Thanks to the "Rakkasans" 3/187th for this
report.
An account of the battle May 10th-20th 1969
During the widely reported and often misanalyzed Tet Offensive of 1968, the
NVA had staged , through the A Shau Valley, an entire NVA division and other VC
forces for its massive attacks on Hue and Danang. In the battle for Hue alone,
the NVA lost over five thousand men. By early 1969, it was becoming apparent to
the MACV [Military Assistance Command Vietnam] and XXIV Corps staffs that A Shau
Valley was once again an area of high NVA activity, logistically and
strategically, and an important terminus for the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The
3/187th's battle for Dong Ngai and the discovery of mammoth supply depots in the
area served to accentuate that point.XXIV Corps, the U.S. command operating
in the northern corps area of South Vietnam (I Corps), was commanded by the
brilliant and indefatigable Lt. Gen. Richard G. Stilwell, 52, USMA '38, a man
who prided himself on working twenty-hour days with about three hours reserved
for sleep-usually from 0200 to 0500-when he wasn't busy. He planned to clear out
the A Shau Valley using ten battalions of infantry, including the 9th Marine
Regiment, the 3d ARVN Regiment, the 3/5th Cavalry, and three air assault
battalions: 1/506th, 2/501st, and 3/187th. The overall plan of attack called for
the marines and the 3/5th Cav to combat-assault into the valley and RIF
[reconnaissance in force] toward the Laotian border while the ARVN units cut the
highway through the base of the valley. The 501st and the 506th mission was to
destroy the enemy in their AOs and block escape routes into Laos.
The 3/187th drew what turned out to be the toughest part of the
operation: Clear and occupy Dong Ap Bia, a mountain that rose to 970 meters at
its highest point with ridgelines at 800, 900, 916, and 937 meters high. In the
rather cryptic words of one army historian: "3/187th Inf would combat-assault
into LZ 2, 2,000 meters northwest of Dong Ap Bia and 1,500 meters west of the
Laotian border. The order of movement would be D, A, C; B Company would act as
the brigade reserve until released and then combat-assault into LX 2. D Company
would secure the LZ until replaced by A Company and the RIF to the high ground
500 meters to the northwest. C Company would secure the LZ until the
Headquarters element reached the LZ and then move 500 meters to the southwest.
The Headquarters group would move to link up with C Company, riffing toward Dong
Ap Bia. When B Company was released from standby status it would be
combat-assaulted into LZ 2 and then proceed to the southwest to a ridgeline
running from Hill 937.
The terrain in the area favored the defenders. The mountains they were to
defend and their ridges were along the Trung Pham River on the Laotian border.
The area was covered with a tropical, double- and triple-canopied jungle. The
land beneath the trees was a tangled mass of saw-toothed elephant grass, thick
stands of bamboo, and other tough vines that inhibited foot movement, even
without an enemy presence. The hills gave way to ridgelines, cut with deep
ravines, saddles, draws, and smaller hills. It was an area long occupied by the
NVA and fortified with bunkers, spider holes, deep tunnels, trenches, and
underground shelters for aid stations, CPs, and storage depots. And this time,
the NVA intended to stay their ground.
Operation Apache Snow was scheduled to launch on 10 May 1969.
10 May 1969: Firebase Blaze, five hundred by a thousand meters, was
twenty kilos south of Ap Bia Mountain. In the early morning hours, eighteen
hundred men from five battalions-1/506th, 2/501st, and 3/187th from the 101st,
and 4/1 and 2/1 ARVN-were assembled there to await liftoff. In the predawn
hours, the troopers lounged about the area, napping, smoking, talking, wiping
off sweat from the early-morning heat, cleaning weapons. Pilots and door gunners
stood by some of the sixty-five Hueys, already at Firebase Blaze, that would
air-assault the troops into the battle area. The men were poised to launch the
largest air mobile assault in the Vietnam war. Ten artillery batteries were laid
and ready to fire from Firebases Bradley, Airborne, Currahee, Berchtesgaden, and
Cannon, having been moved in to their firing positions only sixteen hours before
the invasion.
H-Hour was 0730. In the hour before the helicopter launch,
fighter-bombers had bombed the LZs for fifty minutes; the artillery followed
with a fifteen-minute barrage. Then came aerial rocket artillery helicopters for
a one-minute "frosting on the cake." The troops could hear their bombs blasting
the enemy defenses-and, they hoped, cutting down their losses later. At 0649,
the TAC-Air prep stopped and the troops prepared to "saddle up." The lift
helicopters, UH-1Ds, began to arrive at Firebase Blaze in groups of sixteen, for
a total of sixty-four. At 0730, H-Hour, the sixty-four Hueys and the first four
hundred men and the lead companies of 1/506th and 3/187th, covered by Cobra
gunships, were on their way to the northern A Shau Valley. The Hueys flew to the
south across the A Shau Valley, and then, using the walls of the valley as a
screen, turned to the north along the Laotian border to their LZs.
