Michael Do

The helicopters were hovering about four feet above the ground to drop the 2nd Platoon. Aspirant Chieu and the men of his 2nd Platoon quickly jumped out and spread thin in all directions to set up a security perimeter for the LZ. My CP and the 4th Platoon were in the 3rd round. Last was the 1st Platoon.

In this part of War Zone C. northwest of Lai Khe, our division base, no pocket of grassland was large enough for an ideal landing zone. We landed right on the pathway cleared by the Rome Plows of the 169th US Engineer Battalion. The Americans used giant armored bulldozers (a.k.a. Rome Plows) to create crossed pathways in the dense forest and jungle. From above, the forest looked like a large chest table or a grid formed by squares of the size 100 by 100 meters each.