Good afternoon out there.
I am the infamous 'Teacup', Assistant Team
Leader of Team 1/7 in Vietnan, fortunately
for me, under 'Brazzaaville'.
It is my opinion that following the Tet
Offensive of 1968 the Viet Cong, as an
organization, virtually ceased to exist.
I agree with Brazzaville, following that,
the enemy we encountered were primarily
very young troops send south from the north.
I talked to one Vietnamese company commander who was trying to hold that big bridge north of Saigon. He said he had 17 rounds of 5.56 for his company right toward the end. NOT 17 rounds per man, BUT 17 rounds for the entire company. He told his men to get in civilian clothes and try to go home and at least save their families. I think I would have done the same thing. It was all over.
While flying from the west coast back to Virginia there was an American sitting next to me who had just gotten out of Saigon. The poor guy was still in shock. He related to me what it was like right at the very last. He claimed that some of the Vietnamese mothers were running by his bus trying to toss their children through the windows in hopes they would be saved. He saw at least one baby go under the wheels of the bus as it headed to the airfield. I wish Kerry, Fonda, and Kennedy would be forced to watch a film of something like that every night, because those people played a big part in it.
Thanks for mentioning Xuan Loc, brazzaville. Our Democrat-controlled Congress was despicable in those days.
I'm half in the bag from too much alcohol consumed in the first class section of my Pan Am clipper from New York, and punchy from the time zone change. Queuing up to the Air Vietnam counter to get my boarding pass for the flight to Saigon, I see a sign being posted, “All Flights to Saigon Canceled.” --Drick Halstead