Hamburger Hill – The Last Patrol

My friend, Jonas Thorsell, re-discovered the battlefields of Hamburger Hill with some Rakkasan warriors who fought there 54 years ago. Join them on their quest to reach the summit.

As I sit down and write this, it is almost exactly 11 years since my first visit to Hamburger Hill in the A Shau Valley in the western mountainous area of Vietnam.

I was on a motorbike trip with a friend, driving around the northern parts of what once was the I Corps area. We had come down the valley from a visit to Khe Sanh and got ourselves a hotel room in the small town of A Luoi. As I knew there was a requirement for a permit from the police to visit Hamburger Hill, I asked the hotel manager if she could make some phone calls and help us arrange for a permit. She said it was probably too difficult as they normally need a few days to do that. Nothing is impossible in Vietnam though and she managed to get it done. We paid the fee and arranged a time with the guide that was going to take us there.

Morning arrived and we made an early departure from the hotel with our guide. Driving west across the valley, it was very foggy and rainy, and we were already starting to get cold. After having delivered our papers to the police office in the little village near the mountain, we started the ascent with our trusty motorbikes. As we reached the end of the small road, we parked our bikes and started the long walk up the mountain. Even for reasonably fit forty-something guys, it is a grueling climb. As you get up the mountain, they have erected a monument with inscriptions containing a propaganda message, there is also a small shrine at which you can light some incense and pray for the lost souls.

Many tour guides will stop here and tell their guests this is the summit of Hamburger Hill. It isn’t. It isn’t even Hill 937, this is the area around Hill 900 where another Airborne unit fought during the battle and struggled against a well-dug-in enemy. Hill 937 is another 500 or 600 meters north along a trail. Getting to Hill 937 isn’t very difficult from here. It’s a ten-minute hike and as you reach the 937 the jungle is gone and the area is covered with tall grass, often called Elephant Grass. There is a sign declaring that this is the A’ Bia airport, I have never really understood why they call it an airport, maybe because US forces would
land choppers there after the battle and the hill was manned with fresh troops over the next few weeks.

The Battle

The battle of Hamburger Hill was fought from May 10th until May 20th in 1969. The operation included that Airborne units were to land north and south of the Doi A Bia, or Hill 937, and patrol the area in search for NVA units that they were supposed to drive back across the border to Laos. In fact, the first unit that landed on a ridge north of Hill 937 started to patrol west towards Laos to set up a position near the border river. This was Alpha Company 3/187th of the 101st Airborne Division, led by Captain Harkins. Only later in the day did Lt. Col. Honeycutt start to send units along the ridges south towards Hill 937.

As The Rakkasans advanced along the ridges, they started to meet heavy resistance, so the battle had started and it would be another ten days before they had taken the summit. Even in the following days after that, people continued to be killed as NVA had snipers on and around the mountain that would harass the Airborne forces.

A Journey in History

In 2015 I encountered Frank Boccia in a Vietnam War history group online. Frank had been the Platoon Leader of 1st Platoon, Bravo Company in the 3/187th during the battle and had written a book about his experiences during the war and particularly the battle. The book is called “The Crouching Beast: A United States Army Lieutenant’s Account of the Battle for Hamburger Hill, May 1969”. As Frank found out that I had visited the hill, we started to exchange photos and information. Frank had also traveled back to the hill in 2006 as he was in an episode of “War Stories” with Oliver North. Frank shared with me his notes about locations on the hill and the work he had done with Dan Bresnahan, who was a Platoon Leader in Alpha Company during the battle, to correct the After-Action report that is alarmingly fraught with errors.

We became online friends and decided to arrange to meet up in the coming years to discuss the history of the battle and the real locations further. Unfortunately, before we got the chance to meet, Frank passed away in June 2016. I was of course saddened and stayed in touch with his widow.

