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This 1963 U.S. Army special bulletin (No. 10) describes “the scope and complexity of assistance given by Army advisers to ARVN officers and troops in their battle against Vietcong guerilla warfare.” The film follows Lt. William R. Johnston as he serves as a MAAG (Military Assistance Advisory Group) advisor to the 1st Infantry Battalion, 11th Regiment, 7th Infantry Division of the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) from May 1962 through April 1963. The film opens with a shot of troops leaving a Boeing CH-47 Chinook in Vietnam. An advisor assists an ARVN commander and unit next to a tank (01:27). Johnston talks with officers of the ARVN (02:05), including his ARVN counterpart, Captain Kon. Johnston meets with various ARVN troops (03:38). The film shows the entrance to a sugar mill near the Mekong Delta, where the 1st Battalion is stationed (03:47). ARVN soldiers guard the sugar mill from a tower (04:13). ARVN soldiers maneuver a 155mm howitzer at the mill (05:02). Viewers see the small shelters made from ponchos that house the ARVN soldiers. The battalion marches out onto a road connecting the mill with Saigon (05:38); they are going to view damage to the road after Vietcong forces cut a section of the road. The 2nd Company marches across a field looking for Vietcong (06:16). Crews set up a .30-caliber machine gun and a 60mm mortar. Civilian farmers repair the destroyed road. A bus moves around the damaged road then continues on to its destination (08:02). A squad of the 1st Battalion goes out on a night patrol. Men participate in combat drills (09:23). Chinooks land to move battalion units during an operation to locate Vietcong camps (09:40). Members of the 1st Battalion destroy a communist information booth. M113 armored personnel carriers transport troops through fields. Men fire an artillery gun (11:30). Camouflaged troops train on canoes on the delta (12:10). New recruits train with claymore antipersonnel mines. Johnston sets a claymore in the ground for a demonstration (13:57). A company commander goes to detonate the mine (15:05), but it fails. Johnston replaces the batteries in the detonator and the mine is detonated. The battalion goes to a small village (Du Kwa—forgive likely misspelling of the village) and viewers see the village pagoda (15:50). 1st Lt. Joe Clement joins the battalion to assist in training and to take over from Johnston when Johnston’s tour is finished. Johnston observes troops building the village into a strategic hamlet (16:56). The films shows the corpse of a battalion soldier captured and killed by Vietcong forces. Viewers see a destroyed road going to Saigon. Engineers and battalion troops help rebuild road (primarily by using civilian labor). Johnston assures a mother whose son is being interrogated (18:41). The film shows the Oriental River (Song Van Co Dong) near the village (19:55). Farmers transport produce by boat on the river. Kon meets with Johnston to discuss the construction of a fort at the intersection of two canals that connect to the Oriental River (20:50). Men load equipment on LCMs on the river to transport them to the canal for construction (22:25). Johnston walks with members of the battalion, clearing villages of Vietcong—there are no able-bodied men in the villages. One of the LCM’s 20mm cannons returns fire along the shore of the river (23:44). The battalion burns brush at the construction site, revealing spiked-pit traps set by the Vietcong (24:18). Men smooth mud to make the corners of the fortified outpost. A man pulls out concertina wire (25:20). Men dig a moat around the post. Smoke from fires set to burn fields and coconut groves rises in the distance. A bulldozer is stuck in mud after being loaded off an LCM (27:03). Men use bamboo poles to try to get leverage and lift the stuck bulldozer. A man drives the tractor out of the hole, and the men cheer.
The film shows the finished military post. People walk on a bridge over the moat, which is filled with sharpened bamboo spikes (29:39). Troops fire small arms and mortars during an ambush by the Vietcong on their way back from the post (30:20). Several Vietcong soldiers are captured. Johnston talks to the ARVN men before he leaves for U.S. Lt. Clement makes a note and walks into a building to meet with his counterpart in the ARVN battalion (31:55), concluding the film.
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