Climbing Hamburger Hill 50 Years After The Vietnam War’s Brutal, Haunting Battle by Paul Schemm – Wa

[rangerrebew]

Climbing Hamburger Hill 50 Years After The Vietnam War’s Brutal, Haunting Battle by Paul Schemm – Washington Post

    DONG AP BIA, Vietnam — We climbed the worn stairs heading steeply up the mountain into the heavy jungle. They looked like the way to some forgotten temple complex a thousand years old but had actually been built just 10 years ago to ease the ascent to Dong Ap Bia, the Crouching Beast, Hill 937 — Hamburger Hill.

    It is one of the most famous battles of the long Vietnam War. It inspired a movie and congressional hearings, symbolizing for some the incredible bravery of the American infantry in Vietnam and for others the futility and waste of the war.

    We weren’t climbing those stairs to settle that question, though we had others. Where exactly on this hill had the battle been fought all those years ago? On May 10, 1969, the U.S. Army’s most decorated unit, the 3rd Battalion of the 187th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, known as the Rakkasans, spent 10 days taking this hill against a deeply entrenched enemy. Every year the veterans mark the anniversary of the battle in Fort Campbell, Ky., and this year it’s the 50th.

https://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/climbing-hamburger-hill-50-years-after-vietnam-wars-brutal-haunting-battle

[sneakypete]

I was on a remote radio relay site on a mountaintop in Laos at the time,and listened in on that battle as it was going on. The commanding General should have been court-martialed and then shot. I even told the SOB he was an incompetent coward,and to quit flying around thousands of feet over the battle,have his pilot land his observation helicopter,grab a rifle,and show the men how it's done instead of whining at them like a cowardly little bitch.

It was clear that ALL that SOB cared about was his men grabbing the hilltop so he could brag about it and put himself in for another medal for securing it.  He didn't exhibit one single example of leadership the whole day I listened. All he did was scream,curse,and threaten to court-martial people.

I thought he was going to stroke out trying to figure out who I was. He  had to have been thinking I was one of his own radio operators,and he kept threatening me with the things he was going to do to me when he found out who I was,and I would tell him to do stuff like suck a diseased dogs penis in answer. At least he wasn't threatening the men in his unit that were fighting and dying while he was threatening me.

I forget who he was now. IIRC,his daddy was a famous WW-2 General,and he was a "legacy".