By 0800, D Company, then A and C, landed on LZ 2 without opposition. Ten
minutes later, the troops were moving toward their assigned locations and
setting up defensive positions. As planned, Capt. Dean L. Johnson and his C
Company secured the LZ. Captain Gerald R. Harkins and his A Company moved out
toward the Laotian border. Captain Luther L. Sanders led his D Company to the
south-southwest, passed through the battalion CP on LZ 2, and headed up the
ridge protruding to the northwest of Dong Ap Bia. At 0945, Honeycutt and his
command ship landed on LZ 2. Honeycutt relieved Capt. Dean Johnson of LZ
security, and Johnson and C Company moved out toward the border. Then Honeycutt
and part of his staff began to move up the mountain ridge behind D Company and,
at about 1100, linked up with Sanders about a thousand meters from the top of
the mountain. Helicopters hovering slowly overhead reported enemy trails,
campsites, supply dumps, and bunkers. The signs of the enemy were becoming
ominous. Honeycutt began to sense the enemy around him and radioed Colonel Conmy
to release B Company to him. Conmy readily agreed, and B Company arrived at LZ 2
about 1430. B Company was commanded by Capt. Charles L. Littman, who had taken
over from Captain Robinson on 8 May and would command the company for only
twelve days. At about 1530, B Company reached Honeycutt's CP. Honeycutt ordered
Littman to move his company up the mountain. "I doubt if you'll make it
tonight." Honrycutt told him, "but sometime late tomorrow morning I want to move
the CP up there."
"That shouldn't be any problem," Littman replied. "And be careful."
"Don't worry, Colonel." Littman and B Company were on the way.
"After reaching the uppermost portion of the ridge, the company moved
several hundred meters to the northeast and the proceeded south along a second
ridge," wrote an Army historian. "As the company moved, the enemy's presence
could be felt. Lookout towers high in the boughs of the canopy were passed.
Jointed sections of bamboo, freshly cut for their water content, were strewn
about. Spider holes and punji pits were encountered. B Company moved slowly,
hoping to make the summit before dusk. The sound of artillery impacting on the
hill, the ridges, and in the valleys and ravines was pleasing to the ear. The
faint ping of mortar fire, coming from the battalion CP at D Company's location,
was reassuring. A round whined overhead, then another. Contact! Small-arms fire
began to pour in and the RPGs. The second platoon, led by Lt. Marshall Edwards,
dispersed and returned fire. The bushes, the trees, the jagged rocks all seemed
steeped with the violence of armed combat. The smell of cordite hung low over
the anxious troops. Artillery was adjusted to within 25 meters of the platoon
with shrapnel falling into friendly positions. The firing subsided, the flared
again as the Rakkasans moved forward....When more HE was poured into enemy
positions, the fire lessened and then stopped; sweep teams found four enemy
bodies and four AK-47's....Artillery pounded the area throughout the night."
Honeycutt ordered Littman to dig in and establish and NDP.
11 May 1969: Just prior to dawn, the Rakkasans in NDPs [night defensive
position] launched a "mad minute," heavy machine-gun and automatic-rifle fire
out of the perimeter into the enemy positions. Cobra gunships were on station
overhead. At 0750, B Company, with Lieutenant Denholm's 4th Platoon in the lead,
moved out. As the platoon made its way up the denuded ridge, the men found
bloody trails, weapons, gear, and eight enemy KIAs. Throughout the late morning
and early afternoon, the other three companies slugged on, finding fresh
bunkers, commo wire, and other NVA gear. At about 1600, Denholm's men hit the
enemy head-on. An enemy soldier sprang from a hole and shot Sp4 Aaron
Rosenstreich in the chest. Sp4 John McCarrell was blown to bits by an NVA
rocket. Rosenstreich died moments later. Denholm was blown down the trail, but,
even deaf and stunned, he called for a machine gun. Sp4 Terry Larson rushed
forward and was shot through the head. Sp4 Donald Mills rushed forward with an
M60 and was shot through the chest. Seconds later, he got up, charged, and
emptied his weapon into the sniper. In a bind, the B Company men grenaded the
area around them and pulled back, carrying their dead and wounded with them.
Honeycutt called in artillery and air strikes.
At 1730, gunships flew over the area. During one strike, a gunship
misfired and hit Honeycutt's CP with rockets. He was hit and two of his men
killed. Thirty-five men were wounded, including battalion Sgt. Maj. Bernie
Meehan. Honeycutt got on his radio and demanded that all aircraft check with his
CP before launching strikes and halt all ARA [aerial rocket artillery] until
friendly positions were marked more clearly.
Later that day, from documents found on an NVA soldier and translated by
his Kit Carson scout, Honeycutt and the Brigade intelligence officer, Captain
Fredericks, estimated that the 29th NVA Regiment was on the mountain with a
strength of between twelve and eighteen hundred men, heavily reinforced with
weapons. The 29th mission, according to the documents, was to infiltrate down to
the plains and attack Hue.
