NORTH SIDE DEFENSE
At
the time before the battle our defense of the bridge consisted of a 35
foot tower with a fox hole to the rear of the tower, on the north west
side of the bridge, and just off the road and above the C.P. bunker. A
make shift sand bagged low level hootch on the north east side of the
road, behind the tower. This is where our counter-parts, the South
Vietnamese Arvn soldiers slept.
The c.p. bunker, another bunker near the water, and a six foot sanded
bagged wall, that protected a building in which we kept our supply of
ammo, and supplies. One squad was assigned to protect the north side
of the bridge. They had to provide men for an L.P., to the north east
at night, inside the village of Hoa Vang. A squad of Arvn soldiers was
on an ambush to the north west. We had a couple rolls of barbed wire
that stretched across the road, about 35 feet in front of the tower.
The village of Hoax Vang, ended damn near in our north side perimeter,
just outside our perimeter wire.
SOUTH
SIDE DEFENSE
The south side defense consisted of a 35 foot tower with a 60 cal.,
machine gun, one fox hole under the tower. An old French bunker that
was sand bagged low to the ground prior to the battle. The French
bunker was mounted with a 50 cal., machine gun, there was also a sand
bagged hootch for the Arvn soldiers.
About 50 meters down the road to our south east was a brick factory where the Vietnamese supposedly made bricks (probably a spy point for
the N.V.A. / VIET CONG) This factory was located on a road that lead
to a village that was south east of our positions The main road across
the bridge ran directly thru our positions, and around a village
that was to our south west, and about a thousand yards away from our
south side positions.
Rice paddies were located on both sides of the road. At the end of the
paddies were tree lines that ran from about 500 yards on the south
east, to about a thousand yards on the south west side of the road.
The rice paddies on the south west side of the road, ran from the
village a thousand yards back to the water, then north along side our
positions.
Then stretched out westward towards the Song Cau Do bridge to the
west. On the south east side of the road, the paddies opened up in the
middle for about 5000 meters. Then picked up at the village
and ran a thousand yards back to the road. Water was located on both
sides of our positions, on the left and right sides of the bridge.
Under the bridge was a cat walk that ran from the north side of the
bridge. It ended within twenty feet of the south end of the bridge.
Because at some point in the war, the south end had been blown up, it
had been replaced by a steel span on that end.
I guess for security reasons it was never connected. But they had left
part of the old bridge running out of the water on a 45 degree
incline. This led to a small road leading from under the bridge, and
running directly into our positions on our right flank of the
perimeter wire.
We walked the cat walk, under the bridge at night because there
was a peninsula that ran from the west to the east, right up to, and
under the bridge. Thinking back, this was the one duty everyone
hated, pulling a 3 hour watch walking the cat walk.
There were two men, one walking from the north side, the other from the
south side in the dead of night. You had the supports of the bridge,
that could provide an easy place for Charlie to hide, and this would
be the place most easy for him to climb on to, from the peninsula, or
the water. You would be virtually on your own if you got trapped here; it was like walking the point in the worst way at night. Your
mind would play tricks on you, on the cat walk.
