Vietnam, combat and rules of engagement

I was in the 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam from 1965 to 1966. We were the first combat division to arrive in Vietnam along with the 1st Air Cavalry up north.

Our supply and division headquarters were outside Xian (pronounced Zian). A side note, the mayor equivalent of this small town was friendly to the Americans, so the Viet Cong, shot and killed him. 

Anyway, we had infantry protecting our perimeter, but a new general told us we had to do it ourselves. When my turn came to go out on a night ambush patrol, we had just left our encampment and a helicopter had seen us and landed and out jumped General DePuy, our commanding general! I thought, oh no, what now? When he asked who was in charge I said, "I am, sir."

When he asked who I was, I said "Captain Gregory, sir." He asked what the order of our patrol was. I told him first the point man, then two other men, then me and my radio man, and then the rest of the 10 of us.  

"Well, Captain, that may be what the book said, but that isn't how we do it in the 1st Infantry Division," he said. "You get your [backside] right up there behind the point man." 

Of course, if we walked into an ambush ourselves, normally the point man and the guy behind him were the first two killed. "Yes, sir," I told him and we departed.

When we arrived at our designated site, I then placed my men, set out my claymore mines and settled in for the night. It happened to rain all night, and we just sat there in the rain in two-man teams, two hours on and then two hours off to sleep. Have you ever tried to sleep lying there in the rain? 

Our orders for ROI (rules of engagement) were to shoot anyone who came down the trail; we had set up our ambush as no friendlies were supposed to be in the area. Fortunately, the night passed without incident and we made our way back to camp by a different route so as to not walk into an ambush ourselves.

Roger Gregory is a Vietnam veteran and business owner in Priest River.