Defoliation?

Photos of FSBs always seem to be pretty much bare earth...is that a failure of observation on my part? If not, how was grass etc kept in check...chemical agents?

most of the firebases were cleared with bulldozers so took a while for vegetation to grow back but i imagine allied troops would be clearing it with burning too . agent orange not sure if used near fire bases..

That's really what I was wondering about - in a tropical country it does not take long for vegetation to grow back, but the sites seem pretty bare.

If they were worried about that, a controlled burn-off of grass is easy enough - just wait for the wind to blow the right way, shake out a jerrycan of gasoline, and drop a match.

OTB wrote:If they were worried about that, a controlled burn-off of grass is easy enough - just wait for the wind to blow the right way, shake out a jerrycan of gasoline, and drop a match.

That makes sense I suppose. The 'why' is pretty obvious, I was just curious about the 'how'.

There are a lot of stories of different FSB commanders being thumped by the brass for not keeping the grass clear in their wire, mainly because it often resulted in enemy infiltration. Burning was very unusual as fire mixes badly with emplaced claymore, trip flares and foo-gas. Weed killer was extensively used, and in some books you can read about how troops hated the duty because they always ended up with chemical burns, lung irritation or other rashes.

Most SF A-camps would actually cut the grass once or twice a month, depending upon how often they replaced or repositioned their claymores and flares. USMC and Army policy of "resting" line units on FSBs usually resulted in too much laziness/tiredness to do that sort of chore.

As for the interiors of the bases being bare... a lot of that has to do with there being no topsoil after construction, just bare deep dirt or clay. Couple that with constant foot traffic and there's no way for anything to grow. Down in the IV Corps delta the actually had the opposite problem: plants would sprout from the sandbags as the topsoil and loam was very deep in that region. At SF A-camps they'd pour concrete over the tops of sandbags and the tops of berms to keep them both from eroding in the rains and stop plants from sprouting.

That's an excellent explanation Darby; many thanks!