Ten brutal days of miserable fighting on a jungle-shrouded mountain in the spring of 1969 left scores of American dead, hundreds wounded and fueled a raging outcry from the American body politic that irretrievable altered the course of U.S. military policy in Vietnam. Even though the valiant effort of U.S. troops was, in the end, successful in taking the hill and inflicting heavy enemy losses, the terrible prices of the drawn-out fight and its seeming senselessness—among some troops on the ground and the general public—made this one battle an enduring symbol of the overall futility of America's war in Vietnam.
In their flak jackets, and heavily laden with grenades and extra ammunition, Honeycutt's men moved up Hill 937 for yet another attempt.
The battle was the result of a renewed effort in early 1969 to neutralize the North Vietnamese forces in the A Shau, a 45-kilometer-long valley in southwestern Thua Thien Province along the border with Laos. The A Shau sheltered enemy Base Area 611 and had long provided a major infiltration corridor for Communist forces from the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos to the coastal cities of northern I Corps Tactical Zone.
