The temperatures during the time we assaulted the hill were extremely hot, well over 100 degrees by noon. Taking salt tablets, especially during times of intense heat, was important to our survival. Unfortunately, several of our men were not taking them prior to our assault on this hill. Consequently, we lost at least twenty men from heat cramps about half way up the hill the first day. These cramps would fold you up like an accordion, requiring two men to pull you apart and straighten you out. The men were yelling from intense pain while we were straightening them out. This made it impossible for us to push up the hill. They had to be brought down the hill and dusted off to our local medical unit.
On our first attempt up the hill, we lost our point man who took a bullet through his neck. An artery had been severed and one of us had to apply pressure on it to stop the bleeding. We worked hard at keeping him alive at the bottom of the hill while a constant barrage of AK47 fire kept us down and on our knees while we worked on on him for at least an hour or so. When the dust off finally got there, it took a lot of hits from enemy fire while we gently loaded our point man and other casualties onto the chopper. There was no medic on the chopper to apply pressure on the bleeding artery... Meanwhile, one of our troops while he was ducking from fire, hit his head on the rear chopper blade. It gave him a concussion, necessitating his dust off as well.
We retreated back to our rendezvous about two miles from the hill. We then talked over our plans to make a second attempt at taking the hill. We heard hours later that, our point man had died on the way back to the medical unit due to having no medical care on the dust off. We were furious that there was no medic on the dust off, especially after keeping him alive for at least an hour after he had been shot. We'd been with him for eight months in Hawaii, living in the same barracks for eight months prior to going to Vietnam. It was like losing your own brother.
After falling back to our rendezvous location from the first attempt to take the hill, the squad members met that evening over burning cardboard c-ration boxes. The consensus was that no one was going to back up his partner soldier, and that it was every one for himself. I stated that I was willing to support them under fire, but they were openly admitting that they were only going to protect themselves, "take care of number one." This was a low blow to me. Why not defend one another?? I had trouble with this...
After walking two miles, we were already exhausted by the time we got to the bottom of the hill the second time. The heat was unbearable. We were expected to assault the hill while wearing a full back pack, carrying as much ammunition as we could carry. This time we made it about half of the way up when we began receiving heavy mortar fire. The first platoon took hard hits, taking out my best friend. The word was that he had lost a lot of blood and was medi-vaced out. The fire power coming down was too much for us, so we had to retreat once again.
The squad leaders met again at the end of the day to discuss how to approach the hill with the help of jets and artillery. This time the hill was pounded a lot harder with bombs before we tried to take it. There was still a lot of resistance coming from automatic weapons, mortars and machine gun fire. We persisted upward, not without casualties, and ran the enemy off the other side of the hill. Some of them got away....
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