Excerpt
While clearing away jungle from along the various roadways that most of our field operations focused on, the daily scenario usually involved around 14 Rome Plows (depending if all were operational), which were normally relegated to one side of the highway (Or, in some cases, both sides), and each set of 14 were led by a 'Lead Plow'. The Lead Plow operators, who were generally the more experienced among us, carried a PRC-25 radio, with a helmeted headset, in order to maintain a COM line with a Huey' helicopter overhead, where our company commander or platoon leader usually presided over the initial outline of the cut, or 'trace', as it was called. From his aerial overview, he would instruct the Lead Plow on degrees of turn, in guiding and drawing out the primary rectangular outline of the area to be cut. The plows always addressed the cut in a counter-clockwise direction, as the severed trees and brush cleanly rolled off to the right side of the angled K/G blade, and away from the plows path, just like it was designed to do. Traveling clock-wise instead, would simply defeat the whole purpose, while piling the cut debris to the inside of the trace, where it would eventually serve to bog down the other tractors. The trailing plows, within the cut, simply followed behind the lead plow, as it made its straight line cuts to complete the outline of each targeted tract. In this way, they would all effectively cut down the remaining jungle growth and trees inside the established trace, as they followed each other around at different intervals, cutting concentrically, toward the middle of the tract, until it was entirely leveled, before progressing on to the next appointed sector.
In pressing to establish the trace, the Lead Plow would often encounter different levels of enemy activity, and had been known, from time to time, to sustain damage and occasional injury as a result of these sudden violent encounters. It was an unavoidable hazard, though, as the Lead Plow was the spearhead of each initial cut, having to work in advance of the security, in blazing the basic trail for each targeted area, or tract. When operating as Lead Plow, the view was somewhat limited, and oftentimes one could not see much of anything except for the heavy brush and trees that the plow was cutting, as it moved blindly through the jungle, while maintaining a dedicated straight-line cut, under the reliable radio guidance from above. The only actual deviation from this straight-line cut was a brief adjustment, in avoiding an occasional large tree, or a bomb crater that might lie within the plows otherwise appointed path. Because visibility was often very limited within the Lead Plow, it was mainly left to those in the chopper above, who routinely kept a topographical map aboard, to point out any significant obstacles, over the radio, which might otherwise be avoided.
Somewhat later in my tour, I found myself working the cut in the Lead Plow role, and on one such occasion, our CO had to call for me to abort the trace, as I was taking in small arms fire that he had a visual on, from his overhead perch in the chopper. From my position within the thick bamboo and other under-brush, visibility was very limited, as I couldnt see much of anything beyond the immediate periphery of the plow. With my radio headset on, along with the constant din from the roaring engine, other sounds were minimal at best, and not always recognizable, as I simply continued to plunge my way through the endless sea of tall, dusty bamboo stalks. At the time, I had heard some unusual pinging sounds, but they never really registered as anything out of the ordinary, until our CO blasted me with a verbal, to get the hell out of there; youre under fire! With the sudden realization of what was actually happening, finally getting through to me, I instantly put the transmission into third gear reverse, while letting off of the decelerator pedal, and raised the blade to nearly full height, before quickly slumping down onto the floorboard of the dozer, without really caring where it might go, just somewhere away from there, and out of range from the AK-47 fire that suddenly had my heart pounding blood at a much more accelerated rate. As the other plows had observed my rapid retreat, and seemingly understood what was happening up front, they too, pulled back from their trailing positions and followed me out of the immediate area.
With the plows bunched up, a safe distance away, our securitys tanks and APCs quickly converged on the area, to effectively clear out the hot spot (like the cavalry coming to the rescue), while allowing us to eventually re-group and continue on. In their haste, as they turned a corner and rushed past us, one of their M-60 tanks overshot the established pathway, and wound up colliding, in a glancing blow, with one of our plows down the line, breaking a few links in the dozers track, while the unharmed tank simply bounced off and continued on as if nothing much had occurred.
While we steadily worked our plows out around the cut, there were some major incidents and accidents that occurred from time to time, and a few good men were lost or injured as a result, as enemy contact within the trace was, again, an occasional unavoidable hazard. Small arms fire (AK-47), RPG's (Rocket Propelled Grenades), and B-40 rockets, were the usual ordinance that was sometimes fired at us, while we simply tried to concentrate on our work. Additionally, land mines were an ongoing problem; and a few of our plows sustained some degree of damage when those incidents occurred, while only occasionally injuring an operator. These mines varied in size, with most being the small, anti-personnel type, that didnt inflict much damage at all to the heavy tractors, but some of the larger ones certainly did, to some extent, with the operator subsequently suffering whatever degree of consequence that tended to accompany the blast.
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