Hill 119

Written at the Marine/Corpsmen, Recon team, and Recon-platoon level, this book describes life as a Recon Marine. It follows a chronological order beginning with genesis of the Observation Post in January 1969. The OP started as a bare hill on a low finger, and it will be returned to the same state as a bare finger in March of 1971. The incidents and events of the Marines and Corpsmen are told in their words and at their level. Patrolling deep in the jungle on hard dirt trails or living in wet sand bagged bunkers, the Marines and Corpsman operated in three environments which we will trace through the book:

A Recon Marine would run multiple four-to-seven-day patrols deep into enemy territory in small teams for six weeks and then serve for two weeks on the OP. They defended the Observation Post by calling air strikes and artillery on their enemy, patrolling at night, and setting deadly ambushes. From a Marine’s perspective, “The Rear” was chickenshit, spit and polish, with incidents like L/Cpl Paul Freeman’s, Non-Judicial Punishment, for visiting the infamous “Dog Patch. “The Bush” was adrenaline filled; sleepless days always being outnumbered on the enemy’s home turf like Team Pal Joey’s conduct of a POW snatch. The “The Hill” was a relaxing break. Like L/Cpl ‘Big I’ Iantonio’s missed triple gainer dive attempt into Alligator Lake which resulted in a broken knee cap. It was often extremely dangerous, lulling one into being lazy and paying the price by hitting a booby trap or getting overrun by the bad guys.

The enemy is the 2nd North Vietnamese Army (NVA) Division’s, T89 Sapper Battalion, who Gen Binh task with neutralizing the Marine Observation Post. Late in 1969, the Marines deployed to the hill a new classified secret technology of the laser range finder. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) integrated it into observation equipment called the Integrated Observation Devise (IOD). Together, these two devices dramatically increased the accuracy of an artillery call for fire. One of the first IOD’s was placed on Hill 119. Even looking thru, the ‘Big Eye’s’ of the IOD, the most difficult challenge for the Marines was distinguishing civilian farmers from military soldiers. Many times, the same person wears different clothes and uniforms at different times day and night. This lead to serious incidents on Hill 119 like the Lieutenant Lee, Article 32 Investigation and General Court Martial for manslaughter of a Vietnamese woman. We will follow the events for over five months resulting from the lieutenant’s sniper shot from the hill killing a young Vietnamese woman, thru the Naval Investigative Service’s detailed investigation to the Article 32 hearing, and his General Court Martial.

From a leadership perspective, six Battalion Commanders are covered in the book: Lt. Colonels Charon, Mickelson, Grace, Drumright, Regan, and Leftwich. Each impacted the battalion with their personalities as well as their planning and execution of multiple missions with the always changing enemy situation. From classic Keyhole, snoop and poop patrols, to aggressive Sting Ray patrols, designed to inflict casualties.

To guard against fifty years of memory tricks, the events, incidents, numbers, dates, and facts, which sometimes get clouded with time for each incident and event, were cross walked with the debriefing Patrol Reports filed after every patrol. In Hill 119’s case, forty-seven patrol reports each covering every radio SPOT Report of the two-week OP period provide the hard facts for the six hundred days. The 1st Reconnaissance Battalion’s Command Chronologies serve as a timeline and provide a monthly picture of key activities in the battalion during the period of 1969 and 1970. The Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/  is the location for the declassified Command Chronologies, Operations Orders, and Patrol Reports cited in this book.

The common thread for the Recon Marines and Corpsmen was a trip to Hill 119 once every two months. During the six hundred days the Marines occupied the OP they called supporting arms every day and every night. They rained fire down on the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). They killed 1089 of Gen Binh’s soldiers, both North Vietnamese regulars as well as motivated Viet Cong Infrastructure. Hill 119 Doi Chiem Som is the history of Delta Company’s Marines, Corpsmen, Officers, and Staff NCOs from the ground level during the life of the Observation Post.