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HAMBURGER HILL PERSONAL BATTLE ACCOUNT I was with the 101st Airborne Div., 2 Bn. 327th Inf., Delta
Company. My platoon and a platoon of Pathfinder Special Forces were placed
on the back side of Hamburger Hill near the Laos border, our platoons split
up and went our separate ways to avoid detection. We were to call in air strikes
and artillery on the NVA as they tried to escape into Laos. The first
day The Special Forces were all killed. The 3rd day we walked into a L shaped
ambush and myself and 2 others were wounded. My wound was minor and treated
in the field. One of the others was e-vac after the ambush and 2nd was e-vac
2 days later from an infection in the wound.
Vietnam Reflections
I am extremely grateful to any Vietnam Veterans who wish to share any of their experiences.
I have reserved these pages for those rememberances.
Thank you very much.
Repelling the ambush used up all our ammo but for a few rounds.
We spent the next five days evading detection and continued to call in artillery
and air strikes. During the next five days we e-vac 2 others because we were
with out water or food along with the ammo and their tongues swelled to where it
was cutting off their air. Three more had to be e-vac because they came down
with malaria.
The question that must be on your mind now, did they bring out ammo, food and water
on the many helicopter e-vacs? Sad to say was, no! We did find water
in a bomb crater. On the 8th day we called in a Cobra helicopter strike on
an estimated 2,000 NVA troops crossing the valley near the Laos border. Five
Cobra helicopters were dispatched and 3 of them were shot down with in the first
few seconds. The Cobra's backed off and fighter jets were dispatched with napalm.
We were then pulled out, because we were too close for a napalm strike, and was fed
and resupplied and sent back to help collect the American dead.
The trees left standing on Hamburger Hill, at and near the Colonel Honeycutt photo, were imbedded with
flesh and it looked like hamburger all over everything from the bodies getting blown
up. Someone took a C-ration box and wrote on it "Hamburger Hill"
and placed it on a tree, and that's how the name came to be.
Wayne Gaskins <wgaskins@preferred.com>
Roan Mountain, TN
You can visit Wayne at his home page and also his Screaming Eagle unit page
Vietnam Journeys adds: I have searched long and hard for any
information on the naming of Hamburger Hill and the cardboard sign tacked up to one
of the few remaining trees. I have finally found a very interesting website which
answers the question. Please click here.
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