The Yellow Brick Road

Near the end of July of 1972 the Yellow Brick Road was a steady topic of conversation at DaNang.  The road was not brick but it was yellow clay and it was coming from the direction of the Ho Chi Min Trail (on the border of Laos and South Vietnam).  It was such an obvious thing... we all wondered why it didn't resemble the surface of the moon... ie... bomb craters.  But there it was, a  seemingly undisturbed yellow road meandering through the dark green jungle towards DaNang.

I just found the map below... I am shocked to see what it represents and that I lived through it.

The map on the left is South Vietnam.  The top two red arrows on the right are my area of operation. The third arrow down from the top points to DaNang and represents the yellow brick road to me.

The map on the right is my entire area of operation and it is as far North as you could get in South Vietnam.  The red arrows on all of these maps marks an offensive against us that began in the Spring of 1972.  Those red arrows indicate thousands and thousands of highly trained North Vietnamese Regular Army forces.  They were being advised and equipped by both the Chinese and the Russians.  They were good... and they were bad news.  Apparently we didn't know those forces had invaded in large numbers until the "Bat 21" incident 45 days prior to my arrival.

 On the map on the right there are two NVA (North Vietnamese Army) artillery symbols.  Those are the two regiments that I was attempting to stop.  I had not seen a map like this at the time.  I had no idea where the good guys were or the bad guys were.  I look back and can't believe I was operating with so little knowledge of the area.  I was fortunate just to stay out of trouble.



Late that July the the yellow brick road was about 17 miles west of DaNang.  17 miles rang a bell with most of us because that was the maximum range of the communists artillery... we were within range now.  

Rocket attacks on the base were stepped up.  Rumors of moving the FAC's to Thailand started to surface, along with the rumors of a ground attack against the base.  We were the only airplanes left except a few gunships, Electronics Eavesdropping EC-47's and helicopters.  Moving the FAC's to Thailand would mean a radical reduction in close air support.  The US troops on the ground would be put at risk if we left.  There were rumors of a ceasefire also... we hoped that was true.  Things were changing fast.
  
This was about the time I realized that we had a growing problem... our refrigerator full of Budweiser always seemed to stay full no matter how hard we tried to empty it.  Randy and Chuck flew the second period and I flew the first period so we would always meet in the room around dinner time... but I don't ever remember eating dinner.  We would drink Bud and watch the news on AFVN (Think "Good Morning Viwetnam" except on TV) and then drink more Bud.

So I found out there was someone teaching a college level class at night... Sociology... I don't remember the university, but I started going to class.  This wasn't going to last long but I didn't know it at the time.