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Vietnam MAPS
Map #s on this page are KEYED TO THE 'SARGE'S VIETNAM HISTORY' website timeline. They are numbered and place (or) battle named. Some of them overlap and fit together. You may print them if you have a color printer and assemble them to form a collage. It won't be perfect.... but, hey... better than nothin'. [WEBMASTERS: You MUST seek pemission to reproduce these maps in any form. And I do mean MUST.]
About Maps On This Page
Full color "pictomap" of the TRANG BANG AO FSB Pershing / FSB Stuart, etc. courtesey of Co. A's rifleman Spc4 John "Randy"Cornett (1969-70) who "lberated" it from his platoon leader (Lt. Tony Alcaraz) in 1970.
Full color "pictomap" of WAR ZONE C FSB Warrior / Dau Tieng / Razorback Mountains, etc. cpirtesey of Co. C's 3rd platoon, platoon sergeant, S/Sgt Tom "Top Cat" Allenspech who graciously lent it to the author.
INFORMATION ABOVE PHOTO
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MAP #
The map number is an easy way to reference maps.
VILLAGE NAME (or) COMMONLY KNOWN AREA NAME OR NICKNAME (or) GEOGRAPHIC AREA
GRID CO-ORDINATES (vicinity)
[i.e.: In Map #1 below, XT5424 is the military way of describing a location on a map kind of like longitude (54) and latitude (24).
INFORMATION BELOW THE PHOTO
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More details of what is on the map above.
WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING AT IN THE PHOTO
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The black line are ONE KLICK(kilomer) APART [Six-tenths of a mile or about 11 football fields apart.]
One and a half klicks is one mile (approx.). 1 1/2k+1mile.
In our example XT5424:
The black line to the left is the east/west 54 line. The black line to the right is 55.
The back line at the bottom is the north/south 24. The black line at the top is 25.
In between the area is divided into tenths. So the "S" of Sup is at XT545245. The "X." is near XT542245. "Bic?"
The photos for the most part are taken of a "pictomap" from a 1969 era map. Many of the geographic features on the pictomap changed or were non-existant like when we Rome Plowed an area but the map serves as a good guide to the geography of the area because a lot of it never changed.
Fire Support Base Pershing (vic XT5125)
Above is EXAMPLE OF PICTOMAP.
1. Suoi Sup (vic XT5424)
Suoi Sup (1) to Tam Dinh (2)
Bo Heo map(3) goes below this map.
2. Tam Dinh (vic XT5524)
Soui Sup map(1) goes to left of this map.
3. Bo Heo (vic XT5423)
Soui Sup map(1) above this map.
4. July 28, 1969 Firefight (vic XT5623)
Close up of area.
The battleground was some six miles NE of Trang
Bang, and/or six miles NW of Trung Lap at the
southern edge of an area we called "the Citadel."
Roughly, a couple of klicks east of 'the Little
Rubber,' Bo Heo, Suoi Sup areas, and two klicks
SE of Tam Dinh.
The red 57 is the grease marked east-west grid
line on this map from 1969-70. The black line at
the center is the north / south grid line "23." The
black lines that intersect under the "7" are the grid
coordinates XT570230 (or simply XT5723).
Green indicates foliage. Thin green lines are
bamboo hedgerows. Large areas of green are
jungle, etc.
Yellow indicates fields and rice paddys. The
small yellow squares surrounded or boarded by
green are hootches.
Blue = stream.
White = road.
Dotted (or dash) black line = contour and
elevation in this case, the ground was 15 meters
above sea-level.
The top straight pin points to the location of the
bunker from which the NVA shot down the Loach.
The bottom straight pin points to the location of the
Alpha company Command Group. Just south of
this, in the rice paddy, is the Dustoff site.
The field in between the CP and the bunker is
where the chopper went down nearer to Alpha's
Command Post position.
To the right of the field [in that green area] is the
jungle that the 2nd platoon entered, made contact,
suffered their killed and wounded, and lost
their machine gun near the enemy bunker.
[Read the full story on the year-by-year history's
July 28, 1969 page.]
5. Soui Tre / FSB Gold
Soui Tre pointed to by the letter opener at top
was some 15 miles northeast of Tay Ninh City;
15 miles northwest of Dau Tieng [Tri Tam on this
map]; or about 58 miles northwest of Saigon.
Well known (and famous) place names on map:
Fishhook ~ Top center.
Dogs Face ~ Top left.
Angels Wing ~ Bottom.
War Zone "C" ~ Generally, draw a line from Tay
Ninh City to Dau Tieng most of the area above
this line.
Darkest lines on this map outline Provinces of
Tay Ninh, Binh Long, and Binh Duong.
Next darkest lines denote "Districts" [in U.S. they
are the same as a county.] of the Provinces:
6. (vic XT5026) "Six Alpha"
CHECK POINTS GOLF (G)TO HOTEL (H)
Fire Support Base Pershing is one kilometer
south-east of Check Point H.
7. (vic XT5025)
CHECK POINTS FOXTROT (F) TO GOLF (G)
XT508259 Check Point G was located where Six
Alpha crossed a little stream near a triangular ARVN compound abandonded by 1969.
XT502253 Check Point F was located at the
bend in the road Six Alpha just south of, and
within sight of the white "School House"
abandoned by the Spring of 1969.
8. (vic XT5024)
CHECK POINT ECHO (E)
XT500245 Check Point E was on the soutern edge of "that nasty little VC village." From Echo you
could see the Rubber Plantation off to the west.
9. (vic XT4924)
CHECK POINTS DELTA (D) TO ECHO (E)
XT500245 Check Point Echo.
XT498241 Check Point Delta.
vic XT4924 Don Dien Le (Rubber Plantation of)
Thanh Dua.
10. (vic XT4923)
CHECK POINT CHARLIE (C)
XT496235 Check Point Charlie.
The green area to the east of CP C is Bao Tram.
11. (vic XT4922)
CHECK POINT BRAVO (B)
XT494226 (approx) Check Point Bravo -- a hot
place in the middle of nowhere!
12. (vic XT4921)
CHECK POINT ALPHA (A)
XT492218 Check Point Alpha. Most Vets re-
member the cemetary as the location of Check
Point Alpha. [Cemetary symbols red at left of
6A.]
13. (vic XT4821)
NORTH OF TRANG BANG
The red line at left is the paved highway LTL-19.
TL-6A (Six Alpha, a dirt road) is the faint red line
running up to CHECK POINT ALPHA.
14. (vic XT4920)
The SIX ALPHA / LTL-19 INTERSECTION at
Ap LOC TRAC which was concidered the
northern part of TRANG BANG.
XT488203 The intersection. Correct me if I'm
wrong, but it seems to me that there was a
casket or monument manufacturing place at
this junction.
LTL-19 ran north-west through rice paddies and
scattered rubber plantations. It was paved out of
Trang Bang and then turned into a dirt road. "The
Culvert" was out this road.
15. TRANG BANG (vic XT4919)
XT489194 Downtown and the ESSO gas station.
XT495195 at the bend in the road was the
TRANG BANG TEMPLE. "The girl in the photo"
Kim Phuc ran up the road towards the bridge.
XT501194 "The Bridge" on highway one (QL-1).
XT498195 Fire Support Base Stuart (III).
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2003 Copyrighted by Bruce Holzhauer bhbim@webtv.net