Ben Youmans (C 2/35) posted this on the 35th Inf. Website. I thank my lucky stars I was at Fort Dix, New Jersey going through Basic Training and not with the 1/35 during this time. 6-months later I would be assigned to the 1/35.

Richard Anderson C 1/35th George Economous Jr. C 1/35th Robert Fritsche Jr. C 1/35th Robert Grant D 1/35th Jerry Heuer C 1/35th Lauren Huerd D 1/35th Edward Rhode D 1/35th Larry Sloan D 1/35th Steven Smith C 1/35th I led my platoon 2nd C 2/35th thru the battle area two days later enroute to the next peak that would become LZ Virgin. No movie yet made can adequately describe the true battlefield look and feel. Carnage was the name of the ground, bloody bandages, parts of uniforms, boots, equipment, a prc 25 that a B-40 round hit directly, blood and gore covered the ground. Not one bird or insect made a noise, it was as quiet as I can ever recall. Trees shredded by bullets, rockets, artillery and mortars. Smell was overpowering to the nose. We put bandanas and towels over our nose and mouths. Flies covered the gore, strangely silent except for an occasional buzz. Several hastily buried dink bodies in their spider holes head first. Commo wire all around, many bunkers superbly camoflaged and hidden, a true death trap. A kill zone made perfect by professionals. Two US rifle companies overpowered and driven back 200 meters to Mile High. Many heroic acts, men with sucking chest wounds carrying their buds on their shoulders to safety. A trooper with one arm barely attached firing his M-16 and reloading using his knees for support. The Delta CO standing tall moving down the trail with a rifle blazing in each hand, refusing to retreat until all his men were clear. Medics patching the wounding trying to save one life while their own blood drained into the rich earth. Two men face to face one US and one NVA and both not firing but diving to safety on opposite sides of the same log. Men carrying other men to the LZ then returning for more. Never stopping, never caring for their own safety. Screams from both sides as soldiers died from both armies. We stopped our advance to LZ Virgin that day April 17 and in unison said a prayer for the souls of all who departed their human body that day April 15, 1968. We stepped carefully almost afraid to even disturb the blood on the ground as if we would be committing a sacrilege. That night no one slept at all. We only knew that had circumstances been a bit different it could have been C 2/35th instead of C 1/35th as we had been scheduled to relieve them on Mile High around the 10-12th of April. Instead we were licking our wounds and mourning our dead from our bit of hell April 03-07. If our replacements had arrived just a few days sooner we would have been the souls lost on the 15th. I mourn and mourn for my Cacti Brothers lost on that sacred ground. Mile High, a name that no Cacti from Nam will ever forget. Many of my C and D 1/35th brothers still suffer from that day and always will. God have mercy on them and care for them. CactiBen out.