it was november of 1967 and the united
states was in the midst of building up
its forces in vietnam
throughout the month american troops
struggled to secure strategic areas in
the surroundings of the town of dakto in
a flat valley surrounded by shark peaks
nearly a mile high
the area served as a forward staging
base for some of the most top-secret u.s
special forces missions of the vietnam
war
the battles fought during those weeks
would go down in history as some of the
most brutal of the entire conflict
however it wasn't only the enemy that
posed a threat to american ground troops
on november 19th on hill 875 the second
battalion of the 173rd airborne brigade
was in dire need of support to counter
attack a significant movement of north
vietnamese troops
help was on the way but it wasn't what
anyone expected
as a us marine corps a4 skyhawk
approached with two 500 pound bombs
chaos reigned and one of the darkest
moments of the war was about to take
place
guerrilla
in the fall of 1967 the united states
was seeking to progressively escalate
the war in vietnam and pushed the north
vietnamese to surrender
the number of american casualties had
dramatically increased during the last
two years rising to up to 16 000 and the
war was barely beginning
thus from 125 000 ground troops
initially deployed to the country there
were now about half a million
meanwhile the north vietnamese had come
up with yet another plan to fight the
americans
their opponents had overwhelming
firepower and inflicted massive
casualties on them
as a result they opted to change tactics
and sought to get so close to american
ground forces that they couldn't request
air support
the new tactic would be tested in the
surroundings of the small town of dakto
in the central highlands and the us army
sent the 4th infantry 173rd airborne
brigade to meet the north vietnamese and
the hills around the town
after setting up a base camp in dakto
the brigade would send companies to
locate the enemy executing search and
destroy missions
every time the americans encountered the
north vietnamese they would strike
immediately and search for another
hiding spot
during the first three weeks of november
both sides engaged in heavy fire fights
to control the high grounds
but soon after the americans located an
enemy stronghold on hill 875 named for
its height in meters
the brigade second battalion soon
received orders to secure the hill
at 9 43 in the morning of november 19th
1967
three companies of the second five
hundred and third repositioned to
assault the disputed highland companies
c and d then climbed up the slope while
two platoons from company a covered
their rear in a classic formation used
in world war one known as two up one
back
the weapons platoon remained at the
bottom of the hill behind the rest of
company a to cut out a landing zone
instead of carrying out a frontal attack
with the bulk of their forces the unit
employed a strategy to advance small
groups that could surround north
vietnamese positions and then call in
air and artillery support
roughly 45 minutes later they had moved
within 300 meters of the crest
suddenly the north vietnamese opened
machine gun fire on the paratroopers
halting their advance
next b-40 rockets and 57-millimeter
recoil-less rifle fire were unleashed
upon the americans
the brave soldiers kept striving to
advance but the enemy was concealed in
interconnected networks of bunkers and
trenches
with this strategy they could fire at
the advancing troops even with small
arms and hand grenades
augie scarino then specialist fourth
class in company c would later recount
that quote the fighting just continued
back and forth we couldn't really move
up that much
most of the time you couldn't even see
them because the foliage was so thick
but the bullets you could hear them
whizzing by you cutting leaves and the
leaves just falling on top of you
someone next to you maybe would get
wounded
the americans were forced to stop and
lay low but finding any kind of cover
was challenging
they kept fighting for hours until 2 30
a.m when all of a sudden north
vietnamese troops hidden at the rear of
company a executed a mass assault
unbeknownst to the americans they had
stepped into a carefully planned ambush
friendly fire
the north vietnamese began to pressure
the american battalion from all four
sides
scarino would say quote we made a tight
little perimeter and we basically fought
off the north vietnamese who were
attacking us from the bottom of the hill
we couldn't go forward because they were
entrenched at the top of the hill we
weren't sure how many were behind us we
were trapped
company a was suddenly in danger of
being overrun and the soldiers were
compelled to retreat up the slope to
meet their fellow americans there or
else they would be isolated and shot
down
several volunteers then set up an ambush
