It has been said, "The rest of the world could live off what Americans throw away" and, "One man's trash is another man's treasure".  Those words must have gotten out to the South Vietnamese Army as well as the civilian population.  All of us who were there have seen the hoards of unfortunate people swarming over the dump to scavenge for all sorts of things to include food.  War is "Hell."

When ever we took a truck to the dump it had to have an armed guard to keep the soldiers from jumping into the truck along the way.  The standard practice to get ahead of your buddy was to intercept the truck prior to getting to the dump.  A couple of soldiers would run along side and make a lunge for the tailgate.  They would pull themselves into the back of the truck at great personal risk so they could throw as much of the trash out to their cohorts along the road to the dump.  The problem was that most of what was thrown out need to go to the dump and not even they wanted it after inspection.  They just wanted the first opportunity before those less fortunate that were waiting at the dump.  We would then have to double back and pick up all the mess along the road.

The answer was to position a couple of armed Marines in the back of the truck.  It was not one of the best duties as the run was dusty in the back of the truck requiring a good weapon cleaning when you returned to the flight line.  About half way to the dump on my first trip, a soldier started climbing over the tailgate.  I placed the muzzle of my AR-15 right under his nose and in fright he mistakenly raise his hands in surrender.  This action allowed the truck to leave him in mid-air and all I saw to the rear was a bigger cloud of
dust.

After awhile the message must have gotten out and we didn't take on any more unauthorized passengers.
 
 
 

Again, as most of us have witnessed, in too many cases it was the children of Vietnam that we saw on the dumps and rummaging through other assorted trash receptacles to scavenge for food.  Here a couple of youngsters are going through the garbage can just outside the fence to the flight line where the remnants of our flight lunches had been discarded.
 
 
 

This old man was a daily visitor to the Da Nang flight line seeking continued survival.  Somewhere he met up with the Marine utility jacket, but maintained his Vietnamese heritage with the hat.  However, we don't ever remember him being obtrusive or begging.
He did his salvage work in a more dignified manner and would appropriately fall between the ugliness of the soldiers and the innocents of the children.
 
 

Submitted by:
    Warren R. Smith, former Cpl. USMC