Rapier Dees

AO RAPIER

A hot bed of activity beginning in October of '68 and to the end of '69. There were many supply routes to the east which we

constantly were sweeping and at one point we had made "contact" with the enemy for 26 straight days. There were two

villages that gave us fits, X. Sa Nho (1) and X. Rung Cay (2), both located on the supply trail.You really had to be on your

toes if you wanted to keep your head. Just to the north of this area, lies the HoBo, Boi Loi Woods, and to the east is the

Filhol Rubber Plantation, which always had activity in it.

AO 'RAPIER' (35 miles N.W. of Saigon. Trang Bang area) Part of the 2/12th Infantry's Area of Operation (AO), this map

covers only about one-forth of the battalions 80(+/-) square kilometer battlefields of 1968 through early 1970. (The black

boxes on the above map are one kilometer by one kilometer. One 'klick' = 6/10ths of a mile.)

TRANG BANG is to the lower left and just off the map.

FSB PERSHING is dot marked 'P' at upper right. The blue area, just to the right of Pershing, is 'Round Lake'.

CHECK POINTS

The black hand-written letters (A to H) are 'check points' on TL-6A [Six Alpha], the faint red line is the road.

[Red numbers were hand-written referances to grid lines.]

'ROUND LAKE' (XT555222) Locacted ½ klick due south of Patrol Base Dees. You are looking

almost due east (azimuth 105º+/-), in the direction of Cu Ch

Compare this Vietnam War era picto-map of Round Lake orientated to the above photograh. The solid black line

(touching the lake) is the east-west grid line 22 - east being the top of the frame. The black dot at the far left

(identified by the blurry 'D') is the location of Dees. The "three hootches in a row" near Dees that can be clearly

seen on this map. These were latter destroyed because they were used by the VC/NVA at night to fire on us.

Patrol Base Dees

PB Dees (XT556228) was a company sized BAIT – four klicks east-south-east of Pershing – established

6May69. It was hit almost every night from the time it was built. You could set your watch by Nguyen, the

nightly sniper. Other than sniping, Charlie would mortar us when we pissed him off – and we were always

doing that!

The battalion lost a lot of good men, killed and wounded in this area just south of 'the Citadel.'

Nui Ba Dien BLACK VIRGIN MOUNTAIN (Tay Ninh) Beautiful photograph of the mountain and helicopter's

M-60. Note the C-Ration Can attached to the weapons feed-mechanism - a common 'field expedient'

modification, to help prevent jamming. The literal translation of Núi Bâ Dien is Black Virgin Mountain.

Photos above and to the left are inside of PB Dees. (courtesy of LT James Parker, C Co.