Remember Them: Sgt. Peter Hedlund
Sgt Peter Hedlund, courtesy of the family.
Sergeant Peter Burr Hedlund was born in the microscopic community of Cedar, Minnesota, on February 16th, 1944, and served in the United States Marine Corps during the Tểt Offensive of the Vietnam War.
Known as “The Swede” by his fellow Marines, Sgt. Hedlund was a cook who belonged to the headquarters company of the 9th Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division. While driving a convoy truck loaded with critical supplies, Sgt. Hedlund’s vehicle was ambushed by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) on February 7, 1968, not far from the besieged city of Huể. In a little-known engagement known as “The Road to the Graveyard,” Sgt. Hedlund and 19 other Marines lost their lives to enemy fire.
“The Road to the Graveyard” took place in the shadow of the Battle of Huể, which was the first major assault of the Tểt Offensive, a massive series of surprise attacks launched by the North Vietnamese military during the ceasefire of the Tểt holiday in the early days of 1968. The city of Huể was just south of the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam and controlled up to that point by the United States military and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). The city had some 150,000 residents in early 1968, who were celebrating the lunar new year when the NVA and Viet Cong (VC) quite literally invaded the city overnight on January 31. The American and South Vietnamese militaries were caught unprepared for the attack, but immediately launched a counteroffensive to retake control of the city. The subsequent battle would be host to some of the fiercest and most tragic fighting of the war. US Marines and ARVN soldiers engaged the NVA in house-to-house combat for almost a month to follow. During that period, the political officers of the NVA captured, tortured, and summarily executed upwards of 5,000 civilians who were deemed by the NVA to have been loyal to the American forces. The Huể Massacre, as it would come to be known, in considered one of the greatest atrocities of the entire Vietnam War, and the Battle of Huể would prove to be one of the bloodiest conflicts of the period.
About 15 miles south of Huể was a small quarry used by the US military known as the “Rock Crusher,” which, as the name would imply, is where US Navy Seabees crushed rocks into gravel. The quarry was also used for artillery emplacements, and a modest contingent of Marines was posted there. Before the Tểt Offensive began, life at the Rock Crusher was fairly routine, albeit remote. The quarry was nestled near the banks of the Perfume River, where the Marines would often swim in their off-time. Patrols around the Rock Crusher were typically uneventful. However, the supply road from Huể that the forces at the Rock Crusher relied on was a difficult and treacherous one, rife with sharp turns, difficult terrain, and countless potential ambush sites. The quarry was also surrounded by the royal tombs of the past dynasties, in addition to the cemeteries of the more common folk.
When Huể fell on January 31, though, the forces at the Rock Crusher had to spring into action. The artillery units launched an almost non-stop barrage against the NVA in Huể, and within just a day the guns had almost run out of ammunition. A convoy was dispatched from the Phu Bai combat base at Huể (the US military’s base of operations) to resupply the guns at Rock Crusher. On the road there, the convoy was ambushed by the NVA, in which one Marine was killed and nine others were wounded. The convoy completed the rest of the journey and delivered the supplies, but the members of the convoy were tired, hungry, and frightened, and chose to stay at the Rock Crusher for some time.
The convoy eventually returned to Phu Bai on February 4, 1968, and many of the security personnel were ordered into the fighting in Huể, leaving mostly non-essential Marines to run future convoys. Even still, the forces surrounding Huể were stretched thin and quickly running low on supplies and personnel, exasperated By February 7, the units stationed at the Rock Crusher were facing a critical shortage of food, and so a second convoy was ordered out. This convoy was made up of administrative clerks, musicians, and anyone else the Marine Corps could spare for a security detail. Sergeant Hedlund was one such individual. The second convoy arrived at the Rock Crusher without incident and successfully delivered the cargo. By the time afternoon had come, it was time for the convoy to leave and return to Phu Bai.
“The Swede” was in the last truck in the convoy, originally as a passenger. However, once the convoy had begun to leave, the last truck didn’t move; the driver was suffering from stomach issues and had to run off to the toilet. The driver ended up taking so long that Sgt. Hedlund had to get behind the wheel and leave without him in order to catch up to the rest of the convoy. The convoy proceeded for about three miles, at which point it arrived at a local village and cemetery. One of the trucks in the rear stopped to take down a Viet Cong flag that was flying near one of the houses, and then the NVA launched an ambush. Immediately, the trucks took fire from small arms, mortars, and rockets alike. The support vehicles were quickly disabled, and Captain Brown, the convoy’s commanding officer, was killed while directing the rest of the trucks. The Marines very quickly took several casualties, both killed and wounded.
Sgt. Hedlund’s truck also came under attack. All the Marines riding on the truck dismounted to take cover from the incoming mortar barrage, but a nearby mortar blast wounded all of them, especially Sgt. Hedlund. Hedlund had been hit by several pieces of shrapnel and was seriously wounded. Soon, the entire convoy was being overrun by hundreds of NVA soldiers. Some NVA soldiers came across the wounded Sgt. Hedlund near his truck, at which point they shot him and left him for dead. Before too long, all of the officers and command staff of the convoy were either dead or wounded, and only privates and corporals remained. Shortly after, reinforcements from both the Rock Crusher and Phu Bai arrived to support the convoy. The reinforcements took casualties of their own, but managed to repulse the NVA. A medic from the reinforcement force found Sgt. Hedlund was barely alive, and attempted to save his life. Hedlund was quickly transported to the USS Repose, a naval hospital ship, where he succumbed to his wounds two days later.
In total, the battle on the “Road to the Graveyard” took the lives of 20 Marines, and 39 more were wounded. An unknown number of NVA soldiers were killed or wounded, although one was captured as a prisoner. Sgt. Hedlund was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, and is buried in Cedar Cemetery in Anoka County, MN.