My history work in Vietnam continued, I did work with and for a friend in a 1st Cavalry Division unit who had fought in I Corps during the Tet offensive in 1968. I kept visiting and documenting war sites in combination with making the history of those places known on my website https://namwartravel.com/

2019 Return to Hamburger Hill
In 2018 I was contacted by Mike Smith, a decorated veteran of the battle and a board member of The National Rakkasan Association. He told me they were preparing for the upcoming 50th Anniversary the following year and that they also planned to bring a group with veterans and active soldiers to the hill after the reunion in May. Mike had heard that I had visited the hill and thought I could have some input.

As I had the information from Frank Boccia on the actual locations of the battle and I also had a trip back to Vietnam planned in February 2019, I quickly decided to re-arrange my travel plans so I could include a visit to the hill. Mike and I kept our discussion going and an idea about making a video about the battle began to grow. With a combination of modern-day video footage from the battlefield, wartime pictures, and recorded audio of Cpt. Harkins and Dennis Helms sharing their stories from the battle, the video was highly appreciated by many veterans and family members.

Video Link Return to Hamburger Hill:
https://youtu.be/5jy8MByDBwA?si=xmXRwzBCVSNrCCAw

This was the first time I ventured beyond the summit of the hill. We located the northern and western approaches to the summit hidden in the jungle and went down both. From what at the end of the battle was a moon landscape, the jungle had now re-taken it and was thick and lush. We could follow trails that the locals use, and I managed to pinpoint a few locations of interest.

After the February journey, I handed over my information to Mike and they made their final preparations for their return. For the veterans, it was their first visit back to the place where they had fought 50 years ago. For the active soldiers, it was a journey into a history they had only heard and read about.

Arriving at the hill, the large group started to make the ascent. Some of the veterans needed assistance from the younger soldiers, but in the end, all got up to the monument and a smaller group ventured all the way over to the summit. Once again, The Rakkasans conquered the summit of Hill 937.

The 2022 Hamburger Hill Reunion

In 2022 I was invited to attend the Hamburger Hill reunion in Clarksville TN. and Fort Campbell KY. It was of course an amazing experience to meet all these men I knew via social media and many of them I had only read about so I only knew them by name through Boccia’s book and other sources. What I witnessed was a group of men sharing the experience of serving in Vietnam more than 50 years ago and taking part in one of the most famous battles of the last century. There were tears and laughter and the bond between these men was very strong. I was fortunate to get the chance to sit down with a few of them to record video interviews. The week of the reunion has a full schedule, but there is enough space in it for people to hang out together and talk about old memories.

Between the planned ceremonies, a day at the shooting range, briefing sessions, and dinners in the evenings, it was a week that I will never forget. It also became clear to me that this group of men is held in very high regard at Fort Campbell and within the 101st Airborne Division.

The Last Patrol
A couple of months later, as I was still digesting the experience of attending the reunion, Mike contacted me about going back to the hill together. We had talked about it before, but I wasn’t sure if we could make it happen. As it turned out, John Snyder from 1st Platoon Bravo Company had decided he wanted to join us as well. So after having detailed our plans, I also asked my friends and colleagues in the namwartravel team, Stephen Berlinguette and Ciarán McCann if they would like to join. Both immediately agreed and started to clear their schedules for that week in February. Now we were a team of five.

We made plans to stay overnight in A Luoi in the A Shau Valley about 40 miles west of the city of Hue near the Laotian border. After an early morning check out from the hotel in Hue, we boarded the rented van that would take us up to the valley. On the way, we stopped at the site of LZ Blaze from where the Rakkasans had lifted off on their combat assault to Hill 937 that morning almost 54 years ago. After the stop we continued to the hill, stopping on the way to drop off our papers at the police office and picking up two additional local guides from the village. I had asked our regular guide Mr Vu to arrange for two more guys from the village that could help carry our load and hopefully also provide some local knowledge of the hill. And they sure did. They knew every inch of the hill, having spent their lives going up and down Hill 937 and the surrounding hills.

