52 Faces: Wounded warrior looks back on Hamburger Hill

May 26-- May 26--CROTON -- Battles define our memory of war, be it the D-Day invasion of Normandy or Midway, Gettysburg, Bunker Hill or any of the countless big fights that rate mention above smaller ones in the history books.

The Vietnam War largely defies that notion. In part, perhaps, because of how the war was fought, with carpet bombing and small-unit engagements taking precedence over massive face-offs between large armies. Perhaps because America tried for so many years, once the war was over, to forget it ever happened.

If there is one battle in Vietnam that does stand out in the public consciousness, however, it likely is the assault on Hill 937 -- otherwise known as Hamburger Hill.

Yet the battle is remembered largely for its meat grinder-inspired moniker, rather than anything it achieved. A symbol of the bravery of American fighting men, it also served as a symbol for many of the futility of the war.

But to Bill Batten of rural Farmington, Hamburger Hill was not, in May 1969, some far-off place with symbolic meaning to be attached by others. Nearly 500 soldiers from the armies of the United States and South Vietnam were killed taking the hill, only to give it up again.

"We took and secured the hill," Batten said, seated last week at his dining room table amid a spread out collection of pictures and newspaper clippings, his Purple Heart and Bronze Star medals mounted in a nearby display case. "We basically left the hill because we decided we didn't need it."

Batten wasn't present, though, when the hill was taken on May 20, 1969, or when it was abandoned about two weeks later. He was recuperating at a hospital in Da Nang from wounds suffered during the assault.

Batten, 75, and his wife of 54 years, June, live east of Croton in western Lee County, where they own a small black angus cattle farm and enjoy the retirement earned from a career in the insurance business. The couple have two children, Scott and Jennifer, and four grandchildren, but in May 1968, when the Lee County draft board came calling, Batten was not yet a father so did not qualify for deferment.

Born in Davenport, Batten grew up in Croton and lived there his whole life except for his time in the Army.

Leaving June behind to work and keep up payments on the house and car the young couple had acquired, Batten took his basic training at Fort Bliss, Texas, then advanced infantry training at Fort Ord, California. He shipped out for Vietnam in October 1968 as a member of the 3rd Battalion of the 187th Infantry Regiment, a unit of the 101st Airborne Division.

"I'm very proud to be a veteran," he said, though he admitted life in the infantry didn't quite live up to the dream he had about it in fifth grade.

Up until May 14, 1969, when he was wounded, Batten's experience in Vietnam was stepping or rappelling out of helicopters, going on patrol, trying to make daily contact with forces of the North Vietnamese Army or Viet Cong guerillas, then returning after a week or so to one fire base or another to do it all again following rest and resupply.

Living conditions were almost worse than the fighting, he said. Fresh off a bitter Midwestern winter, Batten recalls nights spent soaking wet in the jungle as the coldest he has ever been.

By the time the soldiers of the 3rd of the 187th began preparations for their assault on Hill 937, in the A Shau Valley near the border with Laos, Batten was a squad leader and had risen to the rank of Specialist E4. He would come home as a sergeant.

"In Vietnam I got promoted real quick," Batten said. "On Hamburger Hill, everyone else pretty much was wounded or killed."

Nearly every other member of his company, he said, died or was injured.

The battle for Hill 937 -- Dong Ap Bia, as it is locally known, rises to a height of more than 3,000 feet -- against dug-in North Vietnamese soldiers, was in its fifth day when Batten was hit by shrapnel from what he believes was a rocket-propelled grenade.

Metal barbs hit him in both knees, the right shoulder and right side. A small barb made a hole in one of his dog tags. For years after, metal pieces would occasionally work their way out of his skin, and doctors who performed knee-replacement surgery removed even more.

"I've got souvenirs in my shoulder," he said.

June found out about her husband being wounded in a letter he sent her from the hospital, where he stayed for a month.

Batten returned to active duty in June 1969 to finish out his tour before coming home that October. He served only one tour. ("One was enough," said June, who was a toddler when her father was killed in Okinawa in 1945.) He finished up his Army commitment at Fort Hood, Texas, before returning to Iowa to get on with life.

Coming home introduced him to a different perspective on the war.

"When I was there, I thought we were winning the war," Batten said. "It didn't work out that way, I guess."

Hamburger Hill, he said, and its ultimately unimportant strategic value, "changed the attitude of what was going on in Vietnam" on the home front. By that time in the war, he said, people were wanting to finish it or get out.

Five decades later, the war still visits Batten in his dreams, but his wounds haven't created any lasting physical problems. A dime-sized piece of metal still lodged in his right side serves as a personal weather station.

Batten displays his uniform, medals and memorabilia from his experience in a pair of display cases made by his son. He has attended several reunions of the 187th over the year, though not this year's commemoration of the battle's 50th anniversary.

He doesn't talk much about it otherwise, he said, and no longer displays his Purple Heart license plate. But when people do find out about his time in Vietnam, they still offer him a handshake.

"I'm proud to be a veteran," he said again.

Everybody has a story to tell. Tell yours, or encourage someone you know to tell theirs, in 52 Faces, each week in The Hawk Eye. Call (319) 758-8148, or write to [email protected].

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