This is a major rice paddy dike.

In this photo we are patrolling on a major dike. There is a curfew in our AO. When the sun sets, the civilians need to be inside there homes. At sun set, for the benefit of any one watching us, we set up what would appear to be our night ambush. When the sun does set, and it as dark as anything you can imagine, we move out to what will be our real night ambush sight. This is usually just a few 100 yards away. This is when the point man needs to know our AO like the back of his hand. We need to stay on these large dikes while moving at night. We want to get to our night ambush sight quietly. If we get off of these main dikes and onto the smaller ones, we will start to brake up the dikes and end up wading through the rice paddies. Not good and not quiet.

This is a major rice paddy dike. All the rice has been harvest.  What looks like a lake is really a reservoir. After the rice fields have been replanted, this reservoir will be used to flood the fields. Nam O River will be used to top up the patty fields, and to refill this reservoir.

Some times the villagers ask us to thought hand fragmentation grenades "fraggs" into the reservoir. They would then harvest the fish that floated to the surface. That was fun.

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