A Combined Action Platoon was a squad of Marines who were assigned to defend a group of small South Vietnamese villages. Under ideal circumstances, a squad consisted of 14 Marines and a Navy corpsman. Often, though, CAPs operated short-handed.

Our job was Vietnamization, the winning of hearts and minds of South Vietnamese civilians, and the training of South Vietnamese military forces. We lived in the villages and hamlets 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. We interacted with the South Vietnamese on a daily basis. In fact, our lives depended on our interaction with the people of South Vietnam.

The highest ranking Marine in a CAP was an E-5 Sergeant. As CAP commanders, these E-5 Sergeants were responsible for not only the lives of their men, but also for all of the activities involved in winning hearts and minds. Our Corpsmen, always known as Doc, provided medical care for the civilians as well as the Marines.

We dug wells and built schools, but mostly we defended the villages from acts of terrorism. The North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong regularly used torture, rape, and murder to intimidate the villagers. They came in the night to hold indoctrination classes for the villagers. These indoctrination classes often consisted of gathering all the citizens of a village to watch the public gang rape of the wives and daughters of unfriendly civic leaders. Sometimes the civic leaders were beheaded. Sometimes the villages were burned. Sometimes the young men were kidnapped and conscripted into the Communist army. Sometimes the right hand of every man, woman, and child was chopped off. Middle Eastern terrorists have nothing on Communist terrorists.

Conscription of food was a common practice. These farmers faced a daily struggle to grow a crop of rice on the land which had been passed down for hundreds of generations. Their only farm equipment was a water buffalo. Everything was done by hand with sweat and back-breaking labor. The Communists levied taxes on the rice harvest, sometimes as high as 100%. If the farmers were suspected of hiding rice, retribution was swift and deadly as an object lesson to other farmers. The presence of a CAP in a village allowed the farmers to keep the products of their labor.

Living in such close proximity, most CAP Marines developed friendships with South Vietnamese. Virtually every CAP Marine can relate a story about his friendship with a South Vietnamese.

One of mine involves a little girl. Tammy was about 12 years old. She was a pretty little girl - black straight hair, bright eyes, and an infectious smile that makes me smile to this day. Tammy's parents had been killed. I don't know which side killed them, I never asked. She slept and ate with various relatives in the village, spending a night or two with one relative, then moving on to another. When possible, she spent her days with us. Tammy loved her Marines, as did all our kids.

Besides the clothing on her back, Tammy owned one possession - an aluminum bracelet. I suspect that it was made out of melted down beer cans. About two and a half inches in diameter, it was roughly forged and irregular, with a dull, pocked finish.

One afternoon, after I shared a can of C-rations with her, she gave it to me, saying, "Semedi (Smitty) , you keep. You no forget me". I told her, "Tammy, there is no way in Hell I will ever forget you". It was much too small to wear on my wrist, so I put it through the eyelet on my boot and squeezed it shut. It wasn't a small gift in thanks for half a can of beans. It was everything she owned.

I often wonder what happened to Tammy. Did she survive the Communist takeover, or was she raped and murdered? She would be in her mid-forties now, if she is alive. Did she find a nice guy, get married, and raise a family? Was she "re-educated"? Starved? Mutilated?
I kept that bracelet for many years. Somewhere along this 35-year trail, it got lost. I may not have the bracelet, but I will always have Tammy.