The Tunnels of Cu Chi (43 page)

On Cu Chi base in 1966, the divisional headquarters of the 25th “Tropic Lightning” Infantry Division from Hawaii. They built the fortress above the tunnels and were soon attacked from within. There were air-conditioned offices, ice machine plants, golf courses, and swimming pools. But nothing stopped the Viet Cong spy network from operating inside.

Major General Ellis W. Williamson, who commanded the 173rd Airborne Brigade to clear the ground for Cu Chi base. “What kind of outfit is it that can't even secure its own headquarters?”

Lieutenant General Fred C. Weyand, who commanded the 25th Infantry Division. “We realised that there were tunnels. And gradually we realised the extent of them.”

Captain Herbert Thornton in 1966—the father of the tunnel rats. He was blown out of a hole and left permanently deafened by a grenade.

Entering a tunnel the hard way. This was the most vulnerable moment. The tunnel rats faced grenades, bullets, punji stakes, or spears through the groin.

Sergeant Flo Rivera with a captured Communist flag from a tunnel headquarters. He broke every rule to turn his tunnel rat squad into heroes.

Tunnel Rat Lieutenant Dave Sullivan in 1966—he found Communist gold bars inside the tunnels.

Tunnel Rat Sergeant Arnie Gutierrez killed his first guerrilla inside a tunnel. “I'm not kidding, you could hear a man blink down there.”

Helicopters close in on the village of Ben Suc as Operation Cedar Falls begins on January 8, 1967. This controversial operation was the biggest of the war. Its mission—to clear the Viet Cong out of the Iron Triangle and the tunnels below it once and for all.

General William Westmoreland, who called the VC “an army of moles,” decorates a youthful Lieutenant Colonel Al Haig. Haig's battalion led the assault on Ben Suc. The civilian population was sent to the “safety” of strategic hamlets. But when they had gone, the tunnel fighters remained.

Pham Van Chinh commanded the Ben Suc Viet Cong guerrillas and stayed in the tunnels below his flattened village.

Rome Plow bulldozers—“hogjaws”—stripped eighty-yard-wide avenues across the Iron Triangle. VC tunnel fighters caught by the plows while hiding behind bushes were sliced to pieces.