Vietnam 1st Battalion
Mother's Day Hill - Company Commander's Perspective
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I wrote this story decades ago to provide more information and understanding of the operation and mission of ABU Company. We flew west and then attacked in the direction of the South China Sea. We were the center Company. Bravo was to our left and Charlie to our right. We were searching for the base camp that was reported to be in our area.
After communicating with some of the members of the unit I decided against sending it. I thought that they had their own understanding of what occurred so I just let that stand.
Then in December of 2024 I came across a book by Yasutsune “Tony” Hirashiki, On the Frontlines of the Television War, I was surprised that the first Chapter was about our operation. I was more surprised by what I read. He had spent many years in Vietnam and had been with many units. It seemed that in writing his book after so many experiences he might have remembered some actions that took place in other operations.
I had thought that I should correct the record. One thing stood out, in that book, about the commander. He wrote that the commander was “killed instantly.” That obviously was not the case. I wrote to The Editor of that book, Terry Irving, but he never replied. So I thought about it but decided not to pursue it further.
Then I looked at the operation through the “memory” of Artificial Intelligence. It used the same book to quote the same information which was obviously not true. I wrote to AI many times and it assured me that it would remember that I was not “killed instantly.” It never did.
It appeared to me that there was very little information about what happened on that mission so I thought to send this story in to at least get my perspective on the record.
I did make some minor modifications to the story to make it more understandable to family members and I shared it with them. This is that story. This is a lot of the information I should have shared with the Company.
David Tambling
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