Buddha Hill: The Graves and the Snakes
As a member of Eagle Flight we made several sweeps of Buddha
Hill in search of any enemy activity or anything out the ordinary.
Although it could be said that all of Buddha Hill was "out of
the ordinary."
Buddha Hill was a monastery that consisted of a small temple and quarters
for probably a dozen or more Buddhist monks and it sat squarely of
the west end of Biên Hòa and was a source of concern due to its proximity
to the base. The entire compound only consisted of approximately 5
or 6 acres, but was heavily grown up with foliage and blended in with
the surrounding farming area and small village that lay upon the nearby
river. Biên Hòa was one of the few bases that was Vietnamese controlled
and had dense forests that surrounded parts of the base interspersed
with village hamlets. In reality the VC controlled much of the area
and many actually worked on the base and not much missed their sharp
eyes or their intelligence network.
On a few occasions I and Mac went down to the river and met with some
of the US Navy "Brown Water" guys and a few Seals who would
make runs up the Đông Nhi and refuel at the POL river depot outside
the base. Mac and I actually made one of those"unauthorized junkets" a few miles up river to a ARVN post with the Navy guys. The depot
and the west gate to the base were controlled by the ARVN, which
I always found kind of odd as it was not unusual for inbound aircraft
to receive ground fire from anywhere in this area, and some firefights
would take place less than a thousand meters outside the wire. I am
sure some of you remember seeing ordnance dropped along the river
and hearing the pounding of the fifty calibers from the LARC boats.
Rarely did you see any US Military presence in the surrounding hamlets
or along the river, and the ARVN seemed to stay clustered to certain
areas. It was definitely VC country and this was proven during the
Tet offensive. Thus our extreme concern about Buddha Hill.
On one particular sweep we carefully checked the graveyard for any
signs of disturbance of the soil or any obvious human activity. We
suspected that munitions were being cached in the grave sites. Many
and most of the graves were above ground similar to what you see in
the low lying areas of the deep south such as Louisiana. However on
several of the graves we only saw a marble or granite slab lying on
the ground and it appeared to be covering a grave. It was obvious
from the grass that the slab had been removed and replaced and there
were several small holes along the edges of the slab, not unlike animal
burrows or rat holes, but appeared to have been caved in by foot traffic.
Most of us felt that it was concealing something other than a grave,
possibly an entrance to a tunnel or a weapons cache.
It was suggested that we take our rifle
slings and loop them around each corner of the slab and four of us
could drag the slab off and take a look. The ARVN officer that was
without us said it was forbidden. As a matter of fact we always had a
few ARVN troops without us when we made a sweep of Buddha Hill. I assumed
the the Province ARVN Commander had his reasons, but I am also sure
that Buddha Hill was a staging area for enemy weapons and surveillance.
Rather than being accused of desecrating a grave we left well enough
alone as the Monks watched us with a wary eye.
The Buddhist cannot be accused of being
Communist sympathizers, but they were anti-Catholic and anti-South
Vietnamese government which was comprised of many Catholics from the
north. Therefore they had a tendency to turn the other eye regarding
VC activity and parlayed their allegiances to whomever caused them
the greatest threat. It was very frustrating to allow the enemy to
operate freely right at your doorstep and not be able to do anything
about it. I often felt we were being allowed to search for mere political
reasons and window dressing. The ARVN and the locals did not want
us to find anything. It would have been a political hot potato for
the Province Commander if we showed the Monks as collaborators with
the VC.
On this same day, there was a moment of intense fright on my part
and some humor at my expense. Between the Temple and the outside wire
was a lot of heavy foliage and it ranged from craggy berms to almost
marsh. Some of the vines were like the kudzu you see in the south
and the stuff was thick and full of animal trails. I was sniffing
out this one particular area that was dark and heavy with vines and
on my all fours trying to make my way along a ridge. I found a small
outlet in the vines and it was obvious that someone had been spending
a lot of time in this particular area. The ground was bare from foot
traffic, and someone sitting, and there were several C-ration can-tops
lying amongst the vines. It appeared some one had dined several times
on GI Cs while observing or hiding. From that location you had a clear
view of the west end, Bunker
Hill 10, the sand pile and several fortified positions on the
perimeter.
My Lieutenant (can't remember his name)
crawled in the area with me and agreed that it was probably a OP for
someone. He exited the space and I followed behind when I saw another
opening to my right. I told the LT I was going to check it out and
he said he would cover me. I crawled about ten meters and realized
it was a small animal trail and too small for any human to have traversed.
As I turned to exit (should have just backed out) My ruck sack got
hung on some vines. I twisted and turned and all of a sudden I was
falling down a ten foot ravine and going head over heels. I landed
at the bottom of a narrow ravine that had a small animal trail running
the length of it and I could not stand straight up.
After an anxious moment I got
my composure and retrieved my rifle and helmet and told the LT I was
okay and would crawl up out of the viney ravine. I could hear a few
rumbles from my squad members and some humorus remarks, but I did
not then think it was funny.
I was planning my escape when I was suddenly startled by a little
grayish green critter with pink eyes and a darting tongue. He was
about 18 inches long and was hanging in one of the vines directly
in the direction I needed to go. It was a snake and I can only assume
that it was a Krait as it fit the description. I am not overly afraid
of snakes as I grew up in the bayous of Louisiana, but I certainly
respect them on their turf. I informed the LT of my delimma and he
being a good officer told me to be careful and not get bitten.
I thought that was a profound order, even from a Lieutenant. : >)
I devised a plan where I extended
the stock on my Car-15 and wrapped my OD towel around my hand and
the weapon and had a pretty good "snake bat." I probably
should have just shot him, but I did not wish to rile the local VC
up or draw unwarranted attention to our squad.: >) My plan was to
"swat" the green monster and then kill him three or four
times. I swatted and my "snake bat" tangled in the vines,
I jerked back with a huge lunge and fell right on my butt and had
no idea where the snake was, but I was pretty sure he was mad as hell
about now
It was at that time I became
airborne as I literally flew out of the ravine and clawed my way to
the top in less than a nano-second. As my head popped up from the
vines I was looking straight into the barrel of an M16. My LT wanted
to make sure it was me who was doing all the thrashing about and not
a VC that I had awakened from a mid day siesta. I recovered my dignity
and shook it off as no big deal, but the story was expounded on several
dozen times by eyewitnesses that actually saw nothing, and they had
a lot of jawing at my expense.: >)
The rest of the sweep was uneventful and a debriefing was submitted,
but I only remember going back into Buddha Hill one more time. I had
heard through the grapevine the ARVN was to follow-up on our Intel.
I do remember spending a lot of hours monitoring the area with binoculars
while posted on the west end. Always had a funny feeling that Mr.
Charles was watching us watching him. It would not have surprised
me if there had not been a tunnel complex in the area, the terrain
was right and the cover and concealment was perfect.
Waredog
I currently live near Atlanta and fly EMS Medevac
helicopters.