A Company moved east toward the border. C Company moved to the southeast
and at 0913 reported its location as three hundred meters southeast of the
battalion CP that was on the hill's northeastern ridge for the remainder of the
operation.
With the new intelligence, Honeycutt realized that his enemy was a major
force and one ready and able to fight. He ordered Captain Johnson to move his C
Company east toward the Ap Bia Mountain. He directed Harkins to move A Company
back up the ridge to the battalion CP to relieve D Company. He told Sanders to
use D Company to clear a ravine to the northeast, and then attack up the
mountain from that position.
12 May 1969: During the day, eight air strikes pummeled the enemy
positions, the last one at 1734. The strikes included high drag bombs, napalm,
and five-hundred and one-thousand-pound bombs with delay fuses. As the gunships
left, artillery fire - 105s, 155s, and 8-inch - blasted the area with great
accuracy. B Company started up the ridge when the fire lifted. The bombing and
napalm had opened trails in the jungle and the men saw enemy bunkers that they
blasted with recoilless rifles. The fire caused the NVA soldiers to spring from
their spider holes. They rolled grenades down on the Rakkasans, wounding six
men. Littman moved his company back down the ridge, carrying the wounded with
them. Helicopter gunships and fighter-bombers returned to cover the area with
"snake and nape" (20mm cannon fire and napalm).
In the D Company area, Sanders was having trouble. As the single lines of
men slowly and cautiously through the ravines and dense jungle, they were hit
from three directions by many snipers high in the trees. The D Company troopers
raked the trees with gunfire, but progress was slow. They could hear the enemy
all around them.
Honeycutt wanted another LZ near B Company. One of the helicopters
bringing in the engineers and their equipment was hit by enemy fire and crashed.
But most of the engineers landed safely, rescued their gear, and, with B Company
help, by 1500 had completed the lower LZ. Honeycutt had another LZ carved out
100 meters north of his CP-known as the upper LZ. By evening, C Company, after
being ambushed in late afternoon when rocket-propelled grenades hit the trees
above them and suffering eight wounded, was in an NDP 500 meters southeast of
the lower LZ. B Company's NDP was located 350 meters northeast of the lower LZ.
D Company was 500 meters to the north of the lower LZ. A Company and the
battalion command post remained at the blocking position next to the upper LZ.
During the night, the NVA probed all the NDPs and, at midnight, hit the NDPs
with accurate mortar fire.
13 May 1969: At 0656, the forward air controller (FAC), arrived on
station and directed ten air strikes against the known enemy fortifications. The
Phantom jets used delayed-action ordnance to penetrate the canopy and explode in
depth in the bunkers, trenches, and spider holes. The Rakkasans were well aware
that the enemy troops ducked into the tunnels and bunkers at the sound of the
jets and came out as soon as they left the area.
After the early-morning air strikes, B and C Companies resumed their
treacherous climb up the ridge toward the enemy's dug-in positions and suffered
a withering attack from a nest of snipers and small arms, RPGs and grenades.
More and more wounded 3/187th soldiers from B and C Companies made their way
back down the trails. Other Rakkasans, carrying cans of ammo and grenades,
passed them on the way up. In the C Company CP area, two men were killed and
five wounded by an NVA attack into their security perimeter. The artillery FO
called for fire and broke up the attack.
D Company was having an equally difficult time about six hundred meters
from the battalion command post, wading through a river, climbing up the side of
a ravine, and then attacking toward the top of Ap Bia. The NVA hit them with
rocket-propelled grenades, badly wounding three men. Across the river, another
RPG hit the 3d Platoon, wounding five men, and blowing Lieutenant Mattioli off
the ridge and into the river.
"Delta Company, with platoons on both banks of the ravine, returned the
fire with every available weapon and called for gunships," wrote Fred
Waterhouse. "They also called for a medevac helicopter, which arrived on the
scene at 1510 hours. As the Rakkasans were hoisting the wounded into the
hovering helicopter, an RPG slammed into it. It crashed down on Pfc. George
Pickel, killing him instantly. One of its whirling blades killed Sp4 William
Springfield and wounded Miguel Moreno. Captain Luther Sanders watched in agony.
He now had seven wounded and seven dead. His company would have to carry all of
them out by litter. Delta Company started back up the mountain through the river
bottom. At places, they climbed sheer cliffs and took one hour to move a hundred
yards."
By late afternoon, the 3d Platoon of A Company reached the beleaguered D
Company and the column started moving again, struggling up the steep cliffs at
about thirty feet in half an hour. Then the rain came in torrents. Sanders
halted his column and set up an NDP and called in artillery to surround his
perimeter with close-in, constant shelling throughout the night. Just after
midnight, the NVA, from the shelter of Laos, hit the Rakkasan positions with
mortars. Honeycutt called in the "Spooky" gunship, a C-47 equipped with
rapid-fire Gatling guns, to spray the area. The NVA did not attack that night.
