By October 1969, Capt. William Albracht was the youngest Green Beret officer in Vietnam, commanding a small hilltop outpost named Firebase Kate.
Albracht sensed that the base itself was presighted for a major NVA assault and began to make the necessary preparations without alerting the surrounding enemy littering the jungle.
On the morning of Oct 30th, Albracht was walking the perimeter and heard movement, the clippings of wirecutters, and sandals flopping against the dirt. NVA Sappers were breaching the wire, followed by 3 NVA regiments (6000 men) right behind them.
With the base completly surrounded, the 27 U.S. soldiers and 156 Montagnards held off the enemy hoard for 5 days with Albracht directing accurate artillery and air strikes. The fighting was so intense that any form of outside resupply was deemed suicidal.
With their artillery pieces knocked out, no ammunition, water, or any support left from command, William Albracht, had two choices: be overrun and slaughtered by a numerically superior enemy or chance a daring nighttime escape through enemy lines.
Although wounded, Albracht saved the lives of 150 men by leading them off the hill, in pitch black dark, through the jungle infested with communist forces looking for them; a feat never duplicated during the Vietnam War.
No American soldiers were left at Kate. Albracht left the fate of the Montagnard dead to the tribal elders, who, realizing how dangerous the situation was, decided to leave them at Kate.
Albracht was awarded 3 Silver Stars, 3 Purple Hearts and 5 Bronze Stars and went on to write about his experiences in his book "Abandoned in Hell: The Fight for Vietnam's Firebase Kate." #stayzero #zerofoxtrot #vietnamwar #greenberets #military