Attack on Hill 950, Vietnam

A classified outpost near Khe Sanh was overrun in the fog. Special Forces Staff Sergeant Jon Cavaiani stayed behind to direct the evacuation and defend Hickory Hill.

by Jose Campos

He lay beneath a dead man, covered in blood. 

Around him, enemy soldiers worked their way through the wreckage of Hickory Hill, looking for Americans to kill or capture. Jon Robert Cavaiani stayed where he was, hidden for now. The position already had collapsed under a sustained mortar and rocket assault by the People’s Army of Vietnam on June 4–5, 1971. The attackers had cut through the perimeter and advanced until there was no line left to hold.

The Hickory Hill outpost was located in Quang Tri Province, on Hill 950, a classified radio relay site pushed forward into enemy-held territory. A small Marine Corps and MACV-SOG base, It was lightly defended, and designed to operate quietly. When the attack came, it came in force. The men on the hill were outnumbered from the start.

Cavaiani, a 27-year-old Staff Sergeant, was part of Task Force 1, Vietnam Training Advisory Group, later known as Military Advisory Command-Vietnam, Studies and Observations Group. He had charge of 13 Americans and a contingent of Bru Montagnard troops when the outpost was assaulted.

The enemy attacked with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, and small-arms fire. He moved along the perimeter under fire, rallying the defense and shifting men into positions. When the positions were lost, he picked up weapons and kept the fight going himself, working to hold the line long enough to evacuate his men. Cavaiani and Sergeant Robert Jones stayed on the position as the evacuation broke down, holding the line with a small group of Bru fighters.

He brought helicopters in under fire, directing three aircraft into the landing zone and loading out a large portion of his force. By the morning of June 5, a dense ground fog had settled over the hill, cutting visibility and grounding further extraction. The helicopters did not return. The men who remained were left to understand that whatever happened next would be decided on the ground.

READ MORE about Special Forces in Vietnam: Gary Rose, Courageous Special Forces Medic

The North Vietnamese attacked again, advancing through the fog and firing as they closed. Grenades and rocket-propelled fire followed the small arms barrage, collapsing what remained of the defensive line. Cavaiani ordered the remaining men to break contact and move off the hill while there was still time. He stayed behind to cover their withdrawal, taking up a machine gun and grenades and working fire across the advancing ranks to buy those final seconds. Jones was killed. Cavaiani kept fighting. He repeatedly exposed himself to intense fire while directing the defense and engaging the enemy at close range, as described in his award citation.

“With one last courageous exertion, S/Sgt. Cavaiani recovered a machine gun, stood up, completely exposing himself to the heavy enemy fire directed at him, and began firing the machine gun in a sweeping motion along the two ranks of advancing enemy soldiers,” the citation reads.

In the process, he was severely wounded. 

That was how he came to be lying beneath a body in a burning bunker as the position was overrun.

In later accounts, Cavaiani described how he remained motionless as enemy troops moved through the wreckage. The bunker was set on fire, and he held there as long as he could before the heat and smoke forced him out. He shifted through the shattered positions, using debris and timing to stay out of sight while soldiers searched through the ruins. An enemy soldier discovered him at close range. Cavaiani killed the man before he could raise an alarm. 

When the movement around the hill thinned, Cavaiani crawled out through the fog, crossed the berm, and made his way down the slope into jungle controlled entirely by the enemy. He moved at night, relying on his training to avoid detection. He ate what he could find, including insects.  

He covered ground for days, pushing toward friendly lines. Near Camp Fuller, he stopped short of the perimeter and waited for daylight, knowing that movement in the dark could get him mistaken for an infiltrator. Before morning came, he was found by an enemy soldier. He was captured at gunpoint and marched back toward enemy positions.

The interrogations began. The enemy bound his arms behind him and forced him into a position that lifted him off the ground, placing his weight onto damaged joints and broken bones. He was hit repeatedly with fists, boots, and rifle stocks. He gave only his name, rank, and service number. 

According to accounts he later provided, the pressure escalated when his captors brought forward Montagnard soldiers who had fought with him at Hickory Hill. The captors killed the Montagnards, and ramped up the beatings on Cavaiano, demanding information. The beatings left him with additional fractures to his neck and back, and pushed him in and out of consciousness.

He later described responding with defiance, telling his interrogators they would get nothing more from him regardless of what they did. His captors shifted tactics. They cleaned and bandaged him before dressing him to look like a captured American pilot. They paraded him through a village. In later recollections, he said the deception failed when villagers recognized him from earlier contact, when he gave medical care and helped them with their livestock and farming. 

He was marched across the Demilitarized Zone, transported in stages, and loaded aboard a train bound for Hanoi. Along the way he saw a small number of the Montagnards who had been captured with him, but they spoke only in whispers and were separated before reaching the city. In later accounts, he described seeing an interpreter from Hickory Hill reveal his allegiance by changing into a North Vietnamese uniform.

Cavaiani in 2004. Photo by Rudi Williams.

Cavaiani was held for the next 23 months in a system of prisons that included the infamous Hoa Lo “Hanoi Hilton.” He lived with untreated wounds, including a bullet that remained lodged in his back and fragments embedded throughout his body. He removed some of the shrapnel himself, using improvised tools. 

Back in the United States, he had been listed as missing and later presumed dead. He returned in 1973 under Operation Homecoming, weighing less than 100 pounds. He remained in the Army after his return and later trained Special Forces soldiers at Fort Bragg, passing on the skills that had sustained him when there was no support left.

On December 12, 1974, Gerald Ford awarded him the Medal of Honor. The citation records that he exposed himself to intense fire, refused evacuation, and held his position so that others could escape. 

Cavaiani remained on active duty, and became a highly respected instructor for Special Forces. He passed away in 2014, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Jose Campos writes frequently for Soldier of Fortune.