Hill 425 Page 2

NOTE:  With a couple exceptions, the pictures on these pages are
 my personal property.  The others belong to friends who have given
 
me permission to post them here.  None can be used without permission.

 

 

It seems I only have one picture of our time on Hill 425 in January 1968.  I'm standing just about in the same location as my machine-gun position was the previous July.  While there's still some foliage on the hill, most of it had been worn or chopped down.  You can also see some of the sandbagged and poncho-covered foxholes that had been constructed in the background.  Behind me and to the left, down the hill, is the "Arizona Territory."       

 

This picture is labeled Apr 68 but it was, in fact, taken in January.  Obviously it was not taken from the hill but from the helicopter as we were departing after another team replaced us there.  The yellow-tan spot about in the middle of the picture is where the OP was.

 

Here's what the hill looked like by April of 1968.  There's almost no vegetation left on the top of the hill at all.  There's a command foxhole/ trench at the top and down the sides about 50 meters at about all four corners of the compass are sandbag-reinforced foxholes.  You can see John Lowry's rucksack with the radio antenna sticking out of it just right of center (my little flag is tied to the top of it).
 

This is the nearest hill to the summit of 425.  It actually is a continuation of the same ridge that 425 is on.  The summit of this hill still has considerable vegetation on it as we never ventured that far down the ridge.
 

This ridge runs parallel to the one on which Hill 425 was on.  The yellow-tan "ribbon" visible on it is a trail.    
 

Things had gotten pretty quiet the last two days of our April 68 stint and we decided to fool around a little and use my little flag to do a re-enactment of Iwo Jima.  Our flagpole was the multi-segment whip antenna for the AN/PRC 25 radio.

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