Hell On A Hill Top Hell On A Hill Top America’s Last Major Battle In Vietnam On The East Flank Of The A Shau Valley March–July 1970 The 324B Division Surrounds The 101st Airborne’s Currahee Battalion Major General Benjamin L. Harrison US Army, Retired iUniverse, Inc. New York Lincoln Shanghai Hell On A Hill Top America’s Last Major Battle In Vietnam All Rights Reserved © 2004 by Ben L. Harrison Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher. iUniverse, Inc. For information address: iUniverse, Inc. 2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100 Lincoln, NE 68512 www.iuniverse.com ISBN: 0-595-77536-5 Printed in the United States of America For the soldiers who fought at Ripcord. For my beautiful, loving and incredibly supportive wife, Carolyn. For our children, Ben and Laura, our grandchildren Sean,Mark,Michelle,Katie,MadelaineandChristian,andourgreatgrandchil- dren Hayden, Dylanand Madison. Contents Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii Map: 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division Area of Operations . . . . . . . . .x Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 PartI The Vietnam War in 1970 CHAPTER 1 Strategic Setting of Fire Support Base Ripcord In 1970 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 CHAPTER 2 Strategic Setting of PAVN Forces in the Ripcord Area in 1970 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 PartII The NVA Defend Their Base Area CHAPTER 3 Operation TEXAS STAR Is Slow To Rise . . . . . . . . .47 CHAPTER 4 The Fighting Spreads And Intensifies. . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 PartIII The North Vietnamese Attack CHAPTER 5 Ripcord Comes Under Siege. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70 CHAPTER 6 Workman’s D Co Gets Battered. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88 PartIV Time to Leave Fire Support Base Ripcord? CHAPTER 7 Intelligence from the Battlefield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112 v Contents vi CHAPTER 8 Time to go!!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115 CHAPTER 9 The Siege of FSB O’Reilly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123 PartV Hanoi’s View of the Battlefield CHAPTER 10 Hanoi’s Military Forces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134 CHAPTER 11 Interviewing North Vietnamese Army Officers. . . . . .149 CHAPTER 12 Hanoi’s Strategy Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .168 CHAPTER 13 Hanoi’s Allies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .174 CHAPTER 14 Hanoi’s Distortions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .186 CHAPTER 15 Operations of the 308 and 325 Divisions . . . . . . . . . .198 Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203 Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214 APPENDIX A The Ripcord Association Reunion in October 2000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .219 APPENDIX B Proposed Itinerary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .223 APPENDIX C Vietnam Visit 1–11 June 2001. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227 APPENDIX D Vietnam Visit 17 May-6 June 2004. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231 APPENDIX E Cubans In Vietnam During The Vietnam War . . . . .242 Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .244 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .252 Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .257 About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .262 Preface Ripcord: THE LAST OFFENSIVE “Istillhadonebattalionleft.Ihadusedonlytwobattalionsfrommy3rdReg- iment. One battalion had been operating east of the Bo River,” responded MajorGeneralChuPhuongDoi,whoseentire324BDivisionhadbeencom- mittedsince19May1970to“concentrateitsmainforcestoattackanddestroy OperatingBase935.”Afterthreehoursofquestioning,GeneralDoihadbeen asked by the author while visiting Doi in Cao Bang, Vietnam 26 May 2004, “What would you have done if we had not evacuated Firebase Ripcord on 23 July?” His response seemed like a most uncharacteristic admission that his division, which had once consisted of nine infantry battalions, had been ground down to only one fully combat capable battalion. In the Vietnamese spring of 1970 the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Divi- sion—the “Screaming Eagles”—prepared for America’s last offensive of the Vietnam War. While the dwindling number of the remaining American forces deployed in Vietnam withdrew from the battlefield and stood down awaiting formal movement orders to return to their home shores, the 101st Airborne Division made war plans to mount a major offensive in the enemy’s bastionofstrength,theinfamousAShauValleyandtheruggedmountainsof the Annamite Chain in Northern I Corps of Vietnam which formed the wedge between the countries of South Vietnam, Laos and North Vietnam. Only the US Army’s 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) in Quang Tri and the 1st Infantry Division, Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) stood with the 101st in this large, hotly contested battle area. Just within the past 12-months American forces in northern I Corps plummeted in numbers: two Marine Corps divisions, the 3rd Marine Division which had long held the bloody Demilitarized Zone on the 17th Parallel and the 1st vii Preface viii MarineDivisioninsouthernICorpswithdrew,leavingavacuumofvastpro- portions. Simultaneously, as the American forces withdrew, the North Vietnamese reinforced their two crack infantry divisions and regional Communist\Viet Cong forces in this strategically critical area with two additional regular Peo- ple’sArmyofVietnam(PAVN)divisions.Chargedwithdestroyingallenemy forces that sought to enter their sanctuaries of the Annamite Mountains and disrupttheirbuild-up,theNVAwerereadytofightanyoneandpayanyprice in the lives of its soldiers in the fulfillment of this vital mission. General Creighton Abrams, Commander U.S. Military Assistance Com- mand (COMUSMACV), charged the 101st Airborne Division with under- taking offensive operations in this hornet’s nest of the enemy as a means to buy time to allow the military forces of South Vietnam to develop into more effective fighting units, as well as to shield the overall process of Vietnamiza- tion. Richard M. Nixon campaigning in 1968, and as President in 1969, promised to strengthen the South Vietnamese military and weaken the forces of North Vietnam. The 101st Airborne Division’s mission called for the Screaming Eagles to enter NVA sanctuaries, conduct spoiling attacks, and to disrupt enemy lines of communication and supply. The 101st Airborne Division, already spread perilously thin by tripling the size of their Area of Operations (AO), made plans to send the Division’s 3rd Brigade into the northern highlands. The 3rd Brigade planned to combat air assault into a series of locations, establish fire support bases, and seek out and destroy an enemy whose strength intelligence estimates at the time, had grossly underestimated. In sharp contrast to Korea, “The Forgotten War,” the war in Vietnam seems destined never to be forgotten. Thousands of books have been written abouttheten-yearVietnamWar;actually,morebookswrittenthanthenum- ber of major battles fought during the entire war. Only one book, Keith Nolan’s superb RIPCORD Screaming Eagles Under Siege Vietnam, 1970, has been written about the last major battle fought by US ground forces in Viet- nam; and it published thirty years after the battle. Until now, no English lan- guage book addressed North Vietnamese Army accounts of its last major battle with American ground forces. Drawn from books and documents pub- lished in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, in the Vietnamese language, and interviews conducted by the author with officers of the North Vietnamese Army/People’sArmyofVietnam(NVA/PAVN),the“othersideofthestory” can now be included. Preface ix This is the story of the brave and courageous American infantrymen, air- men, and artillerymen who invaded the enemy’s rear areas along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in March-July 1970 against a vastly larger, determined, dedicated and disciplined enemy force, engaged in some of the bloodiest combat of the entire war. The battle for Ripcord involved twenty-six different US Army unitsineitherdirectcombatorsupportingroles,butalwaystheprincipalcom- batantunitremainedthe2ndBattalion,506thInfantry—the“Currahees.”Cur- rahee is a Cherokee Indian word for “Stand Alone.” The 506th Infantry Currahees of World War II became well known in books and film as the “BandofBrothers.”ThisstorytellsoftheVietnamgenerationCurraheeBand ofBrothersandtheenemyopposingthemduringAmerica’slastmajorground offensive of the Vietnam War.