South Viet Nam: The Sourball Captain

The war that Terry D. Cordell fought in the central highlands of South Viet Nam was far different from any taught at The Citadel, from which he graduated in 1957. His troops were primitive montagnard tribesmen who dressed in loincloths, hunted with crossbows and poisoned arrows, and worshiped animist spirits who lived in trees. Yet Captain Cordell, 27, was so successful in training, arming and protecting some 100,000 montagnards that the complex of fortified villages under his command became a showplace for visiting VIPs. Often Cordell would complain that he had to spend more time squiring dignitaries than fighting the Communist Viet Cong guerrillas.

With his eleven-man team, Cordell lived right in a village of the Rhade tribe, ate rice as a staple, wore neither rank nor insignia on his U.S. Army camouflage fatigues. In his pockets was always a supply of sourball candies, which he passed out to montagnard children—if they took a bath. Often youngsters would bathe three times a day just to get extra sourballs.

Teaching the tribesmen basic military tactics and how to handle weapons, Cordell helped organize a strike force of 1 ,000 Rhades to assist in village defense and to take the initiative against the Viet Cong. Where once the illiterate tribesmen made notches on bamboo sticks to indicate the number of Communist guerrillas they had seen, Cordell taught them how to count with their fingers and toes. Each toe was a unit of ten; two toes and three fingers equaled 23 Reds. When the Viet Cong killed village pigs and cattle, Cordell saw that they were replaced; when tribesmen were wounded, he would accompany them to the hospital. So much did the Rhades admire Cordell that they initiated him into the tribe; exchanging blood with the Rhade chief, Cordell became his blood brother.

Repeatedly Cordell badgered his superiors for helicopters to ease his supply problem, to facilitate medical evacuation, and to react quicker against Viet Cong attacks. Finally, early this month, five whirlybirds arrived. Last week Cordell helicoptered over the jungle on the lookout for Red guerrillas, who farther south were being buffeted by a massive government offensive against the Viet Cong stronghold of Tayninh province, 50 miles northwest of Saigon. The government mission was a failure; forewarned, the Reds slipped away into the bush, lost only 45 men killed in seven days. But in the central highlands the Viet Cong did exact a heavy toll. From a jungle hiding spot, their fire ripped into Cordell’s helicopter and sent it crashing to earth, killing the captain and two companions, bringing to 30 the number of U.S. troops killed in action in Viet Nam.

At week’s end, members of a montagnard honor guard at Saigon airport paid their final farewell to their brother as his flag-draped coffin was put aboard a plane for shipment back to the U.S. and burial.