INSIDE Outlook.....................2A News briefs..............15A picking Community briefs.....2B Screaming Eaglets...3B Entertainment............2C Sports.........................4C VOLUMEME 48, NUMBERNUMBER 119 THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2012 WWW.FORTCAMPBELLCOURIER.COM Call of duty: 101st veteran recalls Hamburger Hill by Michele Vowell in Vietnam,” he said. “That’s Courier assistant editor where everybody was going.” It was January 1969. Forty-three years ago Cochran, 20, was headed today, Soldiers from the 3rd halfway across the world to Battalion, 187th Infantry fi ght. Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 101st “All of the training we got in Airborne Division, started basic and AIT were aimed at fi ghting the Battle of Ham- Vietnam,” he said. “In reality, burger Hill. we had a sense of what was Private Dan Cochran was going on, but until you really one of them. got there and got involved, it The 12-day battle occurred was quite different.” May 10-21, 1969, in the When he arrived in coun- northern part of South Viet- try, Cochran was one of nam near the A Shau Valley. endary Screaming Eagles. His about 150 Soldiers in A Co., An “Iron Rakkasan” with grandfather, Frank Edwards, who served under Company Alpha Company, Cochran also served as a paratrooper Commander Capt. Bob Har- was only 20 when U.S. and with the 101st during World kins. South Vietnamese forces War II. “Dan, like many of the commenced Operation “My grandpa jumped in Soldiers, he was a young Apache Snow, to clear the Normandy with the 101st,” kid, bright-eyed and bushy North Vietnamese from he said. “The 101st was the tailed,” Harkins said. “We Dong Ap Bia Mountain or only airborne unit growing were pretty well tested. We Hill 937. up that I ever heard of.” had a lot of fi ghts and a lot “We knew we were going At age 19, Cochran entered of battles. Dan had been PHOTO BY MICHELE VOWELL | COURIER to the hill,” Cochran said. the Army in January 1968. through a lot like all the Vietnam veteran Dan Cochran salutes as the national anthem plays Wednesday morning during a memorial “We went in by chopper. We Within a year he completed Soldiers in that company. I ceremony held in honor of the “Iron Rakkasans” who gave their lives assaulting up Hill 937, known as Hamburger Hill. Cochran served with the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne set up a perimeter. The next basic at Fort Knox and addi- think it served us well on the Division, during the Battle of Hamburger Hill in May 1969. morning we made our fi rst tional training at Fort Polk, hill.” assault up the hill...” La., and Fort Hood, Texas, A Shau Valley. He remembers back … because I was carry- so they called in artillery. We before completing jump Call of Duty Day 1 at Hamburger Hill like ing an M16,” Cochran said. moved a little more; then we A 101st Legacy school. Only a few months it was yesterday. “You could look across the were called back to our origi- Growing up in Kalama- “I was assigned to the 101st after arriving in Vietnam, “We started the assault valley and you could see the nal night perimeter.” zoo, Mich., Cochran always and found out that the unit I Cochran’s unit started its and we started taking small enemy moving. They were wanted to be part of the leg- was assigned to was already mission at Dong Ap Bia and arms fi re … I was toward the too far away for small arms, see HILL, Page 3A Burke guilty, Team sentenced to Captain James Carrier, an advisory team commander from Company life in prison D, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, spends Media Release Strike time with his wife Erin before departing Fort Campbell for eastern Afghanistan, A military panel sentenced Sgt. April 27. Carrier is part Brent Burke to life in prison without 2nd BCT advisory of the deploying Strike the possibility of parole Tuesday, Soldiers heading the concluding the U.S. vs. Sgt. Brent new Afghan mission in transitioning Burke General Court Martial. After Soldiers deploy power to the two and a half hours of delibera- Afghan National tion, the panel returned a fi nding of Security Forces. by Sgt. Joe Padula guilty on all charges. 