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  A Shau Valor

  American Combat Operations in the Valley of Death, 1963–1971

  Thomas R. Yarborough

  CONTENTS

  GLOSSARY

  PREFACE

  1. Into the Valley of Death

  2. The Rise and Fall of Camp A Shau

  3. Project Delta Invades the A Shau

  4. SOG: West of the A Shau

  5. Annus Horribilis: 1968

  6. Operation Dewey Canyon

  7. Eleven Times Up Hamburger Hill

  8. Ripcord: Valor in Defeat

  9. A Shau Fini: The Ninth Year

  10. A Bard for the Grunts

  EPILOGUE

  PHOTO GALLERY

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  NOTES

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  This book is dedicated to the memory and incomparable fighting spirit of the American soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, and Coast Guardsmen who willingly marched to the sound of battle in the Valley of Death. All gave some, some gave all.

  Vietnam—The A Shau Valley,

  The Valley of Death

  Welcome to the jungle,

  You’ve arrived, watch out for its wrath,

  It lives on our dead, broken bodies,

  Reeks of blood and death.

  This valley is quite beautiful,

  It hides under cloudless skies,

  Takes its toll of fighting men,

  Doesn’t choose who lives … who dies!

  No villages on its landscape,

  Fighting, while explosions sound.

  Rifle shots, mortar rounds,

  Soldiers dying,

  Soldiers killing,

  Some bodies never found.

  The stench of death is the valleys’ perfume,

  Our blood feeds the growing palms,

  This is where we fought and died,

  A place of courage,

  Where we fought with pride.

  There is where,

  We left a little sign,

  A place to fear … nowhere to hide,

  Deep, dark thoughts,

  Attack our mind.

  Written it holds the valleys’ psalm,

  Welcome to the A-Shau Valley,

  Republic of Viet-Nam.

  —Philip Lore

  GLOSSARY

  A-1 SKYRAIDER: A Korean War-vintage prop attack aircraft capable of carrying large ordnance loads and used extensively for search-and-rescue missions as well as in support of SOG long-range reconnaissance teams.

  A-4 SKYHAWK: A single seat light attack jet aircraft used by Navy and Marines.

  AIRMOBILE: Helicopter-borne infantry.

  AH-1 COBRA: Army helicopter gunship used extensively throughout Vietnam.

  AK-47: The standard automatic assault weapon used by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers.

  AO: Area of operations, usually a specific sector assigned an air or ground unit.

  ARC LIGHT: Code name for B-52 operations in Southeast Asia, usually flown in three-plane cells.

  ARVN: Army of the Republic of Vietnam, South Vietnamese Army.

  BDA: Bomb damage assessment, the reported results of air strikes.

  BILK: Call sign of Air Force FACs assigned to support the 101st Airborne Division.

  BINH TRAM: North Vietnamese supply complexes along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the largest located adjacent to the A Shau Valley.

  BRIGHT LIGHT: Code name for a 12-man Special Forces team dedicated to recovering POWs, downed pilots, or reconnaissance teams in Laos, Cambodia, or North Vietnam.

  CAR-15: Submachine gun version of the M-16 rifle, with folding stock and shortened barrel.

  CBU: Cluster bomb unit. An area-coverage, anti-personnel ordnance dropped by fighter aircraft, used extensively in Southeast Asia.

  CCN: Command and Control North, the Da Nang-based regional headquarters for all cross-border operations, a subunit of Military Assistance Command’s Studies and Observations Group, SOG.

  CHARLIE: A slang term for enemy soldiers, probably stemming from “Victor Charlie,” the phonetic alphabet words used for the letters VC, or Viet Cong.

  CHINOOK: Nickname for the U.S. Army’s CH-47 medium lift helicopter, a venerable workhorse in Vietnam.

  CIA: Central Intelligence Agency

  CIDG: Civilian Irregular Defense Group, South Vietnamese paramilitary force composed primarily of Montagnard tribesmen.

  CINCPAC: Commander in Chief, Pacific, headquarters in Hawaii.

  CLAYMORE MINE: A directional anti-personnel M18 mine packed with C-4 explosive that shoots a pattern of steel balls into a kill zone like a shotgun blast.

