| The Real Story
Maps
Vietnam Timeline
Casualties
Plot
Outline
Cast
Homework
Links
Guestbook
Email
Download
Search
Home |
During the 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
Da Nang. 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. Maps
 In May of 1969 the American command 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 Cavalry 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 were to destroy the enemy in their own operating areas and
block escape routes into Laos.
Lieutenant Colonel Honeycutt commanded the 3/187th, known by the WW II
nickname "Rakkasans". They 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 Infantry 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. 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, moving 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, Command Posts, 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 Airborne Division, 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. Capt. Charles L. Littman, who had taken over from Captain Robinson on 8 May and
would command the company for only twelve days, commanded B Company. At about 1530, B
Company reached Honeycutt's battalionCP. Honeycutt ordered Littman to move his company up
the mountain.
"I doubt if you'll make it tonight." Honeycutt 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 an NDP.
Note: Photos on these pages are from the film.
11 May 1969 -->
|
