of the adult villagers in the rice mill, the largest building in the small village, to listen to the communist officials. It was to be their honor for them to meet Ông Chin Van Mein the Communist Party’s financial committee chairman for the entire Mekong Delta and his esteemed associates and their guards. The villagers were being forced to listen to a long-winded speech regarding the sanctity of the patriotic struggle and pledge their undying, if half-hearted, loyalty to the cause.

As Ông Chin spoke the unenthusiastic villagers were required by his armed guards to acknowledge his remarks with a patriotic show of cheers and applause. This ovation could be heard by the Americans and Vietnamese waiting across the canal to pounce on this cell and kill or hopefully capture them.

SFC Bennet, a battle hardened three-tour veteran of the fighting in South Vietnam, watched the events in the village using a new device that they had acquired, a night vision device nicknamed ‘Starlight’. The devise reminded him of a large telescope that he had bought for his ten-year old son at the PX at Fort Benning before returning to Vietnam. Bennet relayed his observations to his officer, twenty-year-old Second Lieutenant Paul Tyler.  ‘Mr. Slim’ their trusted interpreter translated what he was hearing in the village for the Americans. He also relayed Bennet’s visual observations to Trung úy Suan, commanding the Vietnamese soldiers.

“Well, Sir,” asked Bennet, “What do you think, will we initiate the ambush soon or should we wait?”

About the time Bennet finished his question a torrential downpour of monsoonal proportions began. There was no way that anything was going to move until the storm subsided. As they watched they saw a large number of villagers quickly leave the meeting and race to their hooch’s to get out of the elements. However, Bennet also reported that he could see that a large number of the villagers were being held against their will inside the rice mill. This included men, women, and their children. Mr. Slim reported that he could hear the old village chief, Ông Day, protesting his forced detention. He yelled that he needed a drink!

Trung úy Suan’s men as well as the two Americans covered themselves with their ponchos and tried, unsuccessfully, to remain as dry as possible. Within a matter of a few minutes they were drenched, first from the torrential rain, and then from their own sweat from inside the heavy plastic poncho. At least the rain was warm, but it added to their discomfort as they lay in positions now covered by the dank delta mud that oozed and seeped into their foxholes.

As quickly as the rain had begun it suddenly stopped! The moon and stars appeared overhead, and the mosquitoes returned with a fury as they sought out new blood doners.

The soldiers in the ambush positions came out from under their ponchos and the villagers resumed their normal activity. All they could do at this point was wait and see what would occur in the village. Would Ông Chin and his men leave the village in peace and continue their journey, or would they decide to hunker down for the night at the expense of their ‘hosts’?

LT Tyler and SFC Bennet conferred with Trung úy Suan. They were trying to decide their next move. Ông Chin and his party had slipped into Nhon-Nhin-Three earlier than expected. Trung úy Suan’s original orders were to catch them as they were arriving so that they could be taken down before they entered the village thereby protecting the locals. But they had been delayed in their initial movement and had to change their plans.

They decided that if the infiltrators remained in the village for the night that they would sneak in before dawn and surprise the Việt Cộng capturing them in the village. They realized that this might endanger some of the villagers, but because of the Starlight scope they were able to identify where Chin and his men would hold up for the night; they could concentrate their efforts on those specific locations.

But the other thought was that Chin, and his men, might use the cover of darkness as well as the anticipation of another downpour to sneak out of the village unobserved.

Tyler had anticipated the latter situation and contacted Captain West, his boss at Ap Bac. He asked the captain to coordinate with the District Senior Advisor in Shoun Binh district, west of their current position, and see if he would position their forces along the Grand Canal. That way they could perhaps interdict Ông Chin and his men if they managed to slip past Tyler’s position. The message had been relayed, and Captain Donnavan and his men were waiting, supported by two US Navy patrol boats (PBRs) to complete Tyler’s mission if needed.

Trung úy Suan indicated that he would initiate the ambush if it looked like Chin, and his men were leaving the village.

Now came the difficult period of time, the wait. All they could do was sit there in the muddy swamp and wait to see what would happen. This was the worst part of any ambush, the waiting! All of the fears of ‘what if’ entered your mind.

What if they were spotted; what if someone smelled the mosquito repellant that they were using and investigated; what if someone was seen moving along the canal dike perhaps going to the bathroom or standing up to stretch or attempting to move to a dryer spot? What if someone had the urge to light a cigarette; what if a village dog caught their scent and they sent someone to investigate?

WHAT IF!!

All it took was one wrong movement and their positions would have been compromised. All of their stealth would be to no avail. The enemy would know that they were being observed and stalked and take evasive actions. They might move into the deep swamps and hide, or they might even try to make an attack of their own. They might even have the capability to call for reinforcements from the local Việt Cộng guerilla forces and counter-ambush Trung úy Suan’s men.

Suan did his best to keep his men hidden, observant and quiet as they waited, but there was always; What If!

About 2200 hr. the rain came down so heavy that it was difficult to see the palm of your outstretched hand. It was nearly impossible to observe anything that was happening across the canal in the village. The monsoonal downpour stopped at about two a.m. and once again the mosquitos began their feasting.

Starlight once again observed movement and this time what they saw would make their mission extremely difficult. Mr. Chin and his cronies were preparing to leave the village and continue their trek. But disturbingly, they had rounded up a large number of villagers and had surrounded themselves with human shields. Men, women, and children were forced to accompany Ông Chin and his men as they left the village.

Trung úy Suan looked at LT Tyler and SFC Bennet and wanted to know what they should do.

These were very important men, and they were about to slip by their ambush. He had no compunction against initiating a firefight. He felt that his mission came first, but he wanted Tyler’s permission, someone to share the blame if villagers were killed or wounded.

Mr. Slim had heard the old drunken Village Chief railing against Chin protesting the abduction of the villagers. He relayed what he had heard and the fact that Chin had told him that if they didn’t comply that he’d kill as many as he could and burn their village to the ground for refusing to support their revolutionary cause.

Paul faced a tremendous dilemma, what should he do? He turned to SFC Bennet and Bennet just looked at him and stated, “Sir, you’re the senior guy, it’s your call!”

“Sarge, if we initiate the ambush we might get them, but we’ll definitely kill or wound a large number of civilians in the process. I couldn’t live with that. Our job is to protect innocent civilians and not get them killed. I mean there are women and children serving as their human shields.”

“Sir, it’s your call, but you’d better hurry Suan is ready to initiate the attack!”

“Trung úy, I don’t advise you to initiate your operation. I believe that it would bring dishonor on our actions if a large number of civilians are killed or injured. I know that you have the right to do your duty, but should we risk the potential killing of innocent civilians? Perhaps we can follow these evil men down the canal in some of the sampans from the village; when they begin releasing the civilians that they’ve taken as hostages we can take our actions. Sir, you are in command, I can only advise you.

But Sir, I will use every tool that I have at my disposal to ensure that we bring all of these evil men to justice!”

“Thiếu úy (Second Lieutenant) Tyler, I understand your concern. A number of my men are from that village and some of their relatives are probably a part of the human shields that Chin has taken. I’m afraid that they wouldn’t follow my orders and fire into their own village regardless of the situation.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this story so far. Check in on Wednesday morning for the “Rest of the Story”

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