Vietnam War/Counteroffensive Campaign (1965-66)/Battle of Hill 488
From Month/Year
June / 1966
To Month/Year
June / 1966
Description 16 June 1966 – “Sparrow Hawk: The Rescue of Sgt. Jimmie Howard’s Recon Patrol.
25 miles due west of Chu Lai, Hill 488.
Operation Overview: On 16 June 1966, something very bad happened. The recon team of Staff Sergeant Jimmie E. Howard stepped on a hornet’s nest and walked into a main force NVA Battalion. The recon team, surrounded and overwhelmingly outnumbered, tried futilely to break contact with the enemy, but it was no use. The large enemy force of an estimated 500 enemy soldiers had trapped Jimmie Howard and his eighteen-man recon team. The enemy had every intention of systematically destroying them.
Immediately, the call went out for the Sparrow Hawk team, the Marines of Charlie 1/5. The Marines of Charlie 1/5 climbed aboard about forty CH-34 helicopters and flew toward the beleaguered recon Marines. Captain Buck Darling, USMC, CO of Charlie Company knew that Staff Sergeant Howard had been calling for help for several hours and that they were running out of ammo.
The target area was called Nui Leus, which was quite a ways west of Tam Ky. 1/5 found a landing zone about a kilometer from the battle that was still raging between Jimmie Howard’s heroic Marines and a battalion of NVA soldiers. Helicopters on the north side of the hill were taking quite a bit of flak, so they decided to land three or four birds at a time on the south side of the mountain in a big area of elephant grass.
The Marines of 1/5 immediately rushed toward the sounds of gunfire, and when they made contact with the enemy they hit them hard on their flank, breaking through the enemy forces surrounding Howard’s team. For the first time in many hours, enemy gunfire began to wane, and Buck Darling and his Corpsmen started applying first aid to those who were still alive but seriously wounded, while his Marines attacked the NVA, snatching victory from the jaws of certain defeat.
A whole battalion of NVA had completely surrounded Jimmie Howard’s recon team, but the recon team had done an excellent job of calling in air and artillery support and defending their hill. Combat After-Action reports of this battle indicate that over two hundred NVA soldiers were killed by the recon team and the Marines of 1/5. Staff Sergeant Jimmie Howard was later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, and his heroic recon team is the most highly decorated military unit in American history.
One of the 1/5 Marines who lost his life on 16 June 1966 trying to save other Marines they had never met before, was 2nd Lieutenant Ronald W. “Stumpy” Meyer, from Dubuque , Iowa , who was posthumuously awarded a Silver Star for his heroic actions.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
June / 1966
To Month/Year
June / 1966
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
People You Remember Re-enforced squad from 2nd Plt F 2/9
Memories F-4's & napalm; Phantoms low enough to see pilots faces.
