WASHINGTON — Forty-three years ago this week, the fabled 101st Airborne Division launched Operation Apache Snow — a major ground offensive against North Vietnamese army invaders in the treacherous A Shau Valley. Though fighting raged over hundreds of square miles of triple-canopied jungle, the focus soon became a single terrain feature, a mountain, with peaks as high as 3,000 feet, the Vietnamese named Dong Ap Bia, or “Mountain of the Crouching Beast.” The Americans who fought there called it Hamburger Hill.
By the time the 11-day battle ended, 70 American soldiers were dead, and nearly 400 had been wounded. More than 600 North Vietnamese soldiers perished. The only survivors of this epic battle to receive the thanks of their countrymen for their courage and commitment were the North Vietnamese.
