In May 1963, the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade became the first major combat unit to arrive in Vietnam. As the Army's only action-ready unit in the Pacific at that time, it was only a matter of weeks before the "Sky Soldiers" of the 173rd encountered the enemy firsthand. Again and again, these soldiers would struggle to secure and keep the 60-square-mile area known as War Zone D.
Also known as the "Iron Triangle," this territory would be Pfc. Milton Lee Olive III's final battlefield. The quiet young man from Chicago's South Side was, like so many of his fellows, already a hardened combat veteran at the age of 19.
