-Officer's Unit Discovered Enemy Tunnels In Nam -

Obituaries - Robert Haldane 1924 - 2008

Robert Haldane, an Army officer who led the battalion that discovered the infamous Cu Chi tunnels during the Vietnam WAR, died of cancer March 5 at his home in Alexandria, Va. He was 83.

Lt. Gen. Haldane was a lieutenant colonel Jan. 7, 1966, when he was in charge of the American infantry contingent of the 8,000 man U.S. - Australian Operation Crimp. His troops came under fire as soon as they landed near a rubber plantation about 25 , miles northwest of Saigon and were mystified when the large numbers of enemy soldiers seemed to vanish in relatively open terrain.

For three days, the battalion combed the area. They found a large trench, cache after cache of rice and salt, a classroom for 100 men, minefields, foxholes and antiaircraft artillery emplacements. The area was clearly home to a regiment-size force, but few Viet Cong were seen. Yet snipers continually harassed the Americans from within their own lines.