Halfway down the incline, the Paratrooper suddenly came to a halt, C Ration cans littered the jungle floor. "I knew they weren't ours because we had never been in that area before explained Lyford.
Quietly, Lyford crept up to a bush to observe up ahead before going any further. Straining his eyes hard through the foliage he spotted two ruck sacks and several hammocks strung up between the trees. "I realized that I had discovered an NVA position," said Lyford. "One of the hammocks was partially hidden by foliage." Still as a statue, the Paratrooper waited before deciding that there was no one laying in the hammock. The Sky Soldier decided that the enemy must have left in a hurry when they heard the Platoon.
Suddenly from the high ground, the young Infantryman detected movement. "Oh God! I thought the NVA were back!", he recalled. Immediately the Sky Soldier called for the rest of his Platoon. "Within five minutes they were there. Boy, was I ever glad to see them again," he said. Two Squads of Paratroopers were sent to patrol the high ground and the rest of the Platoon including Lyford secured the vacant NVA position.
"We were sitting there waiting for the patrol to return when I noticed a peculiar looking bush to my front," remembered Lyford. "After a longer look, I saw a face peering through."
Instinctively, the Paratrooper yelled "Hold It" and then emptied a magazine of M-16 rounds in the bushes. A closer investigation produced one dead NVA and many blood trails leading off into the jungle.
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173d Plays Santa Claus
Tuy Hoa- Brightly wrapped packages donated by the Paratroopers of the 173d Airborne Brigade lifted the spirits of 1,200 refugees on Christmas Day and helped to deepen the ties of friendship between Vietnamese and American.
The scene was the Chop Chai Refugee Center located two miles north of the city of Tuy Hoa. The Vietnamese people at Chop Chai were relocated there in September when the Sky Soldiers conducted extensive operations in the rich rice lands west of here. At the refugee center, the people now live without the fear of harassment from the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Communists.
According to Major Don A. Schwab, Brigade Civil Affairs Officer, the packages of candy, cookies, toys and other gifts were collected from Paratroopers wishing to donate part of their Christmas gifts from home to the needy Vietnamese people. The Brigade
Chaplains Office, the 173d Engineer Company and the Civil Affairs Office collected the many presents and early Christmas Day, Sky Soldier representatives played Santa Claus to the refugees of Chop Chai.
Instead of the traditional sled pulled by eight reindeer, the Santa Clauses of the 173d had a three-quarter ton truck filled to the top with the donated presents. As soon as the truck rolled into sight and the children got wind of the surprise the center became alive with the sounds of happy kids and their parents.
After a brief ceremony, during which Nguyen-San refugee director, explained to the people the gifts were from the Paratroopers of the 173d, heads of the families were called up front to receive the packages. Soon, bright-colored balloons danced gaily in the air and many a child's smiling face became smudged with chocolate candies and other goodies.
"The kids really enjoyed themselves," recalled Private First Class Nathan Todd, a Civil Affairs Paratrooper from Bremerton, Wash. "It was a nice Christmas for them as well as for us."
More surprises are being planned for the refugees of Chop Chai. Brigade Chaplains, coordinating with the Civil Affairs Office are working on a project that the refugees will remember for a long time. According to Chaplain (Lieutenant Colonel) John W. Hulme, donations collected at Protestant and Catholic masses will be used for a surprise project.
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