RESCUING THE WALKING DEAD

Beads of sweat streamed down the dirt-smeared face of Cpl. Tommy “Hatch” Hatcher of 1st Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. The hill he had just climbed was steep, and his company had ascended 1,800 feet of its nearly 2,000-foot height. Hatch’s 10-pound armor vest didn’t help, nor did the 45-pound M60 machine gun and a belt of ammo he lugged. About 50 yards from the top, Charlie Company Marines awaited orders from battalion commander Col. John “Blackie” Cahill, walking the hillside with them.

The Marines were told a North Vietnamese Army squad, occupying a bunker complex on the ridgetop, had Alpha Company pinned down. Charlie would move to the eastern/southeastern ridge to relieve pressure on Alpha and allow it to withdraw its 10 dead and 20 wounded. Delta Company would aid from the northwest. After several excruciating minutes, the radio transmitted the orders to Charlie Company: “Move out your 1st Platoon.” It was 2:30 p.m. on April 16, 1968.

That day the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, which had adopted “The Walking Dead” as its nickname, was on Hill 600 (named for its height in meters), about 3 miles west of the Marine base at Khe Sanh in northwestern South Vietnam near the Laotian border. The battlefield around Khe Sanh was in transition in mid-April 1968. An NVA siege of the base that had begun on Jan. 21 was broken April 8 by a relief force of infantry troops from the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) during Operation Pegasus. Now Marine units from Khe Sanh were scouring the surrounding hills for NVA troops positioned in the area to direct artillery and rocket strikes launched from Laos. During the past week the Marines had largely found squad-sized units, and many assumed the NVA had largely evacuated the area.

On April 16, air cavalry scouts radioed an Army unit on a nearby hill and reported that the NVA was repopulating the hills around Khe Sanh. All elements of the