'Sleeping amongst cannibals'
Vietnam sniper spent 4 years as lone wolf trying to disrupt Viet Cong supply routes near Cambodia
BY FRANK BOWDEN
Didn't you feel a little uncomfortable sleeping amongst cannibals? That was the question posed to

A U.S. soldier instructs Vietnamese k in the use of American fire arms. This photo was taken by a U.S. Military or Department of Defense employee during official duties for the U.S. federal government.

Sgt. Michael Spaulding.

Spaulding joined the Navy after high school in 1962, for a threeyear hitch. His first tour to Vietnam was aboard a salvage ship. This was a rather large vessel with a shallow draft, perfect for pushing barges and supplies up the shallow rivers.

With his Navy tour of duty nearing an end, the sailor had a yearning to join "special forces." He enlisted in the Army, met the strenuous qualifications for this elite group at Fort Bragg, N.C. and was almost immediately shipped to Vietnam.

Spaulding had a confrontational attitude, not well-suited for the discipline and regimen of an ordinary outfit. But he followed orders and went to great lengths to complete missions.

This "lone wolf ' demeanor made him the perfect candidate for his next assignment: sniper in the Central Highlands near Ho Chi Minh Trail, the main supply line for the Viet Cong, the North Vietnamese Community Army.

Indigenous tribes in the mountains near the Cambodian Border were named Montagards (Mountain People) by the French. Degars was their historical name, but the U.S. soldiers adapted the French name and nicknamed them Yards.

Having been trained by a Burmese coastal watcher from the second world war, Spaulding adjusted well to the often primitive ways of these "head hunters." The Degars were a people of small stature, almost Pygmy in size, doing well to make five feet. The women were shorter. These little natives were quite self sufficient - and very proficient with a blow gun, homemade crossbow or long bow, that wasn't very long. They lived on the fruits of the jungle: monkeys, pigs, birds, small deer and if times got tough, they had no qualms about eating another human. He joked, "I'm glad we had a good supply of C-rations."

During the French occupation, some 200,000 Degars converted to Catholicism, but the majority were Protestant, gathered by missionaries in the 1930s and 1940s. This may have influenced their acceptance of the white man.

Mission: disrupt military

supply routes

Spaulding's mission was to disrupt operations along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Vietnam is a long narrow country along the South China Sea, bordered on the Northwest by Laos and the Southeast by Cambodia.

Most of the Viet Cong supplies were coming out of Cambodia. Help was needed from the Degars to be successful in disrupting enemy operations.

After several weeks of meetings, the Yards allowed this small group of Special Forces to move into their mountain village.

Spaulding lived there for four years with only occasional contact with the outside world.

This suited him just fine.

First priority was to teach tribesmen to use American weapons. They learned well.

With their newfound friends at their side, the small group bushw hacked Viet Cong supply details, time and again, killing many of the Cong. Periodically, a single engine plane would fly nearby, dropping a shell casing with a parachute attached and instructions on a "high ranking target" the Brass wanted taken out.

This information included "best known description, last known coordinates and secondary target." One of these included a Viet Cong officer who liked to sport two pearlhandled revolvers.

With the faithful scouts, Sgt. Spaulding would send the natives ahead to locate and make sure of the objective. Once identified, the sniper most often used a special made Weatherby VII with a 25-power scope.

If the shot was accurate, the next job was to secure some sort of identification from the victim, in this case, two pearlhandled revolvers.

If patience is a virtue, it is a necessity in the life of a sniper.

Targets are not always as easily identified as the above mentioned. These may be for instance more than one high ranking officer in the group intended. Sometimes target identification (making sure he had the correct mark) took several hours of observation before picking up a rifle. Firing on the wrong person meant a failed mission.

Sgt. Spaulding estimated that over the four years, he successfully completed approximately 100 such missions.

His occasional contact with other soldiers usually came when he rescued downed helicopter pilots and got them safely back to a "Fire Base"(base camp).

After a day of talking to others and eating mess hall chow, the sergeant was ready to return to the village, now ... his home. By the time he received the message that his tour was completed, it was several weeks overdue. A job well done. He left for the United States in 1971, leaving behind his little village "wife," a gift of the chief. It took him awhile to adjust to society. Sgt. Spaulding and his wife, Irma, have six children and 16 grandchildren. The family resides in the Bulah Community. Both are members of the VFW Post 3406 in Rusk.

Frank Bowden is a past commander of VFW Post 3406, Rusk.