Terry Stanfill Hill 180

This is coming in to the LZ at Hill 180 looking southwest, with the dirt road that comes up from Phu Bai on the left, the helicopter landing area on the first small hilltop, and the platoon size encampment on the second small hilltop. Beyond the ridgeline is the A-Shau valley in the background.

 MOS: 98G2LVN (Voice Intercept Operator, Vietnamese North)
Deployed to Republic of Vietnam 10DEC71, Tan Son Nhut AFB. Assigned to 8th RRFS, Phu Bai

While at the 8th, I worked the Explorer Project Jan-Apr, 72, until the antennas were destroyed on FSB Sarge. Then I worked tactical voice intercept on Hill 180 until June, 72. Then, Roger Shea and I were reassigned to the 7th RRFS, Udorn, Thailand to work Hanoi weather and civil intercept until DEROS 10DEC72. Back to Travis AFB and early out. Easy, huh?

Anyway, thanks to your website, you've helped provide some measure of comfort for Wendy Westfall, reunited untold numbers of 8th RRFS ASA'ers, and just brought a whole lot of goodwill to many people.

Thanks, Curt.
This is a second aerial shot of Hill 180 just before touchdown. You can just barely see the intercept bunker at the far (SW) end the compound with some antennas sticking up. Hill 180
Hill 180 Intercept Bunker

.

 This is a little better view (N) of the sandbag castle (intercept bunker) on Hill 180, and no, those are not TV antennas. This day, a heavy cruiser or battleship was shelling some NVA positions in the A-Shau valley and we had a pretty good view of the action. Those 14" and 16" shells really crackled when they went over.
This shot was taken directly east of the bunker and gives some idea of the number antennas and nature of the fortifications. The fella in the foreground (I think his name was Doug) was one of the best 05H's I worked with, and I think that might be Bob Crossland (also a great 05H) looking through the binoculars. If only the green cooler had been filled with ice cold beer.


WEBMASTER'S NOTE:

[ What was that cooler filled with, or don't I have the need to know? ]

Hill 180 Intercept Bunker

The Green Cooler: During nighttime on Hill 180, the guys from the 101st airborne that provided security for the hilltop would shoot a few mortar rounds into the brush around the base of the hill if they could detect any suspected enemy movement through their infrared devices or night scopes.

"Hang it."

"Shot." (Fingers over your ears)

Thunk.

Boom!

This would generally occur once or twice a night, and on occasions when they had a more confirmed target, they would really pound the snot out of it. In my conversations with those guys, I think they mostly wanted anybody and anything out there in the dark to know that we were awake, alert, and ready to shoot first and ask questions later.

After sunrise, they would send out a squad to check out the area that had been shelled the night before and police up any packs, arms, equipment, etc., that might be found as a result of their mortar fire. On those occasions when they actually recovered some body parts, they were kind enough to bring those parts over after careful inspection, and we'd put them into the green cooler for souvenirs.

Okay, all that was true except the last sentence. Actually, the contents of the green cooler was mostly orange soda, or whatever flavor was available at the PX when we re-supplied every couple weeks. Seemed like it was mostly orange.

Since there was no ice, the cooler just provided shade for the sodas.

NEXT :: HOME