Secret Vietnam War Bunkers
October 20, 2011
Posted in 505th Parachute Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division, Everytown USA, Tom Steele, Vietnam War
Tags: 505th Parachute Infantry, 82nd Airborne, Everytown USA, Tom Steele, Vietnam War
A secret, Vietnam War-era bunker has been unearthed below the historic Metropole Hotel in downtown Hanoi. The hotel housed many foreign guests during the war, and the shelter below served to keep them safe from American bombings of the city.
The story reminded me of a similar surprise Airborne trooper, Tom Steele, discovered in the jungle, while working as a tunnel rat. Steele served with the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division in the A Shau Valley. He earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for Valor in surviving the Vietnam War.
“The one time I went into a hole, maybe three or four foot around,” Steele remembered. “It went on like that for probably 50 or 60 yards. Then it just opened up into a big hospital, all underground. …That thing was fully equipped—hospital beds, steel reinforced, the whole nine yards. It took the B-52 bombers a couple of weeks to completely destroy it.
“A lot of these places had a well-camouflaged entryway that they could actually drive trucks down into. Many dated back to when they were fighting the French.”