The 2d Battalion, 501st Infantry, was commanded during the siege of FSB Ripcord by Lt. Col. Otis Livingston. Tall and lanky, Livingston had been a ranger instructor at Fort Benning, Georgia, during a previous assignment.

As enemy action around Ripcord intensified early in July, Livingston was told to place one of his rifle companies under the operational control (OPCON) of the 2/506. He sent Delta Company, commanded by Capt. Chris Straub, a tough New Yorker on his second tour. Straub and his "Delta Raiders" would see more action at a place called Hill 805 than they bargained for.

Then the rest of the 2/501st was committed to battle around the beleaguered fire base. Livingston and his remaining line companies plus the scout platoon combat assaulted south of Hill 1000, directly west of Ripcord, and tried to work up the backside. Leading with his scouts, Livingston echeloned his companies as they moved up Hill 1000, C Co. on the right, B Co. in the center and A Co. on the left.

The scouts had no trouble finding the enemy. They were dug in and spoiling for a fight. The Geronimos gave it to them. Outnumbered, and fighting against a determined enemy in well prepared defensive positions, expertly concealed in the thick brush, the 2/501st engaged the North Vietnamese in one brutal slug-fest after another.

Each time Livingston was forced to pull back and employ artillery and air strikes against enemy bunkers and trench lines. Then he would maneuver to the left, slide around enemy resistance and continue up Hill 1000. But each new advance up the steep hill was met with vicious defensive fire, mortars and rocket propelled grenades. Alpha Co. almost made it to the crest of Hill 1000 on July 16 before they, too, were beaten back. Casualties ran high on both sides, and when the Geronimos were withdrawn on the 17th, Livingston's battalion was a shadow of what it had been.