Word: dak
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...month, the North Vietnamese have tried at all costs to seize the valley of Dak To, a natural tunnel from the Ho Chi Minh Trail into the Central Highlands. The U.S. has been just as determined to hold onto Dak To at whatever price. That head-on clash of wills resulted last week in some of the war's most savage fighting, on Hill 875, overlooking Dak To. After a five-day battle, U.S. troops finally took possession of the summit-and discovered why the Communists had fought so long and hard to defend the bamboo-wreathed elevation. Hill...
...three times that high, because the enemy carries off with him so many of his comrades' corpses. U.S. losses were also fairly high. In last week's single battle, 150 U.S. paratroopers fell and another 250 were wounded-the grim measure of American determination to deny Dak To to the enemy...
...still able to fight, there was no food. Worse, for the wounded fighting for their lives, there was no water. Next morning a relief battalion set out from Fire Support Base 16, less than two miles away. So dense is Dak To's bamboo jungle that it took more than ten hours to reach the embattled men. When the rescuers finally arrived, the survivors mobbed them for food and water. But the incoming battalion had taken only enough supplies for itself, and had consumed them all on the long march...
...watched the buildup carefully, monitoring it with infrared body-heat detectors mounted in planes, "sniffer" helicopters able to locate hidden groups of men by their sweat, and covert, long-range reconnaissance teams operating in the jungles. Three weeks ago, the U.S. began pouring reinforcements into Dak To, joining the battle for access to the Highlands before the North Vietnamese were ready. By last week, as the fighting went on, some 10,000 allied troops had entered the battle and in 18 days had killed 764 Communist soldiers v. 136 U.S. dead. It became clear that the Communists were not going...
...accurate North Vietnamese mortarmen did manage to inflict some spectacular damage on Dak To before pulling back. Firing 82-mm. mortars from less than two miles away, the Communists destroyed two big C-130 transport planes sitting on the Dak To airstrip. Then, in a second attack the same day, they scored a direct hit on the hastily built-up Dak To ammunition dump. For the next eight hours U.S. soldiers in and around Dak To cowered in their bunkers while tracer bullets arced in all directions, flares popped like fireworks and shells exploded. Seven tons of C-4 plastic...