One Courageous Marine

Altoona, PA

Nine months prior to the Khe Sanh siege, a battle known as The Hill Fights was described as one of the most brutal of the Viet Nam War.

During the Viet Nam War, the U.S. ·Navy kept two Marine battalions afloat in the South China Sea for emergencies in the Republic of South Viet Nam or elsewhere. Designated by the U.S. Navy as Amphibious Ready Groups, they carried battalion landing teams, aka Special Landing Forces (SLF).
  I was with the 2nd Battalion,3rd-Marine Regiment (SLF Bravo), which landed on the beach north of Hue during the last week of April 1967 in an area known as ”The Street Without Joy.”

SLF Bravo

After a few days walking patrols in the coastal barrier island sand dunes, an emergency arose and the SLF was choppered to the tarmac at Phu Bai where they were flown by C-130s on 28 April to Khe Sanh Combat Base in the mountains northwest of the northern-positioned I Corps.

The ,North Vietnamese were discovered in force northwest of the base and ambushed a Bravo 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment patrol four days earlier. We assembled with the rest of 2/3 and captured Hill 861 after it was pounded by air strikes.

Kilo and Mike Companies of 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, along with Kilo and Mike Companies of 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines (not part of the SLF), would take the left and capture Hill 881S. Golf and Hotel Companies 2/3 would sweep around to the right and capture Hill 881N. Foxtrot Company remained in reserve as 230-Marine strong Echo Company of 2/3 proceeded up the center to assist 3/3 and 3/9_ on our left flank in taking Hill 881S or pivot to our right to assist Golf and Hotel Companies 2/3 capture Hill 881N.

As it was; with extra air strikes by 2 May, the 3/3-and 3/9 Companies secured Hill 881S. The Echo Company 2/3 objective changed. to attack Hill 881N from the south, while Golf and Hotel 2/3 attacked Hill 881N from the northeast.

Moving In

In preparation, Echo Company, on 30 April, was ordered to secure an un-named hill just to the east of Hill 881S that turned out to be a North Vietnamese Army regimental headquarters, vacated just hours before-and left lightly defended on its southeast side, which Echo overcame with help of a newly-entered-into-service Cobra Helicopter gun ship hovering just 10 meters overhead.

Recently constructed and expertly camouflaged log-and mud two-man bunkers and hidden fighting holes defended the perimeter at the top of the hill. Lucky for Echo Company, we only lost our weapons platoon commander; a few other Marines were WIA on the assault up the hill.

The second platoon, with Hill 881S to our backs, proceeded up the grassy west side of the hill, meeting 1st and 3rd platoons at the top as the Cobra arrived. The Weapons platoon column carrying wounded lagged behind.

he wooded east side of the hilltop was the top edge’ of a cliff that dropped 20 feet, which made looking east toward Hill 861 impossible to see through the towering trees. Each enemy bunker had. comm wire leading out, downhill and into the jungle, which convinced us that the hill was a regiment HQ for the NVA, who we expected to attack Khe Sanh Combat Base on 1 May, a big day in the Communist world. Echo Company stayed on this hill for two nights, waiting for air strikes to do-their duty, then on 2 May, began in column in dense jungle toward Hill 881N.

Before reaching the bombed upper elevation of Hill .88lN, a severe thunderstorm with high winds ·appeared, forcing Echo Company with battalion HQ approval, to return to the abandoned NVA HQ hill for a third night and reoccupy our former positions.

Manning the perimeter, we sat watch in blowing rain well after midnight. The only dry spot on any of our bodies was the top of our heads, which was directly under our helmets.

NVA Attack

Around 0400 on 3 May 1967, the NVA targeted Echo Company with 82mm mortars and immediately after the last mortar impacted, NVA soldiers attacked in the dark out of the fog. For four NVA soldiers, their assignment was to capture a U.S. Marine alive.

There are many unrecognized acts of raw courage and many historical mistakes in official records and publications that should be corrected but never will. This is true in all wars and all history in general. And, in this case, one 18-year-old Marine rifleman, PFC Robert H. Kruger, Jr., from 3rd Platoon Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, SLF Bravo of 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade was never recognized, nor heard of again, until now.

The following is what Lance Corporal R. Hall, PFG Rick Maio and myself, LCPL F. Monahan, heard and witnessed firsthand early that morning.