Meanwhile, Colonel Conmy ordered the 1/506th to change its mission and reinforce
the 3/187th attack on the mountain.
14 May 1969: At 0646, the FAC reported in to Honeycutt's CP and directed
thirteen air strikes - napalm, thousand-pound bombs - on the mountain throughout
the day. The artillery from the nearby firebases blasted the area constantly.
The first concentrated attack on the summit began at 0756," wrote an Army
historian. "C Company moved east from its NDP location up a small finger (Finger
1). B Company moved to the east from its NDP location up a small finger about
150 meters north of C Company (Finger 2). Both companies came into contact
immediately but pressed on, with C Company reaching the military crest of the
hill at 0843. Mutually supporting bunkers were encountered. Chicom claymores
were set up in the trees. Heavy mortar, RPG, and small-arms fire continued to
harass the Rakkasans."
On ridge finger 2, C Company found itself in a ferocious fight when the
NVA pummeled them with small-arms fire, RPGs, and grenades, rolled down the
sides of hills. In Lt. James Goff's 3d Platoon, six men were badly wounded. The
troops kept moving forward, but the NVA came out of their holes, firing AK-47s.
Goff's men were hit from all sides. Two were killed and fifteen wounded. The
other platoons of C Company were nailed against the side of the mountain.
Sfc. Louis Garza led a platoon from B Company in three unsuccessful
assaults up the hill to help B Company, and had seven men wounded. On his fourth
attempt, Garza moved through the NVA bunker line and found NVA bodies throughout
the area. The enemy in a second row of bunkers opened fire and wounded six more
troopers. The lead platoons of B and C Companies began to fall back under heavy
NVA fire. Sp4 John Comerford crawled up with an M60 machine gun and sprayed the
bunkers. But it was not enough. Honeycutt sent a platoon from A Company to cover
the withdrawl. Unfortunately, as it moved up, it was hit by helicopter gunships
firing rockets that killed Sp4 Edward Brooks and badly wounded three other men.
Lieutenant Donald Sullivan and his 2d Platoon of C Company tried to help the
fallback but was hit with RPGs that wiped out a four-man litter team, blew his
radio operator, Sp4 Ron Swanson, down the hill, and killed Rakkasan Willie
Chapman. C Company now had a total of fifty-two men killed and wounded.
By 1700, the Rakkasans were in NDPs and Honeycutt asked for a sit rep
[situation report]. He learned that he had lost twelve KIA and eighty badly
wounded men. By 1920, though, he had medevaced out of the area all his dead and
wounded. At 2000, a Spooky arrived on station and throughout the night, laced
the area west of the Rakkasan position toward the Laotian border.
15 May 1969: During the morning hours, the gunships and ten artillery
firebases repeated their almost incessant bombing of the enemy positions as they
had done the previous days, reducing the mountain and ridgelines to smoldering
piles of blackened and smoking tree stumps, churned-up earth, denuded of
vegetation.
At 1200, A and B Companies attacked the same two fingers that they had
assaulted the previous day. Sfc. Louis Garza led 4th Platoon from B Company over
the same ground, and two claymore mines hit and wounded his two point men. Garza
called for air support. After the strike with 250 pound bombs, Garza and his
platoon moved forward, firing their machine guns and M16s, overran the bunkers,
and killed eight NVAs. But sniper and machine-gun fire halted his advance. He
marked the enemy position with smoke and called for helicopter gunships.
Unfortunately, the first gunship salvoed an entire rack of rockets into B
Company's CP, killing Pfc. Joseph Price and wounding fifteen others, including
the CO, Capt. Charles Littman. He was replaced by Capt. John C. "Butch"
Chappelle. Higher up the trail, Garza and his men were hit with an NVA
counterattack that Pfcs. Snyder and Maryniewski drove off with machine-gun fire.
Lieutenant Frank McGreevy and his 1st Platoon of A Company were stopped
in front of a line of bunkers. He tried to move forward but a machine-gun team,
led by Sp4 Michael Lyden laying down covering fire, was hit by return fire that
killed Lyden. McGreevy's platoon was now cut in half, and he ordered a
withdrawl. Honeycutt called off the attack and told B and C Companies to set up
a joint NDP. He also called in his artillery liaison officer and gave him a
message to get back to the division staff. "I want you to make sure that
everybody gets this. And I mean the artillery people and the gunship pilots and
the liaison officers . . everybody. I don't want any more ARA out here if they
can't shoot the enemy instead of us. I'm tired of taking more casualties from
friendlies than from the enemy. The next goddamn sonofabitch who comes out here
and shoots us up, we're gonna shoot his fuckin' ass down. And that's final. Now
you go back and tell 'em that."
During the night, NVA sappers out of Laos moved up the draw and tried to
hit C Company and the battalion CP. A "Shadow" gunship, a C-119 armed with three
miniguns, took them under fire. That evening the CO of 1/506th reported to
Honeycutt that he was within 1,200 meters southeast of the lower LZ.
