Hill 875 and the Battle of Dak To

I spent Thanksgiving with a Vietnam veteran; let's call him "Jack" for the sake of this post. He told me about his experiences as a medic during the Battle of Dak To on a Thanksgiving week thirty-nine years ago.

In 1967, Jack was coming down Hill 875 (So named because it was 875 meters high) to join with Alpha company at the bottom to help them make a landing zone.

They weren't expecting trouble, and were relived to not be with Alpha and Charlie companies who were supposed to be engaging the enemy at the top of the hill. However, his unit walked straight into an ambush. In the ensuring fight, most of his platoon was wiped out.

Wikipedia does a good job of summarizing the event:

That morning, (Sunday, November 19, 1967) the 2/503, 173rd Airborne Brigade, moved into jumpoff positions from which to assault Hill 875. Charlie and Delta companies moved up the slope in two columns while Alpha Company remained behind at the bottom to cut out an LZ (Landing Zone).

About half way up the hill, PAVN (The North Vietnamese = "People's Army of Vietnam".) machine gunners opened fire on the advancing paratroopers. Then B-40 rockets and 57-mm recoiless rifle fire were unleashed. The Americans were only 100 meters from the crest when the enemy infantry opened up with small arms and grenades. The advance was halted and the men went to ground, finding whatever cover they could. The North Vietnamese then launched a massed assault on Company A at the base of the hill. Unknown to the Americans, they had walked into a carefully prepared ambush by the 174th PAVN Regiment.

Alpha Company retreated up the slope, followed closely by the enemy. All that halted the PAVN onslaught from overrunning the entire battalion was the heroic efforts of men who stood their ground and died to buy time for their comrades. Soon, air strikes and artillery fire were being called in, but they had little effect due to the dense foliage. It was then that one of the worst friendly-fire incidents of the conflict took place. A US fighter-bomber dropped a 500-pound bomb into the middle of the perimeter, where the command group, the wounded, and the medics were located. (emphasis mine.)

Only three of the twenty medics in that engagement that survived. Of which Jack was one.

He ended his story with the following comment:

"To me, Thanksgiving isn't associated with turkey or family. It's what happened to me and the friends I left behind on that hill.

This morning I saw on the news that another few troops were killed in Iraq this week. To the families of those killed, that's all they are going to remember around this time of year."

Tags: Vietnam - Thanksgiving - Hill 875 - Dak To - war story

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