Suspected POW Compound in Cambodia
Army Intelligence felt they located a POW (Prisoner of War) compound in Cambodia and plans were being drawn up for Charlie Troop, 1/9th to storm the suspected compound and free the prisoners. The rumor spread quickly in our Blue platoon and we just waited for the signal to go in.
I wrote a letter to my girlfriend back in the ‘World’ explaining what was about to happen, and it could be the last she would hear from me. Based on the nature of this mission I feared our unit would suffer high casualties. When our Scout birds confirmed it was indeed a POW compound, we planned to go in early the next morning. The NVA apparently got wind of our plans and abandoned camp that night along with the prisoners and headed North.
That letter never made it to it’s destination, probably because of the highly classified information it contained. A few other letters I mailed back to the ‘World’ were opened and censored before they were delivered with parts actually blotted out…