  COBRA: Nickname for the AH-1G helicopter gunship.

  COMBAT ASSAULT: The movement of ground forces via helicopter to seize and hold key terrain and to attack enemy forces. In Vietnam CAs were normally carried out by airmobile units such as the 1st Cavalry Division and the 101st Airborne Division.

  COSVN: Central Office of South Vietnam, the nominal communist military and political headquarters in South Vietnam.

  COVEY: Call sign of the USAF special-mission FACs flying sorties into Laos from Da Nang and Pleiku in direct support of SOG cross-border missions.

  COVEY RIDER: Highly experienced Special Forces member who flew with Prairie Fire FACs to help direct air strikes and team inserts and extractions.

  CP: Command post.

  CS: Tear gas. A riot control agent, it was discovered by two Americans, Ben Corson and Roger Stoughton in 1928; the chemical’s name is derived from the first letters of the scientists’ surnames.

  DANGER CLOSE: Term used by ground commanders authorizing ordnance (bombs, artillery) well inside the recognized minimum safe distances.

  DMZ: Demilitarized Zone, the no-man’s-land between North and South Vietnam at the 17th Parallel.

  DUST-OFF: Call sign of Army UH-1 medical evacuation helicopters.

  F-4 PHANTOM: State-of-the-art fighter bomber flown by Air Force, Navy, and Marines in Vietnam.

  FAC: Forward air controller (pronounced “Fack,” as in pack). In South Vietnam and Laos, virtually all tactical air strikes were directed by FACs.

  559TH TRANSPORTATION GROUP: Secret North Vietnamese command that operated the Ho Chi Minh Trail, with its forward headquarters located in Target Oscar Eight adjacent to the western edge of the A Shau Valley.

  FLAK: Air bursts from antiaircraft fire.

  FOB: Forward Operating Base.

  FSB: Fire support base, a temporary military encampment widely used during the Vietnam War to provide artillery support to infantry units operating in areas beyond the normal range of fire support from their own base camps.

  GRUNT: Affectionate nickname for the infantryman in Vietnam.

  HE: High-explosive, normally referring to rockets fired by fighters, FACs, or helicopter gunships.

  HO CHI MINH TRAIL: An extensive network of Laotian trails and roads used by the NVA to move men and supplies to South Vietnam and Cambodia. Between 1966 and 1971, intelligence analysts estimated that North Vietnam moved 630,000 NVA troops, 100,000 tons of food, 400,000 weapons, and 50,000 tons of ammunition down the Trail.

  HUEY: Nickname for the versatile UH-1 helicopter.

  I CORPS: The five northern most provinces in South Vietnam, later renamed Military Region 1.

  JOLLY GREEN: Call sign of Air Force HH-3 or HH-53 rescue helicopters, known as “Jolly Green Giants.”

  KBA: Killed by air. Refers to casualties inflicted by aircraft bombing or strafing.

  KIA: Killed in action.

 
LAM SON 719: The ARVN invasion of Laos in February 1971.

  LLDB: Luc Luong Duc Biet (Vietnamese Special Forces).

  LRRP: Long-range reconnaissance patrol.

  LZ: Landing zone, usually an open area large enough to accommodate a helicopter. A “hot LZ” indicated a landing zone under enemy fire.

  MACV: Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, headquarters in Saigon.

  M-16: Standard U.S. 5.56mm automatic rifle.

  MIA: Missing in action.

  MK-82: A general-purpose 500-pound bomb widely used on missions throughout Southeast Asia.

  MONTAGNARD: French name for ethnic minority tribes in Vietnam located primarily along the Lao-Vietnamese border. They developed a special rapport with U.S. Special Forces.

  NLF: National Liberation Front, a Vietnamese political organization to orchestrate the overthrow of South Vietnam’s government in order to reunify the North and South.

  NUNG: Ethnic Chinese minority in Vietnam noted for their prowess as fighters. As anti-communists, they sided with the Americans.

  NVA: North Vietnamese Army.

  ONE-ZERO: Designation for the leader of a SOG reconnaissance team.

  OV-10 BRONCO: A twin-engine light-attack aircraft used by forward air controllers; also flown by specialized Marine and Navy units.

