During the 68 Tet Offensive in Viet Nam, we were out running an ambush patrol and had been in the "boonies" about a week. We were about 60 klicks North ofSaigon. We had been clashing with various elements of the V.C and the NVA so we were tired and pretty beat up. We were due to get some R&R after this patrol.

We had been dodgng the bad guys off and on and we came to the biggest log I had ever seen, laying on its side. The the path went around this tree. As we neared the tree a G.I. stepped out of the jungle and motioned for us to be quiet and to follow him. We did, without thinking much about it. After going about 400 yds we stopped and the G. I. stepped back into the jungle without anybody seeing him leave. We heard noises coming from down the path and a few minutes later we ambushed to Vietnamese patrol on the path.

We found out through our interpreter that this patrol knew where we were before our detourand were waiting to ambush us. Anyway to make a long story short, After we got back to camp we began to wonder who the G.I. was that saved our butts but nobody had ever heard of him. Later that week while in Saigon I turned into a little intersection and on a pedestal was a statue of a soldier from WW2 and it WAS the same G.I. that we saw. He never said a word and neither did we. Made the hair on the back of my neck stand up even now.