Con Thien: The Hill of Angels

8. Buffalo

General William Childs Westmoreland, COMUSMACV, helicoptered into lonely, little Con Thien. Major Danielson [1/9 XO] escorted Westmoreland around the perimeter. When a Marine pointedly asked, “General, I lost my best buddy to incoming yesterday—why can’t we go into the DMZ after those bastards ?” Danielson said, “The general’s response was, ‘Son, I wish we could, but the politics of the situation are such that we can’t violate the DMZ.’ Can you imagine how frustrating that response was to a young, dirty, unshaven, blearyeyed , thirsty Marine?” —Keith W. Nolan, Operation Buffalo Operation Cimarron began June 1 on a quiet note for the Marines in the Con Thien area. Hickory had pretty much upset the NVA applecart, sending them reeling back across the DMZ to re¤t and regroup. Operation Cimarron would take place within the former Prairie IV area and continue to be a series of intermittent, minor clashes below the sunbaked DMZ, accomplishing nothing except to shed more blood in the futile, mutual war of attrition. In the post-Hickory aftermath, both sides seemed to be taking a breather. But as June wound down and July was coming into view, enemy activity picked up again. Artillery shelling from the DMZ increased, and several sharp ¤re¤ghts occurred with scattered groups of NVA in the Con Thien area of operations (AO). Intelligence reports indicated clearly that the North Vietnamese were preparing for another offensive. 8 Buffalo Meanwhile, work progressed steadily on the barrier system. Once the ¤ve-hundred-meter-wide perimeters around Con Thien and Gio Linh were completely cleared in early June, the 11th Engineers commenced widening the Trace from two hundred to six hundred meters. McNamara’s Wall was becoming a reality, despite North Vietnam’s efforts . The 1st Battalion, 9th Marines under Lt. Col. Richard J. Schening had been assigned the Con Thien AO since taking over from 1/4 the last week in May. Capt. Richard J. Sasek’s Delta Company manned Con Thien’s perimeter lines. Housed inside the perimeter were the CP group and H & S Company. Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie Companies conducted patrols and set up night ambushes outside the perimeter. Capt. Edward L. Hutchinson’s Company C had been pulled back to Dong Ha the end of June for a few days of rest and relaxation (R&R) after they and Delta had completed an unproductive sweep two thousand meters northeast of Con Thien through the notorious Marketplace–Gia Binh area. Over the past year, the Marines had tangled repeatedly with company- and battalion-sized units of the NVA in this area labeled “Market” on their maps. The grunts always expected trouble when they went in there. Not ¤nding anything amiss was troubling to some old salts who knew the area. That was a sure sign the NVA were up to something. All was not well with 1/9 at Con Thien. Those eighteen- and nineteenyear -old kids holding down the fort were frustrated and angry at their role as live targets for the NVA artillery batteries up in the DMZ. Intermittent mortar and rocket attacks only added to the demoralizing situation. Day after day, more young 1/9 Marines became casualties, some riddled with shrapnel and some blown to pieces, and the only politically permissible response was to retaliate with artillery and air strikes. Unleashing our ground forces to go after the enemy gun batteries above the Ben Hai was not considered a viable option by our government. On July 1, the last day of Operation Cimarron, Alpha and Bravo Companies were preparing to go back out into the same Marketplace area two thousand meters northeast of Con Thien that Charlie and Delta Companies had swept a few days earlier. The 9th Marines CO, 110 Summer in Hell Col. George E. Jerue, wanted to foil the NVA pattern, which was to move into an area right after the Marines swept through and then dig in and prepare an ambush for the next Marine unit to come by on patrol weeks later. That night, Captain Al Slater’s Alpha Company set in north of Con Thien, less than a mile from the DMZ near the deserted hamlet of Thon An Nha. Bravo Company had crossed the Trace that afternoon and set in for the night ¤fteen hundred meters to the southeast of Alpha along Route 561, the ten-foot-wide cart path that connected Cam Lo with the DMZ. Bravo...