Bill Warnock’s War Story #4: Major Merlino

photo from google: city-journal.org

War Story #4. Response to Samantha Rehrig, who is seeking someone who knew Major Merlino (www.macvteams.org/team-73/)

Hi Samantha,

I was a province operations adviser in Choung Thien Province in 1971 and 1972. Major Merlino was the Kien Thien District Senior Adviser (DSA). I remember playing poker with him at Vi Thanh just before he was killed in combat. I think we called him "Lenny." I was told that when he was out on an operation, an M79 round burst behind him and a small fragment penetrated the back of his skull, fatally wounding him.

DSAs were specially trained and Vietnamese language proficient. But when one was on leave or absent, I frequently filled in for from 1 to 3 weeks. I did so at Kien Thien until a trained DSA replacement was available. The district headquarters was a typical triangular mud fort. The US team had a hutment and bunker at one of the corners. The team consisted of a major, a captain, and a sergeant. The later two were charged with identifying the VC infrastructure under Operation Phoenix.

Travel in the Province was by helicopter or boat (Sampan). Roads were basically nonexistent. I remember traveling with the District Commander, LTC Thanh, to the area where Major Merlino died. En route, we stopped at a Hamlet where we were shown a dead VC with a rope around his neck tied to a palm tree and an unlit cigarette in his lips. We were told that he was the leader of the unit that had led the attack. Of course there was no way to evaluate this story.

I noted that the canal in the area of the attack was labelled "Cong My" on my map. I asked Sergeant Triet, our interpreter, what that meant, and he replied "Kill Americans." It was not friendly territory.

I consider myself very lucky because I went all over the district by sampan and received not a scratch. After about 3 weeks, a trained DSA arrived, and he got 2 Purple Hearts in his first month in Kien Thien. The VC even attacked the District compound, and an RPG round blew up a propane tank used to run the team refrigerator. The team house burned down and the bunker burned as well. The new DSA shot and killed 3 VC who were inside the team house, and the team had to exit the burning bunker through the front firing port and run to the Vietnamese operations bunker. They were left with their weapons, helmets, flak jackets, and in their underwear--but with their lives.