1F CIA AMBUSH
When I worked with the 25th Division Forward in Tây Ninh City, we had to eat our noon meal at the CIA Compound. Every day at noon, a 2 1⁄2-ton Army truck would take our officers and enlisted men out for lunch. We always took the same route and left at the same time. I went along with this for two weeks until I called a meeting together to discuss security. Almost every officer thought I was overreacting, but my being paranoid (about not wanting to die due to stupidity) persisted, and I would not let up. My unit finally listened to me…after the traffic light incident. There was only one traffic light in the entire city of Tây Ninh East; three major roads converged there in the center of town. The traffic was never heavy, but stopping our truck for under a minute, with hundreds of bikes and scooters around the truck, made me nervous. At any moment, a grenade could be tossed into our truck and we would be helpless. If we had taken different routes or changed our departure times, then at least we would have increased our survival odds. It bothered me so much that I would not ride in the back of the truck with the other team members. My worst fears became a reality when a bomb exploded under a tree about 20 feet from our truck, and thousands of pieces of leaves and branches came raining down on us. I immediately dove out of the truck and landed in a fence of concertina wire. Everyone in the truck was making fun of my predicament, as I could not free myself from the wire. I had the last laugh, though, because when the MPs came by and checked out the explosion site, they found the Viet Cong had used two claymore mines. The mines were aimed toward our truck, but before they were command-detonated, they had somehow fallen backwards and blown off the treetops! After that incident, I was put totally in charge of our mission security.