Word: hille
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...trail. He held the Communist attackers at bay until his company got away, gunning down an estimated 17 before slumping dead over his smoking barrel. The beleaguered battalion regrouped and called in air strikes. As the jets roared in at 500 feet to blast the top of the hill, one released a 500-or 750-lb. bomb too soon. It burst in the tall trees just above the battalion's command post, killing 30 U.S. paratroopers, many of them wounded who had been pulled up to the headquarters area for safety...
...them. When a group of troopers rushed a bunker and dropped eight grenades inside, a Communist appeared at its mouth moments later and tossed out two of his own grenades, killing two of the Americans and wounding three. At last the Americans managed to work their way down the hill to cut out a landing zone. The wounded were led down in a line and helilifted to hospitals; food, water and ammunition finally began to pour in. The encouraged troopers seized the initiative and once more tried to assault the heights, crawling over fallen trees, their flamethrowers leading...
...Grisly Desolation. For one more day and night the two battalions waited while fighter-bomber pilots hammered the head off the hill, flying some 150 strikes during the battle. The next morning, the weary G.I.s claimed their reward at last. Scaling the ridge, they met only scattered sniper fire and a few mortars lobbed from a nearby hill. The North Vietnamese had abandoned Hill 875 during the night, taking many of their dead with them. The summit was a grisly desolation of charred and splintered trees, burned-out machine guns and blackened fragments of bodies...
Helicopters flew in a hot turkey dinner for the victors. One paratrooper sat down to inscribe inside his helmet: "Nov. 23rd. Hill 875 is over. Thanksgiving Day." At week's end the survivors of the battle of Hill 875 held a simple memorial service, laying out the boots of their fallen comrades on a wind-whipped slope...
...Office of Strategic Services. "I heard that many members of Congress would be here tonight," Lyndon deadpanned, "and I thought I would honor an old OSS tradition by dropping in behind the enemy lines. The man you honor tonight is often accused of being my fifth column on the Hill. I want all of you to know that Everett Dirksen is the only column I haven't complained about all year long." Then he took an ingratiating shot at himself: "The OSS was a very small and inconspicuous and incredibly brave elite. They remind me very much...