Eyewitness accounts

Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment was positioned on a vacated hilltop and moved into the NVAs freshly-dug fighting holes and bunkers. In the early morning hours of 3 May 1967, the NVA attacked the north side of our perimeter with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, and automatic rifle fire, killing 12 Marines.

Rifleman PFC Robert H. Kruger (of’ Clifton, NJ) and another Marine were assigned from the east side of the hill to strengthen the weakened perimeter on the north. Out of the darkness, four NVA soldiers sprang out of the dense undergrowth and killed the other Marine who was fighting alongside PFC Kruger. One NVA soldier was killed before both Marines’ rifles jammed, enabling the remaining three NVA soldiers to capture PFC Robert Kruger, as evidenced by his screams.

Thirty yards up the hill and to the east, to Kruger’s right, PFC Rick Maio (Albany, NY), Lance Corporal Roy Hall (Hi Hat, .KY) and myself (Philadelphia, PA) heard the screams from PFC Robert Kruger, “They’re taking me away, they’re taking· me away!” Before we three Marines could understand what we heard or even react, a grenade exploded further down the hill and then there was silence.

PFC Maio and LCPL Hall, both already wounded and bandaged, were then ordered to reinforce the hill’s south side, which came under attack.

About mid-morning, after the battle site was policed up and all wounded were medevaced, I asked another Marine to accompany me down the heavily wood d hillside to see if we could find any other Marines who may have been WIA or KIA to be put with the other 30 Marine KIAs at the top of the hill. As we cautiously walked downhill, we saw some bodies in a small clearing at the point where the hill started to level off. We had to work fast as NVA snipers were still active.

We saw four bodies, all lying on their backs. PFC Kruger was lying with his feet facing down hill, with two dead NVA soldiers lying with their heads downhill and with their feet almost touching Kruger’s, as if they were each holding one of Kruger’s feet when they died. A third NVA soldier was lying by Kruger’s left arm, but there wasn’t a soldier at Kruger’s right side, nor did Kruger have a right forearm; it was missing from the elbow, his jungle jacket having blown off and dozens of U.S. hand grenade fragments had peppered his chest, neck and face. I am certain that one of the quarter-inch
fragments pierced his heart and he died instantly upon pulling the ring (with his teeth) of an M-26 fragmentation hand grenade that he kept in his pocket (Hollywood movie style), and held the grenade away from himself creating the macabre scene.

Fearing for snipers, we didn’t touch or search the bodies of the NVA soldiers for souvenirs; we just carried the body of PFC Kruger to the helicopter landing zone area on top of the hill.

Aftermath

Robert Kruger never knew that if captured, he would have been taken to North Viet Nam, not to be released until the repatriation six years later in March 1973. He chose to take out three enemy who would have gone right back up the hill to capture or kill other Marines who were wounded – or had a jammed rifle, like many of us had.

I believe the enemy knew that our newly issued rifles would malfunction. Another New Jersey Marine from the battalion sent a letter home that broke the XM-16El (called M-16 for short) scandal of 1967.

I believe the valiant response by Echo Company to repel the attackers and Kruger’s action – and the rain, which made difficult footing in the mud for the NVA- prevented higher casualties to Echo Company.

Echo Company suffered over 80 WIAs in addition to the 31 KIAs, for a total of over 100 Purple Hearts that morning. In addition, six Bronze Star medals w/combat ”V” for valor were awarded along with about five Silver Stars and two Navy Crosses. The medals were written up aboard ship, but some were cut short and never completed by a new operation later that week. Adding to the failure to be recognized, LCPL Hall and PFC Maio had been wounded and evacuated, and therefore unable to write what we witnessed.

As gruesome as it was – and sounds – I remember it as though it were yesterday. I believe PFC Robert Kruger should be posthumously deco rated for his action that morning, beyond what his hometown of Clifton, New Jersey, did by naming a street in his honor.

In 2019, the Department of the Navy, Office of Medals and Awards rejected looking any further into this account of PFC Robert H. Kruger, Jr., relying instead on the Graves Registration clerk at Khe Sanh Combat Base who put a check in the box on his body tag saying “artillery, rocket or mortar.” The other options were “rifle fire,” “accidental,” “friendly fire,” “non-hostile,” “fixed-wing aircraft craft,” etc. There was no box to check that indicated Kruger’s actions, due to it being non-typical.

Previously printed in MILITARY magazine, June 2020, pp. 6-7.