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Chapter 27
Capturing An NVA Soldier
Our Company and Battalion operations continued and as usual we were conducting a ‘sweep’ of the area looking for signs of enemy build up—the first platoon, A Co., 1/4 was moving on a well traveled trail near a village when out of the corner of my eye I spotted ‘something’ in the underbrush just off the trail on my right—a quick glimpse revealed a person was hiding in the brush. Not knowing what that person was doing or getting ready to do ( shoot? throw a grenade? ) I dove into the brush and made a flying tackle of a North Vietnamese Army Regular in a tan uniform—we tumbled backwards as my platoon dispersed and surrounded the activity—I had not had time to draw my weapon— I was sitting on his chest while pinning his arms beside him —other hands began to take hold of our prisoner who was indeed armed—but with a brand new Chi Com , 9mm pistol with the packing grease still on it—it wasn’t loaded. Turned out he was an NVA warrant officer who had apparently recently received a resupply of new weapons. We tied him up—with the interpreter’s help we did an initial interrogation but learned nothing of value—he was transferred back to Battalion HQ for further disposition. The NVA prisoner was also an indicator that the NVA were indeed operating in the area as we had been told—of course this put the entire battalion on high alert. If an NVA warrant officer was caught in this area
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