It took us a good hour or so to get up to the monument. We stopped there for a quick snack before we continued towards the summit. On the summit, they had cut down the elephant grass which made it quite easy to navigate and move around. We stopped by the sign, took some pictures and Mike and John shared some stories with us.

We had chosen to move down the ridgeline where both Mike and John had fought during the battle. John with Bravo Company had fought here the first six days of the battle before they were pulled back to the Battalion CP and Mike’s Delta Company came in to take over their positions.

It is a very steep descent from the summit on the northern side. At some points you slide down the steepest bits, hoping you won’t fall over and tumble all the way down. A couple of hundred meters down from the summit, we were in the area that Boccia calls The Clearing in his book. This is where Bravo Company got stopped during every assault the first days. The NVA had a .51 caliber machine gun trained directly on the entry point to that section and there was nowhere to get around it considering the steep slopes on either side of the ridge. They had to face the brutal and deadly fire from the enemy as they tried to flank the enemy bunkers, only to be pushed back by heavy machine gun and RPG fire. Unfortunately, they also fell victim to friendly fire from both the jets dropping bombs and Huey gunships shooting ARA.

On the 18th, the ninth day of the battle, Mike in the 2nd Platoon Delta Company reinforced by a small unit from the battered Charlie Company was pushing up this section, at the time, the jungle was gone. Trees stumps, logs, rocks, and craters were the main features. And mud. As the battle raged, the rain came in heavy, turning the steep slope into a muddy hell. The Airborne soldiers crawled up as they advanced towards the NVA soldiers shooting down on them. Delta took heavy casualties, including having their Company Commander seriously wounded. One of the Charlie Company Platoon leaders was left for dead, but he managed to crawl back down to safety.

It would take two more days of intense fighting before The Rakkasans could finally take the hill.

Walking down this area with two of the men who had fought, and lost friends here was a very powerful experience. None of us non-veterans really knew how to relate to this, so we all tried to focus on the terrain and moving forward. I tried to guide Mike and John to the best of my knowledge on the specific terrain features that they would know so they could match it against their memories of the battle.

We spent several hours on the mountain that day and got as far down as the area where they had their Company CP set up. Navigating in the thick jungle isn’t always the easiest thing to do, but with some solid navigating, we knew we were in the right place. There were even some marks of the old foxholes that the soldiers had dug in the area. Around the area, we also found a poncho and some rubber holders for radio batteries.

Realizing we would run out of daylight; we started the climb back up the steep hill. After several hours on the mountain, we could all feel the strain, so we made sure to move slowly but steadily.

As we were leaving the battle area, Mr Vu asked Mike; is this the last patrol? Mike replied it probably was. I found it fitting so I have decided to name the video series I am working on, Hamburger Hill – The Last Patrol. Below is the first part where I sit down with men from 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, including John Snyder who was with us on Hamburger Hill this time.

Video Link The Last Patrol:
https://youtu.be/_yQ1PF7lX48?si=c0hEHR1nYUKTxg8h

Traveling there with these legendary warriors was a humbling experience. I learned so much from Mike and John as we explored the area. Not only about the events and locations as such but also the impact the battle had on these men and their brothers. Mike told me afterward he had found some closure.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the article together with watching the images and the videos. My aim is to help veterans tell their stories and I hope people will learn more about the war and what these men went through. This amazing journey was probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But my project doesn’t end here. I already have my next visit to the hill planned and there is much more to explore there. Among other things, I want to reach all the way back to the Battalion CP and the original LZ area. I will continue to collect material about the Hamburger Hill battle and other events during the war and hopefully help more people understand better what these brave men went through.

If you want to learn more about our work, then check out the https://namwartravel.com/ website. Feel free to contact me at namwartravel@gmail.com. I am happy to answer questions and share my material. I would also like to convey my deepest gratitude to John Podlaski for letting me write this little piece for his excellent website.

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