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our ‘line of departure’ at the front entrance of the Hamlet by 0200 the next morning—a distance of approx. four miles from our Co. HQ.
As anticipated the progress was slow because of the terrain and because we were avoiding trails—our progress was checked against our ‘rally points’ that we had marked on our maps which were based upon our estimates of moving our Company at a reasonable rate through the rough terrain. We had a ‘dark moon’ and conditions were fairly good—a slight breeze helped mask our movement thru the terrain. We weaved our way thru the thick underbrush over the hilly and mountainous terrain—the long green line moved as it was supposed to—quietly, steadily and purposefly—we hit our ‘rally points’ almost exactly and were actually ahead of our time estimates by a few min. at each point. As the ‘point’ for the Company I felt the weight of responsibility to get us to our destination and to get us there on time with our estimate.
We made it to the village of Bac Tang 12@ and the Hamlet Gates with a little time to spare —so far everything had gone smoothly and we were at out pre arranged ‘Line of Departure’—quietly Capt. Tolleson moved the Company into position forming a perimeter around the hamlet—my platoon headed straight for our objective—The VC Hamlet Chief’s hut which was located a few meters inside the gated Hamlet’s entrance was encircled by one of my squads. There was a dim light showing through the covered window —the other two squads held positions close by—ready to initiate the raid—a fire team eased up to the door—
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