2X  MARVIN WHITE
I am writing about Marvin White on the fifty-first anniversary of the Nui Ba Den Sapper attack. I lost four men during that attack, plus another nine men who were wounded. Marvin was the only soldier that I got to know personally. He was more than just another soldier under my command; his integrity and work ethics equaled my own, and I considered him my friend.

To supply security for the fifteen plus signal sites on Nui Ba Den, the Army Engineers constructed eighteen equally distanced bunkers surrounding the mountain top. Each bunker had living quarters built into the bottom of them, while the top of the bunker was fortified and staffed by soldiers 24 hours a day. Marvin was assigned to bunker six as a rifleman and he shared the bunker with two other men. While not on guard duty, the men would maintain their bunker while also ensuring the integrity of the perimeter defenses.

As the executive officer for the infantry company, I was routinely inspecting our perimeter for weaknesses. During one of my Inspections, I saw Marvin White repairing tanglefoot in front of his bunker. Then on another occasion I again spotted Marvin working on the perimeter wiring, but this time it was on the outer concertina wire. His actions impressed me, so the next day I returned with Sergeant Myers, and we had a talk with Marvin about his thoughts on strengthening the western perimeter. I knew at once after our talk that we had found the right person to join our team. Marvin shared our concern about the defense weaknesses, and I liked that complacency and boredom had not taken over his body. I discussed Marvin’s ideas with Sergeant Myers and we both agreed that with his help our mission could be completed sooner. Sergeant Myers took Marvin off his normal duties and the three of us started working on our projects. We kept our plans secret from everyone except our CO, Major Campbell. The last thing we needed was a “Lifer” telling us what we were doing was not to Army regulations. The defenses already were to Army standards and every enemy soldier had them memorized. My goal was to confuse and slow down an attacking force; then drive them into our killing fields.

My studies of the outer perimeter showed that an area somewhere between bunkers five, six, and seven were our Achilles heel. The clear fields of fire from those bunkers were less than 50 feet, and beyond that distance the mountain began to slope downward on a 20-degree angle, limiting our observation. To make matters worse, there was a vast boulder field which stretched down the mountain for as far as you could see. Enemy movement among these boulders would be slow, but it was the perfect approach for an attack. It supplied concealment and natural cover for an enemy.

Two months before the actual attack, Sgt. Myers, Marvin, and I would spend countless hours sitting on the boulders facing the western perimeter trying to outthink an enemy attack which we all knew would come. Whenever I put myself in my enemies’ boots, the area between bunkers five and seven would be my preference for breaching the perimeter. (During the actual attack, bunker seven was blown up and the Sappers entered our perimeter between bunkers six and seven.)
We started our project by making a list of the shortcomings we each found and how we would correct them. Sergeant Myers was already in charge of the fire direction center for our two 81mm and one 4.2” mortars, so his concentration was going to be on the entire western perimeter. He plotted fire missions to saturate an area approximately 100 feet square in front of each bunker. He did not stop there; next, he figured out the coordinates for an artillery barrage further down the mountain. Then he plotted where Spooky should fire or if needed where B-52 bombers could drop their loads without getting “danger close” to us.

Marvin’s goal was to slow down an attacking enemy force. He began by creating more obstacles for them to get past, such as a third row of triple concertina wire along the entire western perimeter. This was no easy task, and we wound up begging and borrowing wire from the various outfits stationed on the mountain. As important as our relay sites were to the entire US mission in Vietnam, we still had problems getting barbed wire and sandbags. Our normal supply channels told us we were not authorized for additional wire. Once Marvin got his wire, he went crazy installing more tanglefoot around the concerned bunkers. He did an excellent job of installing the barbed wire, especially how he hid it between the bunker line and the first row of concertina wire. It was almost impossible to get through the wire without getting snared, and an enemy trying to avoid the tanglefoot would be forced into our killing fields before realizing the deadly mistake they had made.

My job was to oversee the entire project, and as you read my other memoirs you will read in detail about my inputs, primarily my booby traps, inner perimeter defenses, sensors, individual bunker alarm systems, deforestation with herbicides, and the perimeter searchlight.

For the next 45 years, I had tried to find out where Marvin was buried, with no success. His burial site was finally revealed to me in 1995 when students from Romana High School in Romana, California, contacted me about them wanting to do a story on Marvin’s death. Their interest in Marvin forced me to rethink my time in Vietnam, and it helped my decision to start writing my memoirs. Marvin’s memory now lives with me, and I will never forget him or what he did that night.