9 Things Grunts Did in the Central Highlands of Vietnam to Stay Alive

The climb up the ridges around Dak To, the elephant grass, the triple canopy that hid men from their own helicopters, the red laterite dust that jammed rifles, the cold nights nobody warned them about, the mountain streams, the hole on the ridgeline, the Montagnards who fought beside them, and the long way off the hill. How the men of the 4th Infantry Division, the 173rd Airborne Brigade, the 1st Cavalry Division and the Special Forces camps learned the rules of the mountains. Sources: - Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway, We Were Soldiers Once and Young (Random House, 1992) - Francis J. Kelly, U.S. Army Special Forces, 1961-1971 (Vietnam Studies, Department of the Army, 1973) - Shelby L. Stanton, The Rise and Fall of an American Army: U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1965-1973 (Presidio, 1985) - Edward F. Murphy, Dak To: The 173rd Airborne Brigade in South Vietnam's Central Highlands, June-November 1967 (Presidio, 1993) - Accounts from veterans of the Central Highlands, including comments left on this channel (used without names)