Herbert Hammond

Herbert Lee "Herbie" Hammond

Company D 1/22 Infantry

4th Infantry Division

KIA 04/22/68

PVT - E1 - Army - Regular
4th Infantry Division
MOS: 11B1P: Infantryman (Airborne Qual)
20 year old Single, Negro, Male
Born on Apr 11, 1948
From ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Length of service 1 year.
His tour of duty began on Aug 16, 1967
Casualty was on Apr 22, 1968
in KONTUM, SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
GUN, SMALL ARMS FIRE
Body was recovered
Religion BAPTIST

Herbert Lee Hammond's name is inscribed on Panel 51E Line 30 of the Vietnam Memorial

Herbert Hammond was killed in action while on Operation Mac Arthur/Binh Tay,
during the Battle of Chu Moor Mountain, at grid reference YA844891,
approximately 25 kilometers west of Polei Krong.

Lt John McKee was Herbert Hammond's Platoon Leader in Delta Company. Herbert was walking point
for a small patrol led by Lt McKee, when he engaged elements of the 66th NVA Regiment. Herbert was killed
by the NVA's return fire, but his alertness and courage prevented the patrol from walking into an ambush.

Lt McKee writes:

We were making our way back to our patrol base where my Platoon Sergeant (Shertzer) was "holding down the fort",
when we encountered elements of the 66th NVA Regiment that were involved in the battle of Chu Moor mountain.
I'm still not sure how Herbie saw them. Suddenly he opened fire and immediately received return fire from both left
and right. Then things went silent with Herbie lying there moaning, and the rest of us making like shadows on the ground.
I realized we were in some deep stuff so I ordered my M-60 guy (Rainer Guensch) to lay down a base of fire,
which he was more than willing to do, while I ran forward and grabbed Herbie, hoisting him up onto my shoulder.
We all then "diddied" back the direction we came, my RTO calling for an evac along the way. We set up a small perimeter
and the dustoff occured just minutes later. We had treated Herbie's wounds, but he really had no chance,
with sucking chest wounds on both sides, and he died enroute to base camp. Just moments after the dustoff,
we were then engaged again by the NVA, who were attempting to encircle us. They had made about 180 degrees
of encirclement (we could see the bushes moving around us), and had thrown one grenade that slightly wounded Guensch
and one other guy when I ordered the patrol to stand up with full rock 'n roll fire 360 degrees, and we bolted
further back along our original route, calling in gunships to a couple of smoke grenades we left behind.
The gunships did a marvelous rocket and minigun barrage on the area to cover our escape. We did a stream crossing,
and worked our way back to our patrol base. To this day, I think of Herbie, and the fact that, but for his observant eye,
I might not be writing this, and the remaining elements of that patrol might also have our names displayed on The Wall.

The citation below describes the above action. The citation is for the award of the Bronze Star Medal for Valor
to Rainer Guensch, who covered the patrol with fire from his machine gun, which allowed the recovery of Herbie Hammond.
Hammond is the point man mentioned in the citation.

PVT Herbert L. Hammond's decorations

Burial:
Long Island National Cemetery
Farmingdale
Suffolk County
New York, USA
Plot: 2J 0 2562

Grave marker for Herbert Hammond

Photo from the Find A Grave website

Herbert Hammond was killed in action during the Battle for Chu Moor mountain.
The website is grateful to John McKee and Charlie "Doc" Shyab
for contributing the rubbings they took of all the names
of the 1st Battalion Killed In Action during the battle for Chu Moor.

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