Photograph by Dave Eckberg
As we continued on, the road got worse. On the left, you can see a dummy helicopter the ARVNs used to practice loading and unloading troops.
Photograph by Dave Eckberg
Just beyond the ARVN basic training base and just before the convoy reached the final leg of our journey, we could see the wreckage of one of our "deuce and a half" trucks on the road to FSB Hill 4-11. This truck was hit by a large mine on November 12, 1970, resulting in 12 of our buddies being killed. This was the worst of about six mining incidents involving our vehicles and led to the closing of the road to military traffic. From that point on, FSB Hill 4-11 was resupplied by air for about six months. The threat of mines was always on our minds when we travelled that road, and this wreckage was a grim reminder of what could happen to us.
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