  PAVN: People’s Army of Vietnam (NVA).

  POINT MAN: The first and most exposed position of a combat patrol through hostile territory, usually the first soldier to take enemy fire during a firefight or ambush.

  POW: Prisoner of war.

  PROJECT DELTA: This special reconnaissance organization consisted of South Vietnamese commando troops and U.S. Army Special Forces advisors. Under the auspices of the 5th Special Forces Group, Delta teams worked targets throughout South Vietnam.

  RPG: Shoulder fired, rocket-propelled grenade used extensively by NVA forces.

  PRAIRIE FIRE: Code name for top secret cross-border ground reconnaissance missions into Laos. When used tactically by team leaders, the term indicated a dire condition requiring immediate helicopter extraction.

  RIF: Reconnaissance-in-force, a patrol technique used by U.S. Army units in Vietnam.

  ROE: Rules of engagement. A lengthy, complicated list of limitations and conditions applied to a ground target before ordnance could be dropped or enemy forces engaged.

  ROLLING THUNDER: The American bombing campaign against North Vietnam from 1965–1968.

  RT: Reconnaissance team. Each SOG team had a distinctive name, usually after a snake or a state.

  SANDY: Call sign for Air Force A-1 Skyraiders dedicated to search-and-rescue missions.

  SAR: Search and rescue.

  SEARCH AND DESTROY: The U.S. strategy in Vietnam of seeking out the enemy to inflict casualties in a “war of attrition.” Whatever the name, for the first time in modern warfare the goal was not territory—it was body count.

  SF: Special Forces.

  SLICK: Affectionate nickname for the UH-1 Huey.

  SOG: Studies and Observations Group, the Vietnam War’s covert special warfare unit used primarily in top secret cross-border operations.

  III MAF: III Marine Amphibious Force, located at Da Nang and headquarters for all Marines in Vietnam.

  TIC: Troops in contact, a situation where friendly troops engage enemy forces in a close-quarters firefight.

  VC: Viet Cong, enemy soldiers belonging to indigenous South Vietnamese communist forces.

  VIET MINH: Communist military forces in the French-Indochina War, 1946–1954.

  VIETNAMIZATION: Nixon policy to curtail the U.S. combat role and turn the fighting over to South Vietnamese forces.

  VNAF: (South) Vietnamese Air Force.

  VR: Visual reconnaissance, performed either on the ground or in the air.

  WIA: Wounded in action.

  WILLIE PETE: Slang for white phosphorous, an explosive round from artillery, mortars, rockets, or grenades. When the rounds exploded, a huge puff of white smoke would appear from the burning phosphorus. Willie Pete burns at 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

  PREFACE

  Many of us will have to pass through the

  valley of the shadow of death again and again

  before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

  —NELSON MANDELA

  The Vietnam War was contested in ten thousand places, from the U Minh Forest in the Mekong Delta to the Ia Drang Valley in the Central Highlands, from Tay Ninh Province near the Cambodian border to the rugged mountains framing Khe Sanh on the Laotian frontier, from the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos to the deadly skies over Hanoi. And for the millions of combatants—whatever their allegiance—every battle played out differently, each experience proved to be unique. Except for the ubiquitous fighting and dying, the 1964 guerrilla clashes in the rice paddies of the Delta bore little resemblance to the 1968 head-to-head urban slugfest in Hue during the Tet Offensive. Contrasting as their experiences were, however, one constant emerged: every soldier, every marine, every guerrilla, every airman, every general was aware of and personally affected by an illomened piece of real estate and battleground in Thua Thien Province known to one and all as the Valley of Death—the A Shau Valley.

