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Originally Posted by QRQ 30
The montagnards were more than just extra guns. They were, in many ways, my teachers.
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And that's a fact. We had a series of indigenious rations we used to issue to the little people, one of which was dehydrated rice in a hermetically sealed plastic bag.The usual method of carrying the days ration was in one of the cargo pockets on the tiger fatiques and right before you crossed the last stream (we were in the mountains of the central highlands) they would punch holes in the bag and let the water run thru the cargo pocket and rehydrate the rice. Our standard procedures on our patrols prior to holding up for the day consisted of a recon of the RON, putting out ambushes and claymores and ,weather permitting, cooking up some water for chow after we were sure no one was anywhere near enough to pick up the scent of the smoke . The little people slit open their rehydrated rice, ate what they wanted and rather than trying to tie off the top of the plastic bag they would take a small piece of bamboo, slit it lenthwise, slip the top of the open plastic bag thru the slit and then, with another piece of burning wood, heat seal the bag closed for the next day.
They also, as Terry stated, could read the jungle like a book and could tell you what as going on long before we could detect it. I cannot begin to even count the number of ambushes, booby traps and unfriendly critters we avoided. They also could be over protective. During the first fire fight I got in I found that I was dragging two yards up the hill behind me as they we hanging on to my web gear holding me back to ensure that I did not get shot. Damn near got a hernia trying to carry them with me. Of course, you also had to understand that they were animists and had some serious gods with which they dealt as well as customs and beliefs. Moving thru the undergrowth towards an target site we had reconned from the air I noticed a lot of dead bamboo vipers sort of mangled and hanging out of the branches of the small trees. They were all on the left side of the route we were following and none on the right. I caught up with my recon leader, Beaucoup Kilo as he was known to us, and asked what the hell was going on. Beaucoup, without breaking a stride, told me that snakes on the left side of the line of travel were number 10 but the ones on the right were number one. Sure as hell, there were just as many on the right as on the left, however the ones on the right were very much alive.
Great people, thanks for bringing back some things I haven't thought about in years Terry. I think I could fill up the website about the little people. And you are absolutely right, a lot of us are alive today in spite of ourselves thanks to the yards.
Jack Moroney