Thursday, 12 October 1967
Marine Lance Corporal Kevin Cahill stepped onto a trail deep in the remote Hai Lang National Forest of South Vietnam. Following Cahill were the 166 Marines of Charlie Company, First Battalion, First Marines, First Marine Division. Confident, well armed and ready to fight, their mission was to locate and annihilate any North Vietnamese Army forces they could find.
Cahill, a sharp and experienced point man, knew that taking the well-worn and ominous trail was a bad idea, but an order was an order and he led Charlie Company forward. It was a decision that would cost the 19-year-old his life. As he took a step to his left, toward a small knoll, Cahill walked right into the blast of a machine gun and the column of men he led suddenly faced decimating grenade and small-arms fire.
Rather than Charlie Company finding the enemy, the NVA, over two thousand men strong, had found Charlie Company. Surrounded, outnumbered, outgunned, and quickly running out of ammunition, the Marines now faced annihilation and hell on earth under the jungle canopy.
Would the men of Charlie Company survive? How could they hope to beat back a vastly superior enemy force set on their complete destruction? Who would ever live to tell the tale of the "Lions of Medina"?