Strange Days

I want to go to Hamburger Hill.

There's a place on the border of Laos and Vietnam. It's really mountainous and covered in foliage. There's so many mountains that there aren't names, just numbers. Hill 900, hill 937, etc. In the Thua Thien Province there lies a lush area called A Shau Valley. It's a slash in the mountains that runs 28 miles long, and 2 miles wide in some spots.

Surrounded by jungle on all sides, this valley is so difficult to cross because of the thick brush. In the monsoon season there is torrential rain, and fog so thick I can't imagine. You can't even see your feet as you ascend the muddy trail. The trail used to be used a ton for supply movement between Laos and Vietnam, but it's been since abandoned as it became too frustrating to move anything through.

During the Vietnam War, the US army (who personified the oxymoron 'military intelligence') tried to attack the NVA who were parked in this valley. During monsoon season. They tried to fly helicopters into steep slopes, drive vehicles up the muddy terrain, and attack the enemy by parachuting into the abyss that was the foggy jungle. They got smoked. It was so bad that it was dubbed 'Hamburger Hill' because the mountain turned men into hamburgers.

Fuck, I wanna go conquer that hill. So bad. In the monsoon.

'I wake up in a cold sweat, got a bone to pick with reality.'