Word: kontum
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...effortless. They rolled across the Central Highlands. There the South Vietnamese army (ARVN) collapsed in headlong panic. The ARVN soldiers fought bravely elsewhere, notably around Xuan Loc, but the Communists drove steadily south. They overwhelmed all the place-names that had become so improbably familiar: Quang Tri, Hue, Danang, Kontum, Pleiku, Nha Trang...
During a 1966 battle on the Kontum plateau in the Central Highlands, Captain Carpenter and his infantry company were pinned down by North Vietnamese. With no retreat possible, Carpenter called down an air strike on his own position. "We might as well take some of them with us," he radioed to his battalion command post. The napalm attack injured seven of Carpenter's men, yet enabled the unit to consolidate and later withdraw. Already well known as the "Lonesome End" and captain of Army's 1959 football team, "Napalm Bill" Carpenter won a Distinguished Service Cross for his actions. Carpenter...