Today, 38 years ago, began the senseless battle of Dong Ap Bia (mountain), Viet Nam

[DemoTex]

AKA Hamburger Hill. The war turned on that battle. Or rather, the support at home turned. Ted Kennedy went into the well of the Senate and blasted the war.
It was hell-on-earth .. no, it was worse. God have mercy on the souls lost there, for no reason on our side, and for their own reasons on the other side.

Edited for spelling.



Dong Ap Bia (Hamburger Hill)

[Monkeyman]

1. I Hate that F-cking HILL

[DemoTex]

6. Brother, if you were there .. I'm sorry I opened the wound.

But given the Bu$hWars, it is a scab that has to be picked .. and a sore that needs to re-fester. The truth of Ap Bia might save us in Iraq. Col. Hunnicutt?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Déjà vu all over again?

[Monkeyman]

3. Nightmares for many need a dam drink and a shot for my Brothers lost on that hill

[callous taoboy]

4. Terrible. n/t

[tkmorris]

5. It still blows my mind

Who the hell ordered the taking of that hill of what did they think they were gaining in doing so? I was too young to remember it at the time but in retrospect it just seems insane.

To those of you who actually went, /salute to you. You have my utmost respect.

[DemoTex]

7. The guy in the helicopter, the SIX, was Col Hunnicutt.

He pushed the assault. But he had orders, too. From whom? It was a military fiasco. We took the damn hill, at unreasonable costs, then gave it up. Fox Uniform, in the worst way!

[RamboLiberal]

8. I'm sorry for those of you that were there

Too often this kind of battle seems to happen in military history and it's the poor grunt that gets chewed up in the meat grinder.

Just curious - how accurate was the movie to what actually happened in this battle?

And a salute to all the Vietnam and all our other veterans here at DU.

:patriot:

[DemoTex]

11. I'll defer to those that were there, but ...

I had a high school friend who was there, and had the guts to watch the film. He was impressed. I read Franco Zeffirelli's book, Hamburger Hill, and the film certainly follows that script.

I studied Ap Bia from above in 1970 and 1971. Over the A Ashau. The bloody fucking A Shau Valley. I'm very ambivalent. Even crazy when it comes to Ap Bia and the whole bloody A Shau. And Lam Son 719. And Laos in general.

[DemoTex]

9. Kick. Day two of the battle (5/11/69)

Many more kicks coming. It was a long, hard mother-fucker. I'll kick this thread every day of the original battle for that damn lost hill.

[EVDebs]

10. A little history from wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hamburger_Hill

I wish PBS would replay their Vietnam: A Television History. The current Iraq-nam situation is supposed to have been something that Saddam studied up on prior to the invasion.

It looks like the US military academy should have taken Gen Giap up on his request to speak there. West Point doesn't seem to have learned much since 1975 re occupations and guerrilla wars. They've torn up the Powell Doctrine,

"Essentially, the Doctrine expresses that military action should be used only as a last resort and only if there is a clear risk to national security by the intended target; the force, when used, should be overwhelming and disproportionate to the force used by the enemy; there must be strong support for the campaign by the general public; and there must be a clear exit strategy from the conflict in which the military is engaged."

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/iraq/powelldoctrine_short.html

and what is our military supposed to do now in Iraq ?

[IDemo]

12. My father died in a B-25 crash that day

in Los Angeles. Totally unrelated to the battle, I know. But a bad day for many, it seems..

[burrowowl]

13. K&R

[juno jones]

14. K&R

for friends I have known.

[PsN2Wind]

15. There have been so many senseless battles in

many senseless wars. My brother died defending an frozen hill from the Chinese in Korea on Feb. 6, 1951, a date that never passes without sadness in my family.
How you doing Mac ? Hope you're better!!

[ConsAreLiars]

16. It was, in the public mind, emblematic of the whole war.

A pointless bloody mess, like the war as a whole. Utterly without value or merit, except for multinational capitalism, of course.

(edit - fix typo)