‘THE GRIM REAPER WAS CLOSE AT HAND’
Just after 3:15 a.m. on May 10, 1968, soldiers in a South Vietnamese militia organization known as a Civilian Irregular Defense Group approached the main gate of the U.S. Special Forces compound at Ngok Tavak. They yelled: “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! Friendly, friendly.” Gate guards held their fire—a tragic mistake. It was a trap. These CIDG men weren’t friends. They were the enemy.
Forward Operating Base Ngok Tavak, a small outpost in Quang Tin province, 10 miles from the Laotian border, was a satellite of the large Kham Duc Special Forces camp, 4 miles to the northeast. Ngok Tavak was surrounded by rugged mountainous terrain covered with lush, largely uninhabited jungle. Highway 14, nothing more than a footpath and unusable for vehicles, ran past the base to the Laotian border. A small dirt airstrip was in a valley 500 yards north of the base.
Ngok Tavak was an old French Foreign Legion fort on a small ridge surrounded by a double-apron barbed wire fence and an unmarked French minefield. The main position consisted of two rectangular sets of earthen breastworks, one enclosing the other. The outer breastworks measured approximately 55 yards by 70 yards, and the inner about 30 yards by 50 yards, surrounded by a 6-to 8-foot berm with fighting positions built into it. About 20 yards from the fort and parallel to one wall ran a trench about 7 feet deep and almost 10 feet wide. It was crossed by a small wooden footbridge that led to a cleared area the French used as a parade ground.
The forward operating base was commanded by Capt. John White of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam. His force was a mixed bunch, comprising 113 men in the 11th Mobile Strike Force Company, shortened to Mike Force, consisting of militia fighters from the Nung people (an ethnic Chinese minority), along with two Australian warrant officers, three U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers, three South Vietnamese special forces men and three interpreters. There
