Another breakout action the Marines took involved the 2nd battalion, 26th Marines, still under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Heath. On April 5 (Notes) the battalion’s Golf company (Captain Lee R. Overstreet) conducted a company-size combat patrol to the southwest of Hill 558, the first since late January. The mission was to be a reconnaissance – to check whether the NVA occupied a ridge that overlooked Hill 558 from about 1,800 meters to the west.
The battalion maneuver uncovered an NVA HORNET’S NEST. GOLF Company stumbled into a reinforced North Vietnamese company atop its objective. A lot of things went wrong, including a two-hour delay in support fire because of a super gaggle of, helicopters that refused to vacate the area. Heath called the company back to 558 for the night, the casualties stood at three killed, eleven missing, forty-nine wounded and evacuated, plus eleven wounded but not evacuated
On Palm Sunday – April 7 – Heath tried again, this time with two companies. To Golf he added Foxtrot under Captain Charles F. Divelbiss. The men struggled forward under an extremely hot sun, through dense foliage and up steep slopes. There were a number heat casualties before the Marines even got close to the NVA ridge line. The assault itself would be equally tough. In Foxtrot both officers leading forward platoons were shot. One platoon was reduced to fourteen marines led by a corporal, Rudy De La Garza.
Captain Overstreet with Golf was wounded twice. Golf was again repulsed,: and Foxtrot had to be withdrawn with eight dead, two marines who later died of their wounds, and fifty-one others wounded. As for Golf company, it now had only 120 of the 210 marines it had a couple of days before
Two days of aerial and artillery bombardment followed, Heath drew up a plan for an attack by his entire battalion. Not wanting to begin prematurely, he rejected the offer some helicopter pilots made of inserting a force of riflemen directly on top of the ridge. Also, Echo company under First Lieutenant Joseph R. Meeks was sent to hill 861 on April 9, where it became the battalion reserve for the attack on the ridge opposite. Heath, like Cahill, (Cahill was mentioned on an earlier page) made a night move to put the battalion into assault positions before first light. At 6:30 am. they attacked with three companies on line. (I think this was Fox Golf and Hotel with Echo on reserve)
The rest was anticlimax. Having fought so hard against the earlier forays, the North Vietnamese decided they had enough, and pulled out. Marines found the bodies of the missing Marines, and an American PRC-25 radio still tuned to Golf company’s frequency.
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