16 May 1969: A first-light check by C Company found fourteen NVA bodies
in their area. The day began just like the previous six days: saturation
bombing, air strikes, and ceaseless artillery volleys onto the known or
suspected enemy locations. Honeycutt told Sanders to stop finding an avenue to
the top of the mountain, realizing that D Company's three brutal days in the
ravine was enough. He ordered D Company back up the ridge to secure B Company's
LZ. Honeycutt planned his attack on the mountain with A Company in the lead,
supported by a flanking attack by 1/506th. But the 1/506th was in trouble in its
area. One NVA platoon hit the lead elements of the battalion that was receiving
heavy fire from Hills 800, 900, and 916. The NVA attacks prevented the 1/506th
from getting to the mountain in time to support the 3/187th's assault. Honeycutt
called off the attack without the help 0f 1/506th. Honeycutt was frustrated. He
thought that 1/506th was taking too long, and he sensed that the NVA was
bringing up reinforcements from Laos to beef up the mountain.
17 May 1969: Honeycutt put the day "on hold" and had his men prepare for
the assault the next day by stockpiling supplies, passing out new protective gas
masks, and bringing up concussion grenades for use against the dug-in NVA in
bunkers. The 1/506th, fighting up the mountain crest and taking casualties, had
still not arrived in a support position. There was little contact during the
hours of darkness.
18 May 1969: Early in the morning, the usual "prep" fires of air and
artillery pounded the mountaintop. The first CS gas rounds, however, landed in
the middle of A Company, and division made the decision to call off the CS
attack. At 1025, A and D Companies moved out and, for the first time in the Ap
Bia assault, every man in the attacking companies wore a flak jacket and most of
the riflemen carried about forty rounds of M16 ammo and some as many as ten
grenades. Honeycutt's plan had A and D Companies moving up the two fingers,
proven to be the only accessible routes to the top.
On A Company's point was Lieutenant McGreevy and his 1st Platoon,
followed by the 2d and 3d Platoons. As usual, the enemy fire increased with the
appearance of the Rakkasans. McGreevy was hit and had to evacuated. By 1215, the
assault companies had to halt in place and wait for a heavy concentration of
fire - gunships, artillery, mortars, napalm, and all the small-arms fire that
the infantrymen could bring to bear: machine guns, M-79s, light antitank weapons
and 90mm recoilless rifles.
In D Company's area on the flank of A Company, Lt. Thomas Lipscomb and
his 3d Platoon were in the lead. At a bunker line, the enemy fire was heavy.
Three men went down, and Lipscomb yelled for his men to move up.
"Keep moving," Sanders yelled to Lipscomb.
"They've got claymores all over up here," he yelled back. "If we try to
move, they'll blow 'em on us."
"You've got to move, claymores or not. Shoot them if you have to, but
you've got to get those men up that hill. That's our only chance. If we stay
here, they'll kill us all."
Lipscomb charged a trench line with two other men while three of his men
laid down covering fire. A grenade exploded at Lipscomb's feet, blowing him back
down the hill and killing him instantly. Pfc. Paul Bellino rushed forward but
he, too, was killed by a sniper.
Sanders realized that he had to get moving or, standing still, lose more
men. He ordered Lt. Jerry Walden and his 1st Platoon to continue the attack.
Shortly thereafter, Sanders was shot in the arm, and Lieutenant Walden took over
the company. He called Honeycutt and called for more ammo. Helicopters arrived
shortly, hovering a few feet over the ground, while the crew threw out boxes of
ammo.
"Walden told the colonel his Rakkasans were not going to back off," wrote
Fred Waterhouse. "Walden moved his men up in a skirmish line. They leapfrogged
from log to log and crater to crater. NVA grenades flew through the air. Sp4s
Howard Harris and Jack Little blazed away with an M60 machine gun. Harris was
shot in the neck. Private First Class Roy Mathew moved up as assistant gunner.
Seconds later he was killed, shot in the throat. Nearby, Pfc. Steve Korovesis, a
new replacement, was hit by shrapnel and evacuated. He had been in Vietnam for
one month and lasted ten minutes in his first battle.
"Lieutenant Walden moved up and down the line, steadying his men. They
began taking flanking fire. Two Rakkasans tried to rush forward. They were both
shot down. Private First Class Willie Kirkland, 1st Platoon medic, moved up to
give aid. He was hit five times in the chest. While Pfc. Roger Murray laid down
covering fire, Sgt. Tom McGall and Pfc. Michael Rocklen ran up and pulled
Kirkland into a bomb crater. Kirkland died a few minutes later."
South of D Company, A Company moved to the attack. Lieutenant Daniel
Bresnahan's 3d Platoon led the assault up a thirty-degree slope, overran the
first line of bunkers, killed about ten NVA, and moved toward the second line of
bunkers. Back at his CP, Honeycutt was receiving optimistic reports from his
commanders. 1/506th, however, had moved only about a hundred meters against
strong opposition.
