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Back to Combat Art - VIETNAM   POINT TO POINT CONTACT


Original 11"x 15" Graphite/Pencil Drawing
Fighting in the grueling world of jungle warfare, against an enemy, often invisible until the instant of encounter, six-man, U.S. Army 75th Ranger Battalion teams were regularly inserted, by covert helicopter assaults, into isolated enemy held regions....on hunter-killer missions. Heavily armed, ready to deal with any situation, they used stealth and cunning to deal death and create fear in the enemy.

On one such combat mission, to seek out, find, and destroy any North Vietnamese (NVA) forces they might encounter in rugged terrain near Ban Me Thuot, South Vietnam, 75th Rangers were dropped, by helicopter, into a small jungle clearing. (Sp4 Fred Edens was a member of that six-man team.) Quickly, they slipped along a well worn path into the foreboding banyon trees; a dense jungle canopy overhead. The damp musty air rendered the heat oppressive.


*Please note*: Artist Frank Thomas' studio lithographic art print sales are discontinued from 10 March 2007 until 1 October of 2008. He and his wife are serving for eighteen months in the Ohio-Cleveland Mission, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), at the Kirtland Historic Sites, Kirtland, Ohio. He has set up his art studio and is producing additional LDS historical paintings at that location. Rolled canvas art prints (only) are available and may be purchased by calling Frank at (435) 406-9526 or contact by email wildgoose@crystalpeaks.com.
The point man, SP-4 Fred Edens (now Major Fred Edens, retired), moving quietly, carefully along the trace, through new enemy log fortifications strewn among the trees, could feel....sense....almost smell NVA. The five veteran team members urged their new, green team leader to ambush. He hesitated, indecisive, then, before they could set up a hasty ambush....almost before they could react, suddenly from around the bend ahead...."point-to-point contact."

Fred, firing his M16 from the hip, saw his green tracer round pass harmlessly over the equally surprised NVA point man's head as the second man in the NVA patrol was taken down. Both forces quickly retreated from the dreaded encounter. The Rangers immediately called heavy artillery fire onto the NVA, wreaking additional destruction, as their helicopter slipped in for a team extraction.