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Song Re Valley.^[1] The Song Re Valley had been a sacrosanct Viet Cong stronghold for years. The picturesque terrain consisted of numerous hillocks in the valley floor, fertile fields of rice, and well-fed livestock. Previous aerial reconnaissance had drawn heavy antiaircraft fire. Although the valley appeared prosperous, only a few inhabitants had been observed. Intelligence experts suspected that military age personnel were either hiding in the hills as outright Viet Cong soldiers or being used as laborers by the Viet Cong forces in constructing fortified positions.

On 9 August 1967 the 2d Battalion of the 8th Cavalry, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John E. Standard, commenced a battalion air assault into the valley 32 miles southwest of Quang Ngai City. The selected landing zone, named landing zone PAT, was situated on a ridgeline 2,300 meters southwest of an abandoned airstrip at Ta Ma. This landing zone selected because it was the only high ground large enough and clear enough of obstructions to allow six lift ships to land, and because it was in an area which would give an assaulting company the advantage of reconnoitering from high ground down to the valley floor. The assault started at 0936 after a short artillery preparation. After the 1st Platoon had landed, intense antiaircraft fire came from the surrounding hills. Two Huey's were shot down almost immediately. Company A of the 2d Battalion was faced with a pitched battle for the next four hours. The enemy situation, reconstructed later from information gained from prisoners of war, captured documents, and a survey of the battle area, disclosed that the chosen landing zone was right in the midst of well-prepared enemy positions. Looking down on the position were at least 80 North Vietnamese with three 12.7-mm antiaircraft weapons, 82-mm mortars, and 57-mm recoilless rifles. A Viet Cong Montagnard rifle company was on the same hill mass. The ridgeline was rimmed with fox holes and well-concealed bunkers almost flush with the ground. Company A had landed in a nest of hornets.

There were to be hundreds of acts of individual heroism in the next few hours which have been duly recorded elsewhere. How[ever]