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Lieutenant Colonel Cecil M. “Hank” Henry, commanding officer of the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry, Americal Division. (Courtesy Col. Cecil M. Henry, USA, Ret)

Major Roger C. Lee, operations officer, 4–31st Infantry. (Courtesy William P. Wilson)

Lieutenant Colonel Henry (center), Major Lee (right), and Capt. Gabriel Akiona, intelligence officer of the 4–31st Infantry (left), with a captured enemy soldier. (Courtesy Col. Cecil M. Henry, USA, Ret)

Lieutenant Colonel Henry, Capt. Phillip Kinman, and Sgt. Maj. “Hoss” Gutterez (left to right) view captured enemy weapons after the NVA assault on Firebase West in August 1969. (Courtesy Col. Cecil M. Henry, USA, Ret)

Captain John A. Whittecar earned his third Silver Star while commanding D/4–31st Infantry in the Song Chang Valley fighting of August 1969. (Courtesy Kay Whittecar)

Captain Whittecar (holding map) confers with another officer. (Courtesy Kay Whittecar)

Captain William H. Gayler and 1st Lt. Doug Monroe (with camera) of B/4–31st Infantry during a standdown at Chu Lai. (Courtesy Col. William H. Gayler, AUS, Ret)

Second Lieutenant William P. Wilson, artillery forward observer of C/4–31st Infantry, eating a “Lurp” meal. (Courtesy William P. Wilson)

Privite First Class Eric R. “Rick” Shimer was the first man shot when B/3–21st Infantry, Americal Division, walked into an NVA bunker complex in the Song Chang Valley on 20August 1969. (Courtesy Eric R. Shimer)

John Curtis, Tom Goodwin, Jay Curtis, and Dan Lipetzky (left to right) of A/3–21st Infantry. Lipetzky was killed by a sniper two months before the battle in the Song Chang Valley. (Courtesy Thomas G. Goodwin)

Specialist 5th Class Joseph Kralich, senior medic of 4–31st Infantry, on Firebase West. (Courtesy Col. Cecil M. Henry, USA, Ret)

D/4–31st Infantry moves off Firebase West into the Hiep Duc Valley. (Courtesy Kay Whittecar)

Second Lieutenant William J. Schuler and Lance Cpl. Ruben Rivera (bareheaded) of E/2/7 Marines, which was sent into the Hiep Duc Valley to reinforce the Americal. Schuler was wounded and Rivera killed by the same mortar round on 26 August 1969. (Courtesy William J. Schuler)

Lieutenant Schuler (with cigar and beer) and 1st Lt. Paul T. Lindsay, commander of E/2/7, before the move to the Hiep Duc Valley. (Courtesy William J. Schuler)

Second Lieutenant William T. Brennon, a platoon leader in H/2/7 Marines. (Courtesy Ralph B. Sirianni)

Lance Corporal Ralph B. Sirianni (kneeling center) of H/2/7 Marines. (Courtesy Ralph B. Sirianni)

Corporal Beckler (with cigarette), a squad leader in H/2/7 Marines. (Courtesy Ralph B. Sirianni)

The 3d Battalion, 7th Marines begins moving off Firebase West to relieve 2/7 on August 27, 1969. (Courtesy Col. Ray G. Kummerow, USMC, Ret)

Marines in the Hiep Duc Valley. (Courtesy Col. Ray G. Kummerow, USMC, Ret)

Lance Corporal William S. Monahan (foreground), a radioman with the 3/7 Marines command group, in the Hiep Duc Valley. (Courtesy Col. Ray G. Kummerow, USMC, Ret)

PART

Death Valley

Chapter Eleven

Surrounded

Charlie 4–31, which had gone into the Hiep Duc Valley to support Bravo 4–31, was itself supported on the afternoon of 19 August 1969 by the arrival of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 46th Infantry (recently assigned to the 196th Brigade after having come in-country with the 198th Brigade). They normally operated to the south out of LZ Professional, but had deployed to an ARVN compound outside Tam Ky five days earlier. When Bravo Company was opconned to the Polar Bears this afternoon, word at the grunt level was sparse; all they knew was that another company in another battalion of the Americal had been ambushed and they were going in to recover the dead.

Bravo had about two hours to ruck up before a single Chinook arrived to ferry them, a platoon at a time, to ARVN LZ Karen. The airlift was completed by 1300 and the grunts spent another hour sitting in the direct boil atop the dusty, bald LZ. It was then, after the company commander