Page 78 - Echo 127

when given the signal they burst through the flimsy door —I followed with my .45 in the ready position. The hut consisted of one living room sized room with a loft above. There were four people inside—two ( a male and a female ) in a hammock to the left upon entering the room and two ( a male and a female ) overhead , also in a hammock, in the loft—the fire team leader restrained the two people on the left—no resistance because they were still waking up—we had completely taken them by surprise—those two were taken outside to the remaining squad members to be restrained. I was inside with the other two members of the fire team and we had our weapons pointed directly at the two people in the loft—we gestured for them to come down the ladder and they complied—like the previous two—all four of our captives were nude. I proceeded to look for hidden compartments or stashes of rice, ammo, weapons or documents—we found all of the above hidden in the walls. As the captives came down the ladder the female was first —- one member of the fire team took her outside to the other members of the squad to restrain her—at this point neither of the three captives had given us any resistance. The fourth captive came down the ladder with the fire team leader pointing his M-14 at him—the fourth captive we learned later was the VC Hamlet Chief that we had come for. He arrived at the bottom of the ladder and turned around with his hands behind his head . The fire team leader motioned the captive to the door and backed up while keeping his rifle pointed at him. I saw that the fire team leader had the captive seemingly under control so I turned to continue my search of the hut. Suddenly, everything became chaotic—the fire team leader —while backing up with the captive,
78