Friday. May ls. m1

-—————-————.—_~.—______‘_.

The Grinnsll REPORTER

, . . . . and the Marines take another hill

The ﬁght for 88l

ED. NOTE:

Robert Hodierne, editor of The
neporler (see) last year, has been
working as a freelance writer and
photographer in Vietnam for the past
eleven months. His stories and photo»
graphs have appeared In a number of
publications, including a previous issue
at The Reporter, and have been exten-
sively carried by UPI and AP. Ho-
dieme, who is currently on a leave of
absence from Grinnell, plans [a return
to the United States this summer and
enroll in Grinnell again this fall. His
home is Galesburg. Illinois.

By P. Robert Hodicrne

DANANG, VIETNAM (May 7)«
In the hills north of here nearly a
thousand Marines were killed and
wounded this past week. I was
there and saw a lot of it happen
and I was lucky. At this moment
some are in aluminum caskets fly-
ing in a jet plane back to heart-
broken families. Others are
stretched out in white hospital
beds, 19 year old kids who won’t
run again because they don’t have
much left leg anymore, who won't
find the girls so friendly because
a lot of soft-hard face was torn
away.

I'm lucky because at this mo-
ment it’s 9 o'clock in the morning,
I made it back, the press bar is
nirrconditioned, and I’ve already
had two drinks.

This battle, the fight for hill 861
and 381, was especially disgusting
because more even than the whole
war, it just didn’t have to happen.
As one of only three newsmen to
actually make the assaults first
hand, I can say that this fight had

everything that is wrong with the
military.

No Marine has been able to give
a good reason why those two hills
had to be taken. Marines kept as-
saulting dug-in positions and being
shredded and wasted. Young en-
listed men and young platoon
leaders shook their heads, checked
their weapons, and did what the
old officers and sergeants said to
do. The aging colonels kept urging
them on. Korea and World War II.
Iwo Jima. Tradition. Marines don’t
leave hills untaken. They also
don‘t leave dead and wounded be-
hind which doesn‘t account for the
two and three-day old bodies we
found on the slopes.

But never mind. take that island,
take that hill. That's how it was
in the “old corps." And so some
unbending men in positions of
power drove kids into hell after
hell.

And that’s the way it has always
been. And since those old men die
and seem to he followed by still
even more old men it’s prohably
the way it always will be.

And the men who are young
today will forget their buddies in
the shiny aluminum envelopes, the
wooden legs. The moment they
forget they too will be old men and
in their turn send the young kids
against useless hills of death.

And that’s why I’m telling the
young Vietnamese girl this mom
ing to mix me another. She sum
thinks Americans drink a lot and
giggles at the order. Screw her.

gopyrlghx 1961 by 1:. Robert Hodtcrlu
Brmlsslun is granted to reproduce
this article in whole or in part n
the lollowlng credit I: given:

ny r. noserr Hodterne
Reprinted from The Grlnnen Report“

May [9, 1967 k Grinnell college
Grinnell, Iown

 

