All About Pocket Knives

Binh Tuan province is the driest province in all of Nam. A section of that province was called the Le Hong Phong. Dense small trees and bushes all of them bearing shriveled little brown leaves and thorns of saber length. The terrain was flatter than Lance Armstrong's reputation. It was a notorious place, an evil place;could always find the enemy. This was my first operation in RVN.

Surprisingly, on day two, we came to a green oasis in the midst of this dense shriveled forest. There was greenery and a good sized pond. My ARVN counterpart had our troops break for lunch.

So all is relaxed. I am talking with the only other American, my partner Sgt T. Advisors always worked in pairs to watch each others' backs. Suddenly we both hit the ground grabbing for our weapons. This was in response to several shocking explosions. Turns out the lads, my dear ARVN troopies, were dropping grenades into the pond. Sure enough, a score of fish rose to the surface belly up. Lunch served.

I queried my counterpart, Cpt. Diep, if it was wise to announce our presence with those explosions. Diep, a superb soldier, explained that the NVA knew of our presence and our location, even without the explosions. [The soundness of his view was soon verified.]

The next day we bump into a squad of NVA. Since we significantly out numbered them they prudently took off with us chasing after them. This was not done at a run both because of the thorns and the need to avoid stumbling into an ambush.
But we were staying close. Our lead soldiers were sometimes exchanging shots with the fleeing NVA.

Shortly after noon Cpt. Diep called a halt for lunch. This was incomprehensible to me. I encouraged Diep to continue the chase. "The NVA are only a few hundred meters ahead of us." He patiently explained that the enemy would take lunch now as well.(He was right.) "Then we continue."

After lunch we rested for maybe 30 minutes then Diep issued an instruction over the radio.We began to move. Soon shots were exchanged and the chase continued.

Somehow in my training to be an advisor no one had mentioned the importance of lunch to both friend and foe.

QS -- Is it appropriate to assume you were an Army officer? What year(s) were you there?

JD: Correct assumption. 69-70. Mostly worked the coastal provinces between Phan Tiet and Phan Rang. But got up into the central highlands for a couple of months. How about yourself?

31Aug65-22Aug66 Da Nang, Monkey Mountain. Bravo Battery 1st LAAM Bn. HAWK Missile unit.

JD: Am sending a PM.

Unknown to many, the Viet Nam War came to a virtual halt every day at 1100 for lunch and "Pok Time", kind of like siesta.

It promptly resumed two hours later.

I'm sure there were exceptions, but that was how it was with our CIDG.

It must have been an almost inviolable tradition.

Charlie Noyes

I recall an older ARVN Major. He spent his entire life fighting someone: the French, the Japanese, the French again, the Viet Cong, the NVA. When an entire population knows nothing but war I think they have to have a few structures or traditions like lunch to maintain some sort of civil life. Serves to hold back the chaos a bit.