Battle of Hue, and an NFL Lineman's Contribution

[bayonetbrant]

http://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2017/09/15/vietnam-battle-hue-ernie-cheatham-bowden

On Jan. 31, 1968, just hours into the Tet Offensive, a 27-year-old Marine captain named Chuck Meadows received an order that sounded insane.

Meadows and his company of 160 Marines were holed up in an American compound in the South Vietnamese city of Hue. They were completely surrounded by thousands of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers. Meadows was ordered to leave the shelter of the compound and attack an enemy-controlled citadel — a large medieval-looking fortress with tall, thick walls.

To get to the citadel, Chuck Meadows and his men would have to cross a bridge about the length of four football fields. At the other end, the enemy waited behind a heavy machine gun.

Meadows knew the attack was a bad idea. So did his commanding officer in Hue, a guy named Marcus Gravel.

"But Gravel, who recognized the futility of the order, nevertheless insisted that Meadows do it because he was not equipped to basically take a stand and push back against what everyone recognized was a really bad order," says author Mark Bowden, who has researched the Battle of Hue.

So Meadows and about a hundred Marines charged.

The North Vietnamese soldiers waited until the Marines were halfway across the bridge. Then they opened fire.

None of the Marines would make it into the enemy-controlled citadel. By the time Meadows and his men retreated to the besieged American compound, 10 Marines had been killed and 56 had been wounded. Meadows was furious about what he considered an idiotic mission.

"He felt, 'Where was his commanding officer? Where was somebody to stick up for him and his men?' He didn't have the clout," Bowden says. "He needed somebody who would say, 'This is an asinine order, and I'm not sending my men out to do that.'"

The Americans were back where they started — in a compound about the size of a square block, surrounded by thousands of enemy troops.

Two days later, Chuck Meadows finally received some good news: a lieutenant colonel named Ernie Cheatham was coming to help.

go read the rest

[mirth]

go read the rest

I did, in Bowden's book.