  Approximately 25 miles long, running roughly northwest to southeast, the A Shau lay hidden between rugged ridgelines over 5,000 feet tall, covered with dense double canopy jungle and impenetrable stands of thick bamboo, deep ravines, saddles, draws, and treacherous, forbidding cliffs. The narrow A Shau Valley, 27 miles southwest of the old imperial capital of Hue, 25 miles southeast of Khe Sanh, and only a scant few kilometers from the Laotian border, had been formed over millennia by the erosion of the Rao Lao River. Thick, razor-sharp elephant grass over eight feet high covered most of the valley floor except around leech-infested pools and streams where tangled brush, bamboo, ferns, low trees, and “wait-a-minute” vines made travel next to impossible. Numerous constricted animal trails meandered through the A Shau and one primitive, man-made road extended the length of the valley with lesser trails connecting to it and radiating out in all directions. Some of those trails were and still are traveled by the reclusive but deadly Indochinese tiger, also referred to as “Corbett’s tiger,” named after hunter turned conservationist, British Army Colonel Edward James Corbett.1 In addition to 400-pound tigers, the A Shau and surrounding environs are home to over 100 different types of venomous snakes, and American soldiers who campaigned in the area were warned that “Over 97 percent of the snakes in the A Shau are deadly poisonous; the other three percent will eat you.”2

  In a strange meteorological quirk, the prehistoric Valley of Death exists in the transition zone between two dominant weather phenomena: the northeast and southwest monsoons. For that reason the entire valley does not experience the typically alternating dry and rainy seasons associated with a monsoon climate, but instead tends to be shrouded in fog and low clouds most months of the year; annual rainfall on the A Shau’s west wall approaches 120 inches. Consequently, the valley has long been both revered for its primordial beauty and feared because of its dangerous weather and the daunting physical geography of the environment, a setting so remote that it has sometimes been referred to as “a place from the beginning of time.”3

  From its very creation the region around what evolved into the A Shau Valley held center stage for scenes of Nature’s violence and cataclysmic geological events. The formation of the Truong Son Mountain Range along the current Vietnam-Laos border, also called the Annamite Chain, occurred some two hundred million years ago in connection with powerful tectonic activity. The huge tectonic plates pushing against each other created intense pressure; therefore, the only direction for the folded mountains of the forming Annamite Chain to move was up. Worn down by myriad seismic events, massive lava flows, and violent weather, these now ancient eroded mountains remain rich in deposits of granite and limestone and abound with early plant and dinosaur fossils. The subsequent erosion along the Truong Son Range produced a wild, spectacular landscape, ultimately d
efining the inhospitable terrain that witnessed some of the most brutal battles of the Vietnam War.4

  As the topography of the locale evolved from the Mesozoic period across scores of millions of years, the introduction of the human element over 7,000 years ago ushered in a new and often contentious component to the reputation of the A Shau. There is little information about the factual history of the first permanent residents in the land that time forgot: the Katu tribe. Evidently they originally lived in Bronze Age southern China before being driven out approximately 700 BC. They settled in the coastal area of Vietnam and were forced into the upland region of their present territory along the Laotian border by the expansion of the ethnic Vietnamese sometime around 900 AD. Living much as they had for 1,000 years, the Katu became accomplished slash-and-burn farmers (dry rice being the staple with cassava and maize as the main supplementary crops) as well as proficient hunters and fishermen.5

  Ethnically, the Katu were close relatives of the Montagnard tribesmen, members of Vietnam’s largest minority of “mountain dwellers.” Organized along tribal lines similar to American Indians, the Katu, Jarai, Rhade, Sedang, and Bru each had its own culture and dialect. All the Montagnard tribes were natural jungle fighters, and coincidentally, there was no love lost between most of the tribes and the Vietnamese—North or South. Contempt for Montagnards, manifested in the Vietnamese term moi, meaning savages, had fueled a long tradition of distrust and suspicion between the tribes and their Annam rulers.6

  The exception proved to be the Katu. In the 1940s–50s during the first Indochina War, various Katu villages, especially those in and around the A Shau, formed a loose alliance with Ho Chi Minh’s forces. That informal collaboration with the communist North continued throughout the American phase of the conflict. It is not entirely clear how or why the Katu were drawn into the war, but it is evident that the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and communist cadres were more successful in penetrating the area and rallying the Katu to their cause than the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and its American allies. One explanation as to why the Katu were more susceptible to the propaganda of the North rather than that of the South was probably the distinctly negative influence that the colonial French had left in Katu minds. The Americans were apparently regarded as akin to the French and, in fact, old Katu chieftains often did not clearly differentiate between the two nationalities of white men.7