and halted the advance of the incoming
north vietnamese
among them were private first class
carlos lazada and specialist 4 john
speer
however before they could set up their
m60 machine gun the enemy was already
firing at them
lazada then strove to hold the rearguard
position of his company as his friends
escaped moving the north vietnamese down
as they tried to advance lozada would
not abandon his position and reluctantly
refused to retreat finally succumbing to
the enemy fire
he was later bestowed a posthumous medal
of honor for saving his company that day
meanwhile john speer was also shot but
managed to crawl back to his company and
join the wounded
what remained of the second battalion
then formed a defensive perimeter and
called for help
intense fighting continued inside the
thick jungle and when airstrikes and
artillery were called in they inflicted
minor damage due to the density of the
foliage on the hillside
to make matters worse the soldiers were
about to run out of ammunition and water
was running dangerously low still it was
impossible to reach the battalion
that afternoon six uh helicopters were
either shot down or severely damaged
while attempting to reach the second
503rd
dug in on the steep hillside the men
were fighting just beside napalm fires
and they were also exposed to the north
vietnamese holding on inside their
tunnels
the situation was critical enough when
at 6 58 pm a devastating accident took
place
two bombs from a marine corps a4 skyhawk
fighter bomber fell to the ground at
hundreds of miles per hour
the two 500 pound mark 81 snake eye
bombs fell into the perimeter of the
second 503rd and even though the first
was a dud the second one did detonate
and caused a huge fireball followed by
10 seconds of pure silence
the bomb had fallen right on the second
battalion's command post where the most
badly wounded soldiers awaited medevac
helicopters
augie scorino would later describe the
scene
all i saw was black smoke and like a big
flash it's like when you strike a match
it's just a big fire and that was it
beloved catholic priest major charles
waters served as the battalion's
chaplain and had rescued plenty of
wounded soldiers earlier in the battle
as well as administered last rites he
was there among the medics and was also
awarded a posthumous medal of honor
the impact took the lives of 42 men on
the spot and wounded 45 more virtually
stripping away all commanders and medics
and leaving the battalion even more
vulnerable
aftermath
a fatal mistake from the air caused
chaos on the ground
after the initial shock passed there was
moaning and crying but there were
insufficient medicines like morphine and
plasma as well as a lack of water and
food
unscathed specialist john wambi cook
emerged from a pile of broken tree
trunks
he later recalled quote i thought it
couldn't have been our guys until i
heard someone on the radio say stop
you're killing us
captain dick goetz was overflying the
area and witnessed the event
he would later say during an interview
with that quote it was obvious when the
explosion went off that it was in the
wrong place
john spears survived the explosion but
lost an arm
he heard his colleagues screaming for
help
he had to scream too as he urgently
needed a tourniquet
the survivor later recounted quote i
passed out and miraculously somehow when
i woke up all my bleeding had stopped
i pulled myself a long way until i got
away from the area a little bit
to hide from the north vietnamese
hunting down scattered americans speer
had to hide underneath his deceased
teammates and remained hidden for a
couple of days until he was rescued
wounded and vulnerable the survivors
were concerned about more than their
injuries
it was evident that the north vietnamese
would launch an attack to finish them
anytime soon and they needed to stay
vigilant
as cook put it quote we expected an
all-out assault we had our rear covered
but it was just a matter of when they
were going to start coming over the berm
fortunately the north vietnamese never
came
however the survivors had to withstand
the entire night until three companies
from the 4th battalion could retrieve
them
because of the intense fire from snipers
and mortars not to mention the dense
terrain it wasn't until nightfall that
the rescuers reached the beleaguered
battalion
two days after the incident both
battalions moved out to take the crest
and by the end of the month the
americans pushed the enemy away and
secured the hilltop but the battle of
hill 875 had taken 87 lives from the 2nd
battalion and wounded 130.
in addition three soldiers were never
found and are still officially missing
in action
it was one of the darkest days of the
war for america and yet there were many
dire years in vietnam still to come
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