The Vietnam Jungle Speaks

This rare glimpse of Vietnam military combat by First Lieutenant George M. Papa, Infantry Platoon Leader, Third Platoon, Alpha Company, 1/46th Battalion, 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division, from March 1970 to March 1971 is only possible because he was there and he wrote it.

Go now with him and his platoon on several real “search and destroy” missions through the triple canopy jungle west of Da Nang. Brace now, because whatever your perception may have been of the ground pounding grunts, the upper brass, the Washington bureaucrats and even the enemy will soon change.

When Lt Papa first arrived at Battalion Headquarters at I2 Professional he heard a vague remark that several men had been killed in the very trench he was standing in. It seemed preposterous at the -time, so he dismissed it as just another war story.

Forty-two years later, Mr. Papa googled ‘LZ Professional’ to see if there was any truth to that remark. There he found many details and photographs of that event including the following account by Spc 4 Rick Olson, Delta Company, that described the events of Alpha Company in May, 1969, some ten months before Lt Papa joined that company.

The above photo was taken on the lower chopper pad. The young man on the right smoking a cigarette with his helmet tilted back is the RTO (radio telephone operator) for Captain Dunagan, who received the CMOH (Congressional Medal of Honor) just off of Professional. The RTO’s name is Tom Martiniano. The rest of the men in this photo didn’t make it out alive. Tom won the Silver Star for his actions during this time. The picture is by Larry Bourbonnais and the dialogue is by Rick Olson.

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