Concert to recall a day of courage

For Niles Harris, Nov. 8, 1965, is a date that lives in infamy.

On that day, Harris and his brothers-in-arms from the 173rd Airborne Brigade were on patrol during Operation Hump when they were ambushed by more than 1,200 soldiers from the well-trained North Vietnamese army. Outnumbered 30 to one, the American soldiers fought valiantly for 12 bloody hours. When the smoke cleared, 48 Americans had been killed, and Harris and countless others were wounded.

The battle, one of the first major encounters between the U.S. and North Vietnamese armies, was memorialized by the country duo Big & Rich, who included their song "8th of November" on their top-selling 2005 CD, "Comin' to Your City."

They also made an emotionally powerful video of the song. Introduced by Kris Kristofferson, the video shows the faces of the 48 soldiers flashing against the names chiseled into the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

On Saturday, Harris will mark the 43rd anniversary of the ambush by appearing at Koka Booth Amphitheatre as part of the 8th of November Concert Celebration. The event will feature live performances by country artists Billy Ray Cyrus, Josh Gracin, Rockie Lynne and Bo Bice, along with the 82nd Airborne's All-American Chorus.

Before they became stars, Big Kenny Alphin and John Rich were performing at the Buffalo Saloon in Deadwood, S.D. Harris, who had retired as a master sergeant after 25 years, was bartending. The three became friends, and Harris shared his memories of that violent day. He also gave Big Kenny the top hat he wears on stage and in videos.

"We just hit it off," Harris says by phone from his home in Deadwood. "Those guys were fun guys and good people, and Big Kenny liked my top hat. I was there one morning for breakfast and I asked if they'd like to see the hills. I have a '73 Bronco with a lot of Airborne decals of the 173rd. They asked about the stickers. I told them about the 173rd Airborne in Vietnam and about that battle. Big Kenny said, 'We're gonna write a song about that.' A year later, they had."

Through a soldier's eyes

The Big & Rich song and video recall the battle through the eyes of Harris, who was 19 years old and on patrol with his 30-man platoon. The Americans had picked up North Vietnamese army radio transmissions, and had sent the platoon to gather intelligence. Suddenly, the world seemed to explode.

"We weren't out long and we hit the whole crew, 1,200 of them, at least," recalls Harris, who was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds he received during the clash.

"When we say we were outnumbered 30 to one, it was our platoon nailing them. I was hit two or three times. I still have one of the bullets in me. It knocked me flat on my back. I had a sawed-off shotgun, and I was shooting up in the trees for a bit."

Harris believes the Vietnamese were aware of the Americans' presence and lay in wait for them.

"This was a well set-up ambush," he says. "They had 50-caliber machine guns; they weigh 123 pounds, not counting the ammo. To have those things set up in an ambush, it was not something that a few guys threw together in five minutes.

"It was such a large front that when they hit us, it was next to impossible to get reinforcements up to us. The battle took 12 hours, at least. It was early morning when we got hit, and the [Vietnamese] broke contact at night when it was safe [for them] to get out. By then, our reinforcements were there, along with the artillery."

The ambush took place six days before the 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry encountered the North Vietnamese army in the Ia Drang Valley. That battle, dramatized in the film "We Were Soldiers Once," is often cited as the first major battle between the two sides in the Vietnam War. Harris takes exception.