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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— 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
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