Word: shau
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...jumped to the ground, looked around and felt as if I had been propelled backward in time. Shimmering in the heat of the sun was an earth-and-wood fortress ringed by pillboxes. But for the greenness, A Shau had a French Foreign Legion quality, Beau Geste without the sand. I stood there asking myself the question I am sure Roman legionnaires must have asked in Gaul-What the hell am I doing here...
Directly behind A Shau, a mountain loomed over us. I pointed toward it, and Hieu said with a grin, "Laos." From that mountainside, the enemy could almost roll rocks down onto us. I wondered why the base had been established in such a vulnerable spot...
...knew our formal role here: we were to establish a "presence," a word with a nice sophisticated ring. More specifically, we were supposed to engage the Viet Cong to keep them from moving through the A Shau Valley and fomenting their insurgency in the populated coastal provinces. But Hieu's words were the immediate reality. The base camp at A Shau was there to protect an airstrip that was there to supply the outpost...
...weeks later, Powell got the news he was waiting for: he and his 400-man battalion would embark on Operation Grasshopper, an extended patrol down A Shau Valley. The journey marked Powell's introduction not only to combat but also to its deadly consequences...
...While some minority appointments have beenmade recently, we are still to see anAsian-American faculty appointment," says Shau."That is something we would really like to seehappen...