The tunnel was exploded and destroyed. The two men were killed in the insuing fire fight. That evening at the briefing the ground commander who was the company commander for Kilo Company. 3rd Battalion. 4th Marines. 3rd Marine Division called us into a briefing and explained that their feeling was that the Vietnamese civilian woodcutters. the refugees who had been relocated from villages In that area and who made their living by scrounging wood and garbage from our garbage dump right outside the base. that these people as such had been forced by the NVA to carry off the dirt In their little baskets that was being excavated from this tunnel. He sent an order that evening that the woodcutters would no longer be allowed into this area. which was a free fire zone. to collect the wood. To implement this he ordered three 55 gallon drums of CS gas dropped from helicopters on that area.
Keywords matched
refugees