April 2011, Issue 26 Contact:
[email protected] See all issues to date at either of these web sites: www.firebase319.org/2bat/news.php or http://corregidor.org/VN2-503/newsletter/issue_index.htm ~ 2/503d Photo of the Month ~ From left, Gene Counselman A/1/503d, Wambi Cook and Les Fuller A/2/503d on the summit of Hill 875, Dak To. 2/503d VIETNAM Newsletter / April 2011 – Issue 26 Page 1 of 46 875 REDUX By Wambi Cook A/2/503d In the fall of 2007 I asked our stateside Viet Nam travel agency to try and arrange a stop on Hill 875 during our upcoming April tour. Over 128 173d brothers lost their lives during a horrific 5-day battle in late November of 1967. Details of this conflict is readily available via a quick search of Google, Wikipedia, or any number of other internet links, as well as several superlatively produced documentaries that And the battle rages on at Hill 875. regularly air on the Discovery Channel affiliates. Unfortunately, because of my ongoing recent knee Anyway, I thoughtlessly expected a positive retort. It surgery limitations, we could only view the Slopes from would be the first time back for me and Les Fuller. We the banks of the nearby PoKo River just off the Dak To both served with Alpha Company, 2/503 from February airstrip. Perhaps, if we had employed due diligence and 1967 through the Tet offensive of 1968. The agency got pre-planned appropriately, a trek to ―Death Hill‖ would back to me post haste with Viet Nam‘s official response: have been approved by the government.