At 1137, Lieutenant Walden reported to Honeycutt that he was within
seventy-five meters of the top. But minutes later, Walden and 1st Sgt. Thomas
Sterns were hit by shrapnel. D Company was without officers, and all platoons
were running low on ammunition. Honeycutt told them to hold fast, that he would
send help. He contacted Captain Johnson and he ordered him to move C Company up
the hill to reinforce what was left of A and D Companies, to take all the ammo
they could carry, and to take over D Company as well as his own men.
Honeycutt realized the gravity of his situation in spite of some previous
optimism. C Company had to fight up the hill and took fire from the southeast
where, from a helicopter, he saw that the NVA were also in force in that
direction. He also found out that 1/506th was in no condition to assist his
final assault on the mountain. He called colonel Conmy, briefed him on his very
difficult situation, and asked for another company, a "fully intact air assault
company." Conmy told him that it would be airborne in minutes. But that became
open to discussion later.
From 1251 until 1330, all units held in place as jets raked the
smoldering hill with "snake and nape." When Johnson reached the remnants of D
Company, he told Lt. Joel Trautman, his 1st Platoon commander, to move up the
small finger ridge. The men rushed forward in bounds. They could see the crest
of the mountain only a hundred meters above them. Trautman was hit in the thigh
by machine-gun fire and went down, losing consciousness. Honeycutt was overhead
in a command chopper, directing air strikes and artillery fire. Finally, he felt
that his men were going to take the mountain after the bloody fighting of the
past nine days. He landed and started climbing up the mountain. At B Company's
old LZ, his men were hit by small-arms fire, and Honeycutt shot an NVA soldier.
As he started up the hill again, the sky became black, the wind gusted,
lightning streaked through the sky, and a torrential rainstorm began. Visibility
was limited to twenty meters. Honeycutt radioed all companies to hold fast until
the rain stopped. The heavy rains continued until bomb craters were small ponds,
the mud was thick and slippery on the slopes, and forward movement was almost
impossible. Honeycutt checked with Colonel Conmy and decided to withdraw. C
Company held to cover the withdrawl of A and D Companies. By 1530, all three
companies had moved back.
Honeycutt had been expecting another company to help him take Ap Bia,
but, unknown to him, General Zais, deeply concerned about the Rakkasan
casualties, had stopped the reinforcing company from joining the battle. At
1700, General Zais arrived at Honeycutt's CP. The Rakkasans were a battered
battalion. During the day, A and C Companies had lost nine men each, B had lost
four, and Delta thirty-nine. Zais wanted to know if Honeycutt could fight on.
Honeycutt said that he would need just one company more. Zais was hesitant.
Honeycutt was adamant.
"General, if there is anybody that deserves to take that sonofabitch,
it's the Rakkasans - and you know that as well as I do. And there is just no
goddamn way in hell that I want to see Sherron and 2/506th come in here and take
that mountain after all we've been through. And if it ain't gonna be that way,
then you just fire my ass right now. Right this minute!"
Zais paced around the CP for about a minute and then said, "Okay, you can
have your company."
"Thank you, General," said Honeycutt.
At 1830, A Company, 2/506th. began to land by helicopter on the upper LZ.
That night, the company remained with B/3/187th in a blocking position while
A,C, and D Companies set up NDPs within a few hundred meters of the lower LZ
(one hundred meters north of the battalion command post).
19 May 1969: At 0630, the jets arrived and pounded the enemy positions
with seven air strikes using bombs, napalm, and rockets. For some reason, the
NVA popped purple smoke grenades. No friendly forces used "grape", so the jets
had some accurately marked targets to hit. During the morning, D Company and
A/2/506th moved to the lower LZ. Honeycutt worked on his final plan of attack on
the mountain, slated for the morning of the twentieth. Other units moved into
locations for the final assault. 2/3rd ARVN moved by helicopter from Hue to an
LZ a thousand meters south of AP Bia and then climbed northwest to an assault
position five hundred meters from the top of Hill 900. Three companies of
2/501st were airlifted from Firebase Airborne to an LZ eight hundred meters
northeast of Ap Bia and the walked to within four hundred meters of the base of
Hill 937. 1/506th attacked south of the mountain.
Honeycutt's plan of attack called for A/2/506th to move up the northern
face (Finger 2); C Company to move up Finger 1; A Company to move to the south
from the lower LZ and then proceed up the southern ridge; 2/3d ARVN to assault
the eastern ridge; 2/501st to assault to the southwest from its position around
the mountain.
Over a captured radio, Honeycutt got a message from the NVA. "Black Jack,
we are going to kill all of your men tomorrow. When you come up the mountain in
the morning, Black Jack, we will be waiting for you. All of your men are going
to die. Can you hear me, Black Jack? All will die!"
