Caleb Warnock

The hill did not win.

• IT WAS THAT DAY that Campbell, on a war-torn hill in Vietnam, made a promise with fellow Marines: They would not let people forget the human cost of fighting for America and liberty.

Today, Campbell andveterans who fought with him on that day begin a journey that will return them to that hill, for three reasons.

"Number one, to pay respects to those who died on that hill," he said. "Second, to go back and tell that damn hill that it did not win -- we are back. And three, so others will know those who died and remember them."

That day in 1966 has been perhaps the most wrenching of Campbell's life.

"We were cleaning up the mess after a two-day battle on a hill we called Hill 362," Campbell wrote in his unpublished memoirs. "On that hill, 26 men from our company died and another 70-plus were wounded."

The exhausted company had been in a similar battle in a streambed just two days earlier, where another eight men had been killed and more wounded.

Campbell said he knows the graphic details can be hard for some to hear, but he feels strongly that the truth must be told, especially in light of the way he and fellow soldiers were treated by those opposed to the war, both while he was fighting and when he returned.

"We had wrapped our dead brothers' bodies in their ponchos," Campbell wrote. "Before we could do that, we had to pick up the pieces of some of them who had been blown apart by mortar fire.

"As we loaded their bodies on the helicopter, the blood that had pooled up in their ponchos ran out and down our arms and onto our chests. After this gruesome task, a number of us stood on that hill and made the promise that they would not be forgotten."

Campbell said that he feels his story is more relevant than ever, with the country at war again. A Purple Heart honoree because he suffered a shrapnel wound in his right leg during that hellish day on Hill 362, Campbell served 13 years as a Marine, another 13 years in the Army, and works today as an Army recruiter.

"The people in our country need to hear of these men and others like them," he said. "These men who made the ultimate sacrifice in all our country's wars so we could live the lives and enjoy the blessings we enjoy each day ... I sometimes feel [that young people] have no concept of the sacrifices others have made for them. They go through life never giving it a thought. They have had it so good for so long they have no idea how good they have it."

A soldier in I Company, Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, Campbell remembers thinking during the battle on the hill that he did not want to die because he had never met his newborn daughter. Of the 178 people in his company, 37 did not return home alive, and Campbell still struggles with survivor's guilt. After all, he lived to raise his children and mentor his grandchildren.

He knows exactly what the men who died in Vietnam gave up, he said, and that is why he talks about them, retells the story of those terrible days, because he wants people to know.

Campbell said he and his fellow Marines will also return with photos of them sharing their C-rations with Vietnam children and see if they can find any of those children as adults today.

Hollywood and the news media turned the country against the soldiers fighting the Vietnam War, he said, portraying them as wanton rapist-monsters killing children while high on drugs.

A divided America meant the war could not be won, he said.

"People don't realize, the enemies see this and it encourages them, even though they can't win the battles in the field," he said. "We won the battles, but they knew if they prolonged the war long enough, the American people would bring us home."

This caused more soldiers to die, Campbell said -- the message is important because the same thing is happening today in Iraq, he said.

"I never saw anyone take drugs," he said of Vietnam. "We went in and we took care of the sick that needed it and took care of babies. We shared our C-rations with starving children."

Campbell said he knows his return to Vietnam will be emotionally wrenching, and for that reason he and those traveling with him made a decision not to bring family members.

"I really don't know what to expect when we are sitting on that hill and talking about it," he said. "I'm sure you will see some grown men cry. Marines are supposed to be big and tough."

For those who did not fight on that hallowed ground, the moment will be difficult to understand, he said.

"It is hard to explain our feelings," he said. "You have to have been there to understand it."

Campbell and his fellow veterans first held a reunion in Washington D.C. 30 years after their experience in 1966. Originally the plan was to have reunions every five years since, but every year "we lose more of our brothers" and so reunions are now held every three years. It is for the same reason that the group has decided to go back to Vietnam now.

"I am excited about this," he said. Then he paused. "I have some fears. I have forgotten a lot. ... I wonder if some of that is going to come back."

A shadow falls across his face.

"I want to say it will give us all closure." He pauses again. "I don't need closure. I've had it for quite a while."

Another pause.

"I just want to go back to where it all happened. I would not go back alone. I would only go with the guys."

Another pause.

"Maybe I am afraid to go back alone. But I am ready to go back with these guys."