Dorland had other problems besides his injuries. Well-aimed enemy fire from the two hills threatened to hold his force in a viselike grip between the lumps of high ground. Dorland remembered: The NVA was dug in on both hills, with extensive networks of tunnels. A base of fire was initially laid down on the hill to our west. While intense fire was directed on the hill, the two infantry companies were sweeping from the opposite side — thus squeezing the enemy.

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As the ceiling lifted, Dorland began directing airstrikes onto the enemy’s positions west of his command post (CP). A set of McDonald-Douglas F-4 Phantoms howled low over the CP and delivered the first load of napalm and 500-pound bombs on the flinty slopes of Hill X. The pilots had placed their bombs with remarkable accuracy, but the NVA were back up and firing minutes after the fighters had departed. It would take many more airstrikes before their guns fell silent.

Progress, measured in meters around the rocky real estate, did not come cheap. There were 50 casualties during the first two hours of fighting, and losses continued to mount when the fighting spread from the high ground down into the island hedgerows. As the morning moved toward midday, it became apparent to Dorland that the battle was turning into a virtual standoff. Dorland radioed Colonel Gelling for reinforcements. Shortly afterward, the brigade TOC radioed Dorland that Company B, 3/21 (Gimlets), commanded by Captain David Spohn, was on the way.

At 0915, 12 UH-1 helicopters from the 71st Combat Aviation Company (Rattlers), carrying the 1st and 2nd platoons of Company B, 3/21, swooped into the valley. Earlier, Dorland had Company B, 4/31, secure a landing zone (LZ) for medical evacuation, and it was planned that the aircraft carrying Company B’s troops would land there. For some reason, the Rattlers touched down in a paddy several hundred meters away from Bierschmidt’s LZ. Spohn’s troops spilled out of the Hueys and into a maelstrom of enemy fire. One of Company B’s elements became isolated and pinned down.

Dorland swiftly dispatched a platoon of cavalry and the tank section to assist the beleaguered Gimlets. The tanks ran into immediate problems in the wet paddies, but both elements were able to link up with Company B. Spohn’s men got their bearings and pushed forward, supported by the combined fires of the armored vehicles. Company B gained 50 meters before it was stopped by a storm of fire coming from a hedgerow. The North Vietnamese were as determined as ever to hold their ground.

Dorland placed airstrikes on the enemy bunkers and directed Company B, 4/31, to assist Spohn and the cavalry. As yellow and red smoke wafted up through the green hedgerows, marking units’ locations, more fighter aircraft shrieked low across the battlefield to strike the enemy’s positions. When the fighters had expended their ordnance, gunships from the 71st Aviation Company (Firebirds) whirled in behind them to unleash a barrage of rockets into the enemy’s positions. The soldiers of the 3rd NVA Regiment had constructed the positions with great care, and it took a direct hit by a 250-pound bomb or a near-miss by one of the larger ones to knock out a bunker.

Before the smoke from the rockets and bombs had cleared from the airstrikes, the armor and infantry were back on line grinding their way slowly through the hedgerows. The tanks and infantry worked as teams. The tank commanders had the benefit of height and were often able to see the enemy bunker first and obliterate it with a round of 90mm fired point-blank. If the infantry found the enemy position, the riflemen marked the bunker with tracers for the tank’s gunner. Often, however, the infantrymen used fire and movement to pin down the bunker’s occupants and destroy the position with grenades or explosive.

As Dorland attempted to suppress the guns on Hill X and deal with the problems comfronting Company B, 3/21, Mellon and the cavalry continued the gut-wrenching job of rooting the enemy from their positions on Hill 63. The fighting between Mellon’s company and the North Vietnamese soldiers was fierce, close and deadly. The enemy soldiers held their positions and refused surrender, choosing instead to die in place.

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