"We'll see who dies tomorrow, asshole," Honeycutt barked.
20 May 1969: For two hours, beginning around dawn, the air force jet and
Skyraider pilots bombed all four sides of Ap Bia with every type of armament
they could "scarf up" at their bases. Like the sequence of the previous ten
days, when the pairs of planes left the area, the artillery blasted the NVA
positions with tons of 105mm, 155mm, and 8-inch artillery rounds. At 1000, the
four infantry battalions assaulted the burning, scoured, denuded mountaintop. In
3/187th area, the lineup had A Company on the right, C Company in the center,
and !/2/506th on the left. When the troops reached the base of the mountain,
they formed long skirmish lines and began to move cautiously up the slopes. They
were surprised when they were not fired on with the usual heavy bursts of fire
at close range.
The hill was eerily silent. And in ten minutes, the three companies had
reached the first bunker line - now seemingly deserted. As a precaution, the
troopers destroyed the bunkers with grenades and satchel charges. Twenty minutes
later, their lines were just a hundred meters from the military crest of Ap Bia
and closing in on the second bunker line.
The mountain was quiet for ten minutes. Then, at about 1040, when the
skirmish lines were just seventy-five meters from the top, the bunkers came
alive with a rain of RPGs at point-blank range. Ten to fifteen NVA hit C
Company, wounded seven Rakkasans, and continued the fight by rolling grenades
down the slope. Sp4 Tyrone Campbell and his assistant gunner rushed forward with
a 90mm recoilless rifle and scored a direct hit on one bunker and, a moment
later, another.
On the right flank of C Company, Sp4 Edward Merjil, 2d Platoon, was a
one-man commando team. He knocked out two bunkers with a grenade launcher, and
then, "with his squad on both sides laying down covering fire, rushed a third,"
wrote Samuel Zaffiri. "While his men poured fire on the bunker, pinning down the
enemy soldiers inside, Merjil took careful aim from ten meters away and shot a
grenade right into the aperture, killing the two NVA soldiers huddled inside."
"Merjil reloaded quickly, then rushed forward with the rest of his squad
up the steep side of the mountain. Ten meters later, the men topped the
mountain. They did not realize it at the time, but they were the first Americans
to set foot on Dong Ap Bia. The time was 1145, exactly nine days and five hours
after Bravo Company first made contact on the mountain."
"Still, Merjil and his men had taken only a few square feet of the
mountain. The NVA were still dug in all over the top of it, and before the squad
could move any further, they were pinned down by fire coming from a half-dozen
enemy positions."
Behind them, Lt. Donald Sullivan was pushing his 2d Platoon as hard as he
could. To his left, Sp4 Lionel Mata and another squad moved up. Mata laid down a
base of grazing fire with his machine gun, and within fifteen minutes, his squad
had moved around the area and knocked out ten bunkers with smoke and frag
grenades taped together. Then, C Company, two or three men at a time, reached
the top of the mountain. The NVA deserted their bunkers and ran down the west
face of the mountain in the draw between Hills 900 and 910 toward Laos.
Overhead, Honeycutt directed 81mm mortar fire into the draw while B/1/506th sent
a force below the draw and waited for the NVA to emerge. When they did, they ran
into a wall of fire. But the NVA was aggressive: two platoons of B/1/506th
fought hand-to-hand with the fleeing NVA.
On the western face of the mountain, C/187th set up a perimeter.
Honeycutt ordered Captain Harkins to move his A Company up the mountain to
reinforce C Company. A Company was fighting a hard battle just below the crest
of Ap Bia, in which Harkins had already lost Lt. George Bennitt and fifteen men.
Harkins rallied his troops and moved up. About thirty meters from the top,
Harkins took a shot through his neck that lodged in his back. He staggered a few
feet and fell into a shell hole. Overhead, Honeycutt urged him on even after
Harkins told him that he had been wounded. "I've been hit bad," Harkins told
him. Honeycutt said, "I know you've been hit, but you still gotta keep pushing."
A medic bandaged Harkins, and Harkins staggered almost blindly ahead, holding on
to his RTO's backpack.
The NVA in the last bunker line refused to give up, pinned down A
Company's troops, and rolled grenades down on them. At the same time, an NVA
squad hit C Company's right flank.
"Pinned down on the far right side of Alpha's skirmish line," wrote
Samuel Zaffiri, "Sp4 Johnny Jackson, a machine gunner in the 3d Platoon, huddled
behind a log and thought: Here we go again. Another attack failed. As he cowered
there, though, he suddenly remembered what he had boastfully told a friend
earlier in the morning. 'I'll tell you what,' he had said, 'if we go up that
sonofabitch this time, I'm staying up. I ain't gonna be run down again and let
them assholes shoot me in the back. I'm through with this retreating bullshit.'
"He kept thinking of his words now, and then on impulse stood up and
shouted out loud so everyone in the 3d Platoon could hear him, 'Fuck this
bullshit!' With a fluid motion, Jackson brought his M60 up to his chest and
raked the enemy position above, then charged up the side of the mountain, wildly
spraying bullets from side to side."
