It was in 2007 that James Smither received a call from Jeffrey Wilcox, a West Point grad who served in the 101st Airborne Division.
Smither, who recently retired as a professor of history at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was also the creator and director of the university’s Veterans History Project.
“I got a call from a fellow named Jeff Wilcox,” Smither told Military Times. “And he said, I’ve got a Vietnam story you’ve never heard before. And he was right.”
That story, the Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord — the last major American offensive effort in the Vietnam War — would lead Smithers on a nearly two-decade research quest to write “The End of the Rope: The Ripcord Campaign and American Disengagement in Vietnam”.
What first began as a series of interviews quickly expanded as veterans began tracking down Smither to learn more about the campaign.
“I found the veterans were coming to me, asking me to explain to them what had happened to them,” said Smither. “My first reaction was, ‘wait a minute. You were there. I wasn’t.’ The response was ‘Well, we have our individual pieces of the puzzle. You’re looking at all of them.’”
From March 12 to July 23, 1970, the 101st Airborne Division — the only remaining full-strength American division left in Vietnam at that time — was tasked with regaining initiative of the A Shau Valley, strategic ground for the North Vietnamese Army.
The A Shau Valley is the same area where the Hamburger Hill campaign had occurred a year prior. It was a main supply and staging area that the North Vietnamese used for launching invasions toward the coast and into populated areas to the south, according to Smither.
The objective was to destroy as much of the NVA’s infrastructure as U.S. troops could while America — which had quietly started withdrawing soldiers from Vietnam in 1969 — still had the forces available.
Roughly 25,000 NVA soldiers began silently streaming into the valley, digging in deep to await the Americans.
But that wasn’t the only issue plaguing the campaign.
According to Smither, officer promotions were on a “different clock,” geared to “a different world.” After six months of combat duty leadership would shift midstream, even in the heat of battle, meaning “most of the time, the new guys don’t get much of a chance to learn the craft before they’re responsible for guys’ lives.”
The brigade commander who planned and led the early stages of the operation was rotated out in June of that year. Lt. Col. Andre Lucas, the commander of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry, had no practical combat experience prior to Ripcord and had not been to Vietnam since 1963. Capt. Isabelino Vasquez, an experienced “hard as nails” commander was sent to the rear to be battalion supply officer. Vasquez was replaced by Capt. Thomas Hewitt who, at the time, had no combat experience.
Hewitt was killed on July 2, 1970, during the opening rounds of an early morning NVA assault after he inexplicably strung up his hammock between two tree stumps on the crest of a hill. When the rocket propelled grenade barrage began, he was killed instantly.
“I call the book the ‘End of the Rope,’ in part, because there’s a limit to what they can actually accomplish,” Smither said. “But it’s actually kind of worse than that, because they’re really put in a position where there isn’t any way to accomplish the mission they’re given. And of course, the commanding officers realize they have their six months to make their mark. If they fail, they might not get the next promotion. Lt. Col Lucas is determined to succeed without understanding what the men on the ground could do.”
Despite the “terrible hand they’re dealt,” stressed Smither, most of the men perform exceptionally well.
“Most of the officers turned out to be really pretty good, including some new guys who didn’t have a lot of experience until they were tested. The enlisted men, they’re mostly either draftees or people who enlisted to take get a step ahead of the draft. They don’t really want to be there, but by and large when they’re out in the field, they do the best they can with the knowledge and experience they have.”
From July 1-23, 75 U.S. soldiers were killed in action, making the Battle of FSB Ripcord one of the deadliest battles in the Vietnam War for the United States, according to the Army.
On July 22 alone, 14 Americans were killed and 56 were wounded. When the Americans were ordered to withdraw the following day, the total number killed had risen to 139 men over the four-and-a-half-month battle. Lucas was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, and names like Bob Kalsu, the only recently active pro football player to die in Vietnam, and Weiland Norris, the brother of actor Chuck Norris, were also killed during Ripcord.
Despite this, very little was known about the battle for decades and no comprehensive research has ever been done on the siege — until now.
Calling the book a “labor of love” Smither noted that the extended time he spent writing the book allowed him to grasp a complicated set of events that “you wouldn’t normally do if you’re trying to crank out a book in a year or so.”
“I promised them I would give them a book,” he said. “And so I did.”
Claire Barrett is an editor and military history correspondent for Military Times. She is also a World War II researcher with an unparalleled affinity for Sir Winston Churchill and Michigan football.
