IN THE KILL ZONE: The Life and Times of Willie Merkerson (Part 3)

Part 3: Behind Enemy Lines

A 1968 photo of NVA troops using a B40 rocket-propelled grenade launcher, which was the North Vietnamese version of the Soviet RPG-2. (U.S. Army)

Deep behind enemy lines, Wille Merkerson’s reconnaissance team was in trouble.

The three Americans and a handful of Montagnards had already crawled on their stomachs for a couple thousand meters to escape one effort to surround them. But now they were caught again, squeezed between North Vietnamese Army trackers behind them and another NVA force ahead.

The U.S. Army would later state that they were operating “in the Republic of Vietnam.” But that was a lie.

Outnumbered and outgunned, they had been forced to abandon their original mission to monitor enemy traffic on a nearby highway. Now their goal was simply to escape with their lives.

Staying low, Merkerson was firing at NVA targets ahead of him when he registered movement in his peripheral vision. He turned quickly to engage the threat, just in time to see a rocket-propelled grenade flying toward him.