Bill Treadway

Finalist - Will Treadway
Story is about his fathers’ service in Vietnam
VIETNAM AMBUSH

Hello, my father served in Vietnam as a leader of a five man MAC-V team. MAC-V is Military Assistance Command - Vietnam , and was the remnants of the original advisors sent over in the early sixties. Anyway, Captain T's five man team was one of several in a district near Hue . One night, two other teams were sent out on a joint mission, and it began to go horribly wrong. The teams had been ambushed by VC and were about to be overrun by a force much larger then theirs. Major R (district commander) called in the other teams in the district to assist. One team would stay back to defend the district headquarters, while the others piled into jeeps and drove to the aid of their teammates. This convoy of jeeps was driving along the road up north, with a big levy on the right, when suddenly all hell broke loose. Mines in the road were detonated. Major R was in the first jeep and the mine that blew up there missed and just blew the jeep off the road and on to the levy! y. Major R was a smart man but misunderstood the event, he thought that the South Vietnamese (allies) had laid a trap and sprung it on them. Major R's driver knew better and drove the jeep at the waiting VC, while Ray was standing up shouting insults at the enemies he thought were freindlies. My father, Captain T’s jeep, on the other hand took a mine directly under center. It flipped the jeep on the road but spared the passengers because of the armor plating T had installed under the jeep to offset its high center of gravity. The world was in slow motion for my father as his team crawled from the jeep and into the jungle on the left of the road. My father couldn’t, his foot was stuck under a seat, fortunately for him, his machine gunner freed him from his seat and the went into the jungle about a hundred yards. The team spread out in a line, ready to take the assault coming from the ambushing VC. Captain T found a tree and took out his clips and grenade! es and lined them up for easy usage. The team sat there in silence, waiting for the enemy to approach. They could hear the VC coming, speaking in a foreign tongue and just as Captain T and his team could make out the silhouettes of the enemy, they opened fire. After several minutes of sustained fire, and grenades, the assault ceased. The VC reinforcements had all been taken care of by Major R and his jeep. Major R called my father and told him it was ok to come out of the jungle. All three teams were miraculously unharmed, but their transport had been destroyed. How were they to help the teams being overrun to the north? Fortunately for this band of American soldiers, a large North Vietnamese truck pulled up filled with friendly Montagneyards (the sort of "Native Americans" of Vietnam, they lived in the mountains and were a more tribal sort, they loved to work with Americans but disliked people who lived in the lowlands of Vietnam). They had heard the call for assistance by these teams and had stolen a VC truck and were going to their rescue as well. So Major R, Captain T and their teams boarded the truck and drove north to save the poor almost overrun teams. they succeeded, with several casualties, but managed to hold of the VC long enough to extract all men and mount a greater defense later. My father, Major R and their teams were awarded the Bronze Star for their actions at this engagement. Thanks for considering me - I would love to have my fathers exploits immortalized in a game that everyone can experience.

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