As in years past, visitors were greeted by the In-Processing sign at the entrance to the trail network.  Several interpretive displays were manned and the public was encouraged to go "on patrol" with a squad through the dense underbrush .

Conducting a public demonstration of a tactical battle reenactment is quite easy for 18th and 19th century reenactors.  The Napoleonic tactics used during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars were designed for an audience sitting beside the battlefield.  Tactics changed as the weapons improved and by the mid 1960's American soldiers found themselves in an environment much different than anything they ever faced.  The question faced by living historians and professional institutions: How to respectfully interpret modern combat for a public audience in a safe manner without seeming fake or far fetched?  Just as the Vietnam War was a remote and isolating experience, so to is the public demonstration of combat.  Visitors experience the patrol action by listening to the radio communication traffic between the squad leader and firebase as well as see and hear the firefight in the distance through the dense forest underbrush.    

 Ambush demonstrations were conducted twice each day - 1300 and 1500.  Time and space were condensed so that all action taking place is within 200 meters of the base camp audience and is concluded in 15 minutes.

 
Radioman Chris Gray provides covering fire and SGT Tom Gray calls in a SITREP at the Saturday tactical. 

 

 

Please visit the YouTube links below for a video of the ambush demonstrations on Sunday and special kudos to those intrepid visitors who braved the rain for the 1300 event.  This video is for you!