About late September or early October, the weather was getting monsoon bad and for a couple days we had not flown, but the 1/5th wanted recons out on the Kha Sanh. We could not get out there except low level, then ceilings were 100 – 150 feet AGL - too low for the Cobra to work. Late the third day MAJ Danielson came in to the hooch and said 1/5th wanted a team out. I took the mission and as we walked out to the flight line I told CPT Tommy Jackson I was NOT going way West because of the weather and day light. This late in the day if one of us went down ~ no other team to get to us before day light because of the weather. [Remember we had two CPT Jackson’s in the Troop – Jimmy and Tommy. Tommy was with me that day.] He agreed. I added we could do a good recon in what we called the “back yard” – between Quang Tri and the first lower mountains. Jackson had a new to the Troop but second tour front seat. Both Tommy and CPT ‘Black Bart’ Barthelmess were not too happy with the weather even around Quang Tri with about 500’ – 600’ AGL. This put the Cobra in middle of ‘The Dead Man’ zone. The two kids flying with me were also new to Scouts. SP4 Rudy Laws was riding front seat OB and, just over from the Baggers, SP4 Bob Bunny was in the back as CE. Once launched it was very obvious we were not going to have good visibility and very limited altitude for the Cobra. After a few passes north of the runway, I headed west toward the hills. Still not seeing much, we came across a platoon of tracks from the 1/5th. For whatever reason and I do not know why, I landed and told Bunny to get out go over to the tracks and ask for a case of C Rations. He said, “but Sir we have lots of C’s in the Troop.” I told him to go over get them and ask if there was anything they needed to be looked at. I was killing time. The Platoon SSG came over and told me they were in the same laager site for the second night. He said, “I am concerned about the small ridge just to the southwest and they could not get tracks up in there.” Then I asked for his FM push and told him, “OK we will take a look and thanks for the C’s.” I radioed Jackson what was going to happen, then we would head back in. Jackson keyed the mic with Roger and added, “the ridge is another 200 feet higher and I will be doing donuts around you.” Up on the ridge was an old US Platoon size fighting position, fox holes and C ration boxes all around the area. The rain had let up some by now and everything was wet and old. I passed over the site and started to move away but turned back to look again. Another pass and I told Jackson something was just not right. Looking around there was junk and spider webs on all of the brush and then it was like the light came on. NO spider webs on many of the holes. All the webs that were there had water drops on them and the holes had nothing, someone had been in them. As we turned around I picked up a break in the brush, no spider webs, with a small trail leading south. We slide toward the trail and saw signs of foot traffic. About 20 to 30 feet the trail hit a small stream and the foot prints turned west in the stream. I told Jackson I had 6 to 8 guys ahead of us about 10 minutes. The slow-moving water was still seeping back into the tracks. We moved west following the tracks about 20 yards till they turned north up through the brush. All the time I was telling Jackson what was going on and he said, “OK I am out your right door.” Of course, this meant that the Cobra had virtually no altitude above me which is NOT the way we flew Recon! I could see parts of a small trail under the brush as the rotor wash pushed it aside. Flying slow we worked up to the edge of the ridge to overlook the Platoon of tracks about 300 meters northeast of us. We turned back down the trail still looking for the gooks. Bunny yelled, “They are under us!!” I’m not sure if it was over the intercom or he was that excited and loud. I said, “SHOOT and mark it” on the UHF so Jackson knew we had something. I knew at least one guy was under and behind us and broke west to clear as Jackson said, “Going Hot.” He was flying a 20-mm bird and happen to be just to our south. He ran the 20-mm right up the trail into the smoke Bunny had dropped. I went back to look. We shot one or two more guys still moving. I think Bunny got the first one and finished off any Jackson had missed or just made their day REAL BAD. We spotted a radio, a pistol (later given to me by the Rangers), 3 or 4 AK’s and a mortar tube. Now it was getting so dark I turned on the landing light to keep checking it out. Jackson called “Bingo,” so we reported on FM to the tracks what we found. CPT Barthelmess continued to send SITREPs and that we were now heading back to Quang Tri. 1/5th wanted Troops on the ground and had our Baggers pick up a Squad of Rangers to go in to look it over. Back at Quang Tri, MAJ Danielson was waiting with his jeep and told me to climb in. WHAT no beer yet!! We drove over to 1/5th TOC and went in for the nightly CO’s briefing. When Charlie Horse was up to brief, MAJ Danielson told me to get up and do the report. I briefed the event and what we knew then as to the BDA. As I was finished and about to get off the small one step up stage Red Devil 5 said, “How did you know people were in the area?” I said, “No spider webs.” Then, I had to explain what that had meant to me. Again, I started to step down and Devil 5 asked “How did you know you had 6-8 people ahead of you about 10 minutes?” I said, “That is easy. You take a six-foot stretch of ground, count the number of foot prints, and divide by two or just count the right foot prints as a person will usually step in that space only twice. I knew the time because the water had not yet filled the tracks but was still slowly filling them.” Then I said, “Does that answer your question Colonel?” This was my third run in with Devil 5 and the last as BG Hill said, “I think he told you how it works!”