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| Rangers Find Dead Regiment
Associated Press photographer Horst Faas accompanied South Vietnamese reinforcements to the scene of a savage Communist attack on a rubber plantation 45 miles from Saigon. Here is his report. BY HORST FAAS DAU TIENG, Vietnam-(AP) South Vietnam's 7th Regiment died at 8 a.m. Saturday. It died on the sprawling Michelin rubber plantation after trying desperately to fight off hordes of Communist soldiers charging in waves through the rubber trees. Most of the Vietnamese troopers, with their American advisers, fought to the last bullet. The senior U.S. adviser to the slain regimental commander was found Sunday sprawled dead beside a foxhole. At 7 a.m. Saturday he had radioed a nearby Ranger battalion adviser: "My radio operator has just been killed, and we can't hold out much longer unless we get air strikes immediately. Put the strikes right among us, that's where the Communists are." A few minutes later the adviser, his voice still calm, called, "I'll have to get out of here. We're folding up." He didn't make it. |
| Mom's Letter Told Fallen GI Of Christmas He'll Miss
MICHELIN RUBBER PLANTATION, VIETNAM.-(AP) The pages of the letter fluttered among the debris of battle. Nearby, lying half out of a foxhole, was the body of a young American Army sergeant. His tall body was crumpled in the shadow of the trees, his arms flung out. The letter had been scattered by the Viet Cong who killed him and many Vietnamese soldiers Saturday in a bloody two hours on the plantation. The Viet Cong had gone through the wallets of all the men and had taken their money and valuables. They had left the letter behind. It was from the sergeant's mother. "Dear Sarge," she wrote affectionately. She spoke of the plans she made for Christmas. She did not expect him home, she wrote, because he had several months left to serve in Vietnam. But she knew he would be interested in Christmas back home. Then she turned to more serious matters, "We read your letters, and we understand how difficult it is over there. "There's a great group of mothers and wives and children in the United States this year who won't have their loved ones home for Christmas. But oh, how we think of you," His mother discussed the demonstrations in the United States against American involvement in Vietnam. "Many people at home seem to be against what you are doing, but we know you are doing good. "We pray you'll achieve what is right over there. I want to assure you this Christmastime that your mother and your family are completely behind you all the way. "But we don't have to tell you that, do we? You already know." |
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