2nd Brigade Combat Team The military had charged Burke with two specifi cations of premedi- Foreheads touching, eyess closed,closed, a halfhalf a tated murder; one specifi cation of minute of silence then soft whisperswhispers saying, “I“I breaking and entering; three speci- love you, I love you so much.”” fi cations of child endangerment; The deploying Strike Securityurity Force Assis- and one specifi cation of obstruct- tance Teams of the 2nd Brigadeade CombatCombat Team,Team, ing justice/impeding an investiga- 101st Airborne Division, embracedmbraced andand saidsaid tion. goodbye to their loved ones aass thetheyy bebegangan theitheirr Shortly after the verdict, the court mission as ‘the new tip of thee spear’ in the WWarar began a sentencing hearing, which on Terror, departing Fort Campbell’smpbell’s fl ight line,line, eliminated the possibility of parole. April 27-30, for eastern Afghanistan.anistan. The GCM for Burke started May “You are going to Afghanistannistan at a 1 with panel selection after a nearly decisive time, we are very pproudroud ooff three month delay. you and what you are about too do,” Initially, the GCM was scheduled said Maj. Gen. James McCon-n- for Feb. 6-10 – but a continuance ville, commander of the 101stt was accepted by the military judge Abn. Div. and Fort Campbell. and was agreed to by both the gov- “You are going to shift the ernment and defense counsel. responsibility to the Afghan Opening statements were heard Nation Security Forces, a very,y, from the prosecution May 1 and the very important mission at a defense chose to delay their open- very, veryy importantp time.” ing remarks. see STRIKE, Page 4A May 2, the prosecution began PHOTO BY SGT. JOE PADULA | 2ND BCT calling their witnesses. Defense attorneys rested their case Monday after calling one witness. Burke had been held at a civilian Ceremony reunites Vietnam-era Iron Rakkasans confi nement facility, charged with the 2007 Rineyville, Ky. murders of by Sgt. Shanika L. Futrell ment,” said 1st Lt. Ter- Private 1st Class his estranged wife, Tracy Burke, and 159th Combat Aviation Brigade rance Avery, the narrator Eric Montano, a her former mother-in-law Karen combat engineer of the ceremony. for 3rd Battalion, Comer, and faced a general court- Past and present Iron The unit also suffered 187th Infantry martial, which is the most serious Rakkasans of the 3rd Bat- many losses of its own. Regiment, level of military courts. 3rd Brigade talion, 187th Infantry Regi- Michael Smith, a 3rd Combat Team, The GCM consisted of a judge, ment, 3rd Brigade Combat Bn., 187th Inf. Rgt., veteran 101st Airborne trial counsel, defense counsel, Team, 101st Airborne who fought at Hamburger Division, and seven court members, which describes the Division, assembled here Hill and attended the cer- components included commissioned offi cers. Wednesday to remember emony, still carries the attached to his For special and general courts- a battle that occurred in memory of two of those body armor martial, the convening order will Vietnam in May 1969. to former also designate the members of the losses with him today. Rakkasans The Battle of Ham- “It is pretty tough, but a during a tour court-martial panel (the military burger Hill took place on young guy from Hawaii…,” here Tuesday. equivalent of the jury). Although the heavily equipped Hill said Smith. “I knew him The former ultimate membership of the panel Rakkasans 937 in the northern part exactly three days, and he visited Fort is determined, as in the civilian of South Vietnam near was assigned to me and Campbell to system, through voir dire, the con- the A Shau Valley and was killed by friendly fi re participate in the vening authority initially details two-day reunion. Laos. From May 10 to May on the Hamburger Hill the panel members to the court- 21, U.S. and South Viet- after only three days with PHOTO BY SPC. JENNIFER ANDERSSON | 159TH AVN. BDE. martial. namese forces fought the our unit.” As required by Congress in Arti- North Vietnamese, infl ict- The second was Bob from the 3rd Bde., 187th another 36 hours while to go try and assault the cle 25, UCMJ, the CA must choose ing extensive casualties on Rico of northern Califor- Inf. Regt. lost their lives the men of the brigade hill one more time; every members who are best qualifi ed the enemy. nia. and 290 were wounded. searched for and destroyed time they were asked to to serve based on their age, educa- During the 12 days of “He was killed walk- “After eight days of all remaining pockets of do something they did tion, training, experience, length of battle, the 3rd Brigade and ing point with me,” Smith intense combat, units of enemy resistance.” it,” said Charles Littnan, a service and judicial temperament. attached units killed more recalled. “He was one of the brigade broke through “Not one single Soldier Company B commander Burke chose to be tried by a panel than 500 enemy troops my best friends.” their defenses and over- that I had, no matter what with the 3rd Bn., 187th Inf. of offi cers. and seized large quantities While valiantly fi ghting ran the enemy bunker they may have been think- Regt. Burke’s case will receive auto- of weapons, explosives, to achieve such a monu- complexes,” said Avery.