(Rocky Blier was in the Army and was wounded in Hiep Duc Valley about this time. Mr. Blier, who was a running back for the Pittsburg Steelers and was on 4 Super Bowl winning teams, was one of only two professional athletes to serve in Vietnam. The other was Bob Kalsu. He started at guard for the Buffalo Bills in 1968/69. After the season was over he left the team to complete his ROTC obligation and was killed in 1970.)
From the Army, the 7th Marines inherited two combat bases, both located on Route 535, a narrow dirt road which ran westard from Route 1 to the district headquarters at Que Son. There the road divided, with Route 535 continuing southward into the Americal TAOR, while the northern fork, Route 536, climbed over the Que Son Mountains, through Antenna Valley, and then into the An Hoa basin. LZ Baldy, formerly the command post of the Army's 196th Infantry Brigade and now site of the 7th Marines' Headquarters, was the easternmost of the two bases, located at the intersection of Route 535 and Route 1, about 30 kilometers south of Da Nang. Sixteen kilometers west, near Que Son District Headquarters, was Fire Support Base Ross, which commanded the Que Son Valley.
Within days of the arrival of the 7th Marines, heavy fighting erupted in the rolling foothills around Hiep Duc, some 32 kilometers west of Tam Ky, at the head of the Que Son Valley. Triggered by elements of the 196th Infantry Brigade endeavoring to reach a downed helicopter, the Army's 4th Bn., 31st Infantry locked horns with elements of the 1st VC Regt. and 3rd Regt., 2nd NVA Division, both of which were attempting to destroy the governments model pacification effort at Hiep Duc. By 20 August, the 31st Infantry had killed over 300 enemy troops, and was still heavily engaged. The following day, the Army battalion requested the 7th Marines provide, "any size unit" to relieve the pressure by sweeping a finger of the Que Son Mountains to the east of their position. At 1400, in over-100-degree heat, two of Lt. Col. Lugger's companies, F and G, in addition to the battalion's alpha command group, left FSB Ross and advanced down Route 535 towards the hill mass, thought to contain an NVA battalions and regimental command post.
Early on the morning of the 22nd, Company F moved up Hill 441, north of the village of Phu Bin (3), and then back down where it joined Company G in a sweep of the hills southern slope. (Once again I had no idea what was going on, though they had told us we were reacting for the Army. The brush along the side of 441 was increadibly thick. We had some heat casualities. I helped carry some of their gear on the chopper, as I was getting off I just happened to look down and saw my rifle laying there. I had dropped it with the rest of my gear to help and somebody had thrown it on the chopper thinking it belonged to one of the medivacees. It would have been real cute to have to have gone to the Lt. and told him, "I've lost my rifle." As it turned out, I would have had no trouble getting one in the next few days.) As the companies moved westward, the only difficulty encountered was the heat, which caused numerous nonbattle casualties, requiring several emergency evacuations. Later in the day, again at the request of the 31st Infantry, Lugger's two companies moved off the slopes of Hill 441, and by the morning of the 23rd, had set up a 1,500-meter blocking position, stretching across the valley floor. The following day, Companies F and G were to begin moving slowly forward in an effort to relieve enemy pressure on the Army battalion, pushing eastward from Hiep Duc. In the interim, forward and flank patrols were sent out. On the left, Company F made no contact as it reconnoitered the area to the front of its position, but on the opposite flank, as Lt. Col. Lugger reported, Co. G encountered stiff resistance:
The hill mass located to my immediate right front was a very heavily covered hill......I ordered
Golf Company to send a reconnaissance force forward to determine what was on that hill, and
they sent a reinforced squad. The squad moved up the slope, and was about one-third of
the way up when it came under intensive sniper fire. The enemy, firing from very
well-concealed and very heavy sniper positions, inflicted wounds on two men
(Sgt. Adams and another guy, I think his name was Jarrell,were killed.) and then,
with his normal tactics, he covered the bodies with fire so that anyone who attempted
to go forward to assist or to aid or to retrieve the bodies would himself come under
very intensive fire. Before the day was out, we had about three bodies that we
could not retrieve.
At 1700, Co. H moved by air to reinforce Co. G and the two units attempted to recover the dead Marines, but failed. (Steve Cunningham was killed trying to get them. There were several other casualities (Mills (nicknamed Powerhouse) was shot in the leg, Cortez broke his leg, a couple others were medevaced for heat - it was incredibly hot). We had fired a lot of artillery form LZ West and there had been several air strikes. The entire area just below the treeline where the bodies were was burned off.) On the 24th, after air and artillery had stripped away the heavy foliage and destroyed the enemy's positions, the two companies made another attempt during which they retrieved the three bodies.
All three companies of Lugger's battalion moved out on the morning of the 25th, but ran headlong into elements of the two enemy regiments. On the right, Companies G and H encountered the same heavy resistance they had on the 23rd, and spent most of the day attempting to both move forward and recover their casualties. On the left, elements of Company F came under intensive mortar, RPG, and automatic weapons fire, as did Lugger's command group in the center. With the enemy less than 50 meters away, noted Lt. Col. Lugger, "every man in the CP had to fire his weapon in order to protect himself." Lugger requested air strikes - napalm within 50 meters, 250-pound bombs within 200 meters, and 500-pound bombs, "as close as we dare get them" - breaking the attack on the battalion command post. By late afternoon, with Companies G and H still heavily engaged on the right, and the forward elements of Company F unable to move on the left, Lugger requested reinforcements. At dusk, Company E helilifted into the area, and in what was a daring rescue, Huey gunships, supported by AH-1G Cobras, extracted the battered remnants of Company F, returning them to the command post while evacuating the casualties.