On his way to the top, Jackson stumbled into a spider hole occupied by
two enemy soldiers. Before they could grab their weapons, Jackson sprayed them
with his M60. Then he raced upward and found himself looking into the aperture
of another bunker. He fired into it and scrambled up the remaining twenty or so
meters to the top of the mountain.
Below him, his friend, Sp4 Michael Vallone, frightened but inspired by
Jackson's charge, yelled. "Follow me," fired short bursts from his M16, and led
his squad, then the platoon, and the rest of A Company, up the mountain. At the
top, A Company rolled over the last bunker line and made it to the top. The
wounded Captain Harkins set up a perimeter defense tied into C Company, turned
the company over to Lt. Gordie Atcheson, and then began his laborious trek down
the mountain.
To the southwest, B/1/506th was in a tough battle. The 3d Platoon
attacked up Hill 900 but, about a hundred meters from the top, met a grim fate.
Claymore mines hidden in trees blasted the point squad, killing the point man
and wounding seven others. Two platoons of NVA, firing satchel charges, roared
down the hill through the shattered platoon, then raced back up through it
again. Fighting was close and brutal. Fifteen minutes later, the 3d Platoon had
ten dead and was surrounded by a pile of NVA KIAs. Lieutenant Colonel John
Bowers, CO of 1/506th, ordered Capt. William Stymiest, C Company CO, to send a
force up the hill to relieve the battered 3d Platoon. In a two hour fight, C
Company made it to the top, where sixty-five dead NVA littered the area.
By the end of the day, most of the troops of the 29th NVA Regiment had
been killed or were trying to escape across the border to Laos. From his
helicopter, Honeycutt could see the NVA running in all directions off the
mountain. B/1/506th was still in a blocking position to cover the southwestern
draw. Honeycutt brought in two fighter-bombers to strafe up and down the draw
and then brought in artillery fire.
The Rakkasans on the top and slopes of Dong Ap Bia found a landscape that
resembled what they imagined hell must be like. Throughout the area, they found
NVA pith helmets, AK-47s, stick grenades, bloody bandages, and RPGs. In the
center of Hill 937, a line of Rakkasans came across a group of fifteen NVAs who
apparently shell-shocked. Without waiting, the Rakkasans killed them all. Four
of the NVA had been chained to trees. All of them wore patches that read: "Kill
the Americans."
Honeycutt began the mop-up operation at about 1500. One POW,
eighteen-year-old Pham Van Hai, told his interrogators that 80 percent of his
hundred-man company and the 29th NVA Regiment's 7th and 8th Battalions had been
nearly wiped out. Later, Sp4 Johnny Jackson and his squad, searching the top of
the mountain, found an underground room containing the stripped and stacked
bodies of more than forty NVA soldiers. Other Rakkasians searching the
mountaintop discovered in its deep tunnels, a huge hospital, a regimental CP,
and many storage areas containing 152 individual and 25 crew-served weapons,
75,000 rounds of ammo, thousands of mortar and RPG rounds, and over ten tons of
rice.
The 3d Battalion of the 187th suffered 39 killed in action and 290
wounded. The total casualties of the American taking of Dong Ap Bia was 70 dead
and 372 wounded.
The losses inflicted on the NVA in Dong Ap Bia are debatable. The G2
Section of the 101st estimated the NVA dead at 633, based upon actual body
count. But no one could count the NVA running off the mountain, those killed by
artillery and air strikes, the wounded and dead carried into Laos, or the dead
buried alive in bunkers and tunnels.
The 3/187th's battle for Dong Ap Bia was over. For the next seventeen
days, the other three battalions would continue to mop up the mountain. But on
21 May, the Rakkasans were evacuated from the area to Camp Evans for a
stand-down at Eagle Beach.
While the other battalions were policing the Dong Ap Bia battlefield, one
imaginative soldier found a piece of cardboard C-ration box, wrote on it,
"Hamburger Hill," and nailed it to a charred tree trunk. Shortly thereafter,
another, perhaps more practical and blunt soldier, had added beneath the sign,
"Was it worth it?"
His question would be debated in Congress, in the administration, in the
media, and in many a gathering of military officers and men for months to come.
Shortly after the battle, a spokesman for Gen. Creighton Abrams, Gen.
Westmoreland's successor as COMUSMACV, said, "We are not fighting for terrain as
such. We are going after the enemy." General Zais said, "The hill was in my area
of operations. That was where the enemy was and that was where I attacked him."
When someone asked him why he didn't blast the hill with B-52s and spare the
infantry assault, General Zais said, with some rancor, "I don't know how many
wars we have to go through to convince people that aerial bombardment alone
cannot do the job." But the debate about the value of Hamburger Hill was far
from over.
Thanks to the "Rakkasans" 3/187th for this
report.
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