The Last Recon Platoon

Two days after having located what became known as "Hamburger Hill", on 15 May 1969, B Troop 2/17 Air Cav, 101st Abn Div was sent at dawn south to Chu Lai. The Americal Division had declared a tactical emergency and the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division was sent down to help in what was called "Operation Lamar Plain". By 1000 hrs B Troop was fully operational in the AO (area of operations) east of Tam Ky, Death Valley.

2 June 1969

In response to a few potshots the B Troop Aerorifles (infantry) are inserted at 1240 hrs on Hill 376, vicinity of Tam Ky, RVN. Eighteen men, including a medic and 2 Vietnamese scouts who fled the area are surrounded by hundreds of well-bunkered NVA troops. The Platoon is pinned down for several hours and suffers heavy losses. Only a few are able to return fire. Several companies are inserted later in the day and the siege is broken not without heavy losses on both parts. The following day at noon the survivors are returned to Tam Ky. The bodies and the blood stained equipment of the KIA's are also returned but their souls were left on the hill. We inserted them but never extracted them.

This action was a bitter pill for the Banshee troopers. We did not realize then that we would carry this event deep inside us for years to come. To one degree or another, we have carried a sense of helplessness and guilt, which have haunted us all these years. A yearning to return to the Hill would become a reality.

26 May 1999

The Last Recon Platoon assembles at Los Angeles International Airport. One by one, the platoon elements fly in from all over the United States. At 0115 hrs the platoon departs enroute to Vietnam arriving in Saigon on 28 May.

MISSION: to land on Hill 376 and extract the five souls left behind on 2 June 1969.

30 May 1999

The Last Recon Platoon flies into Danang and sets up a base of operations at the Furama Resort in China Beach.

1 June 1999

The Last Recon Platoon, a Task Force from B Troop 2/17 Air Cav, reinforced by aviation assets from the 5th Mech Division and the Americal, augmented by a volunteer dependent contingent, departs Danang enroute to Tam Ky arriving at the assembly area at approximately 0800 hrs. A Vietnamese scout who had previously reconnoitered the area leads the party to the top of the hill after stops at three staging areas. It is Children's Day in Vietnam, plenty of candy is brought along for them at every stop. Vietnamese porters provide logistical support. The final assault is launched from Mr. Minh's home, the last hamlet on the hill.

The Task Force reaches the summit at approximately 12:40 hrs where a 2 June 1969 survivor finds that nothing has changed. Evidence of bunkers has not been erased by 30 seasons of monsoons. The boulder where the platoon leader and three others took shelter are still there, silent witnesses to a tragedy. The grass is taller, the only change. The survivor tells the story, step by step, walking through the area, marking the place where our KIA's fell, where the platoon was positioned. A story of anxious hours, of colored smoke, of death, of gunships firing rockets, of fear and of bravery. Of heavy monsoon rains that precluded reinforcement for several hours.

The tactical situation having been described, the positions marked, it was time for the 91st Psalm. A cobra pilot who spent hours on station talking to the survivor read it. After 30 years they realize who they were. They had known the voices and call signs but not their faces.

Name tracings from the Vietnam Memorial are read and one by one they are burned, their ashes symbolically left on the hill for the wind to play.

Their souls are now free to wonder the heavens. We never forgot them.

As if on cue, the same monsoon rain of 1969 begins to fall again and at the same time, reminding us that there are forces more powerful over which we have no control. The return to the staging area is wet but joyous; a sense of fulfillment is felt by everyone, we are free at last. We sought and found inner peace. We sought and found closure. We extracted them.

The war is over.

Banshee 46

(The following day at 1230 in a Church in Tam Ky a memorial service was held. The church was decorated with fresh flowers and a choir of young Vietnamese girls, looking beautiful in white ao dais, plus young boys in white shirts and ties, sang for us. Through large open windows bright sunlight entered the nave and in the midst of the service butterflies, the symbol of life, flew in and out of the church)

Banshee 46 was the call sign of then Fist Lieutenant Fernando De Pierris, Lift Section Leader, B Troop. He led the assault on the hill and returned once to bring the besieged platoon ammunition on what he thought would be his last mission. Miraculously, the NVA did not shoot him down. On 2 June 1999 he and his group met with NVA counterparts who also fought on Hill 376. When he asked them why they had not shoot him down, a 71 year Vietnamese colonel replied: "because if we had, we would not be here today talking to each other".