Major Kelly Owen Carl Boian - Major General Melvin Zais And Hamburger Hill

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Text originally published in 2012 under the same title.

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Major General Melvin Zais and Hamburger Hill

A Monograph

By

Major Kelly Owen Carl Boian

U.S. Army

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Major General Melvin Zais and Hamburger Hill by MAJ Kelly O.C. Boian, USA.

Major General Melvin Zais, a second generation Russian American, orchestrated the battle between the 29th Regiment of the Peoples Army of Vietnam and the 101st Airborne Division around Dong Ap Bia (Hamburger Hill), Vietnam. General Zais, focused operations on and around Hamburger Hill to prevent build up of men, weapons, and supplies in the A Shau Valley which would have allowed for VC and NVA forces to conduct another Tet Offensive. As General Zais developed the situation in Thau Thien Provence, similarities can be drawn to an offensive he assisted in coordinating within southern France in World War II. This familiarity in size of terrain, enemy presence, and friendly tactical actions assisted Zais in his understanding of the situation, and conducting continuous assaults up the 937 meters of Dong Ap Bia to destroy the 29th Regiment of the Peoples Army of Vietnam, and prevent the perceived threat of another Tet Offensive.

Figure 1: A Shau Valley with Hamburger Hill and the A Shau SF Camp Highlighted

Figure 2: Operation DRAGOON

Figure 3: 517th PRCT and 1st SSF Boundary Change, 3 September 1944

Figure 4: 517th PRCT in the Maritime Alps

Figure 5: 517th PRCT's Initial Actions to Seize Col de Braus

Figure 6: 517th Establishes a Foothold at Col de Braus

Figure 7: Enemy Positions at Col de Braus

Figure 8: Securing Col de Braus and Surrounding Area

Figure 9: Ho Chi Minh Trail

Figure 10: Dong Ap Bia and the A Shau Valley

Figure 11: Initial Movements of 3-187 Infantry and 1-506 Infantry, 10-14 May 1969

Figure 12: 1-506 Infantry and 3-187 Infantry Movement, 15-17 May 1969

Figure 13: Arrival of Reinforcements, 18-19 May 1969

Figure 14: Securing Hill 937, 20 May 1969

The C-ration sign said, Hamburger Hill, and underneath the simple, descriptive title of the hill another author asked, Was it worth it? {1} For ten and a half days, Maj. Gen. Melvin Zais (Commander, 101st Airborne Division) ordered 3d Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division to scramble up the 937 meters of Ap Bia Mountain (also known as Hill 937 or Hamburger Hill) in the A Shau Valley, South Vietnam to eliminate the 29th Regiment of the Peoples Army of Vietnam (29th PAVN). Over the course of the operation, General Zais continued to feed in reinforcements from 3-187 Infantry; 2d Battalion, 501st Infantry; and elements of the 1st and 2d battalions, 506th Infantry from the 101st, Zais also committed the 1st Army of the Republic of Vietnam Regiment to ultimately achieve victory at the top of Ap Bia Mountain. As the victorious, but weary soldiers stood on the burning, desolate, pockmarked hill and tallied the seventy Screaming Eagle soldiers killed and 372 wounded, they may very well have asked themselves, Was it worth it? {2} Little did the soldiers know at the time that they would ask themselves the same question once again when, on 5 June 1969, 1-506th Infantry, securing Hill 937, was ordered to abandon the hill. The new division commander, Maj. Gen. John Wright, had decided there was no benefit in having forces tied down to secure Ap Bia. The North Vietnamese Army responded by moving an estimated one thousand soldiers to the hill to reoccupy it, inciting rebukes from the American public and United States government officials that American soldiers fought and died for nothing. {3} General Wrights decision, troubling as it was, begs the question as to his predecessors decision to attack Hamburger Hill in the first place. As Army Doctrine Reference Publication (ADRP) 5-0 outlines, commanders use their experience, skill, knowledge, creativity, and knowledge to organize and employ military forces. {4} What events, in Zaiss military career, led to his understanding of the operational context for Hamburger Hill and thus his decision to attack and seize it?

Maj. Gen. Melvin Zaiss experience as an airborne regimental executive officer in southern France during World War II prepared him for the struggles he later faced as the commander of the 101 st Airborne in Vietnam. As a regimental executive officer, then Lt. Col. Melvin Zais, assisted in leading the 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team, the Battling Buzzards, against German fortified positions in the mountains of the Maritime Alps. {5} Allied boundary adjustments provided a seam that the veteran German 34th Infantry Division, fresh from northern Italy, was able to exploit as it reoccupied the high ground around Col de Braus, resulting in an uphill slugfest to secure the town and surrounding area. {6} General Zais was reminded of the fight for Col de Braus as the 101st Airborne advanced into the A Shau Valley and the high terrain around Dong Ap Bia to defeat North Vietnamese forces that had reoccupied the valley. The rigorous conditions, a determined and entrenched enemy, and the reliance upon combined arms maneuver laid the foundation for the major engagement Major General Zais orchestrated in the jungles of Vietnam. Unlike Vietnam however, the loss of life to secure Col de Braus had operational linkages to securing the eastern flank of the US VI Corps, and opening the heavily defended Sospel Valley and northern Italy, setting the stage for the strategic goal of liberating Italy, entrance to the so-called soft underbelly of Europe, and exposing the German heartland along two fronts. {7} In contrast, the actions at Hamburger Hill killed numerous North Vietnamese soldiers, but had no operational linkages to other objectives outside of the A Shau Valley. Finally, the objective itself, Hill 937, did not have any strategic importance tied to winning the war in Vietnam.

The 101 st Airborne Division launched Operation APACHE SNOW on 10 May 1969 to neutralize enemy bases and communications in the A Shau Valley and prevent a possible enemy offensive (there were indicators that the North Vietnamese were massing men, supplies, and equipment for a spring offensive) by employing tactics influenced by American material superiority. {8} Since 1966, the A Shau Valley (Figure 1) in Western Thua Thien province had been a major artery for the supply of men, weapons, and supplies from North Vietnam into South Vietnam. After the North Vietnamese had expelled a contingent of Civilian Irregular Defense Group Forces and United States and South Vietnamese Special Forces from the A Shau Special Forces Camp on 10 March 1966, they used the valley to build logistical bases and roads into Laos, connecting the valley to the network of trails and river ways that comprised the Ho Chi Minh Trail. {9} In 1966, the Central Intelligence Agency estimated five divisions, roughly 58,000 North Vietnamese, utilized this network to infiltrate into South Vietnam. {10} The Military Assistance Command Vietnam understood the strategic importance of controlling the A Shau Valley in order to stem the southward flow of enemy supplies and soldiers; Operation APACHE SNOW was one of several United States attempts to wrest control of the valley from enemy hands.