Root’s plan for the final assault was simple, and he conceptualized it as, in his terms, ‘collapsing an egg.’ In an operations order given over the radio the previous evening, he had directed his two northern companies (the C companies of 1/12 and 1/5) to attack due south. Once that sweep was completed, C Company, 1/12, and B Company, 1/12, would then assault back from south to north.

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As planned, both northern companies jumped off at 6 a.m. on October 3 with Captain Houston’s C Company, 1/12, on the right and Captain Donald Sim’s C Company, 1/5, on the left. Sims and his unit encountered only light resistance and were soon pinched out of the assault as they crossed in front of A Company, 1/15. They were sent back up to re-establish northern blocking positions. Houston’s men, marching down the stem of the village’s L shape, bumped into a major gunfight almost immediately.

As the 3rd Platoon, under Lieutenant John Rudd, crossed a rice paddy about 25 meters from its start point, the NVA opened up. While the rest of the unit flattened, Pfc David Osborne stood up and began firing his M-60 machine gun against the bunkers to his front. Following his example, Specialist Daniel Shubert, the other M-60 gunner, stood up and also began hosing down the NVA positions. Then the platoon charged. When the platoon cleared that trench line, they encountered still another. This time Specialist Gary Lusk, Rudd’s radio-telephone operator, stood up and began pointing out targets to Osborne and the others. When the enemy fire slackened, the platoon charged again. The rush carried them and the rest of the company through the outer NVA defensive line and into the village proper. There, they advanced hut by hut, engaging in isolated gunfights the whole way. It took the company four hours to reach the American lines in the south, but they arrived without losing a man.

C Company then did an about-face and, along with B Company, began a sweep from south to north. Resistance this time was sporadic at best, and their arrival in the north at 12:30 p.m. signaled the end of the battle. Root’s forces had suffered three dead and 29 wounded. The 7th and 8th battalions, 18th Regiment of the North Vietnamese Army were annihilated.

This article was written by James T. Root, Jr. and originally published in the August 1994 issue of Vietnam Magazine. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today!

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