2020 $2.50 Vietnam War,"Battle of Con Thien,The Hill of Angels", Mint Sheet, Tuvalu

This sheet was issued by Tuvalu to commemorate the Battle of Con Thien, a prolonged and grueling engagement fought along the demilitarized zone separating North and South Vietnam from February 27, 1967, to February 28, 1969. Con Thien takes its name from the Vietnamese Nui Con Thien, meaning "small mountain with heavenly beings," commonly translated as the Hill of Angels. Originally established as a U.S. Army Special Forces camp before becoming a Marine Corps combat base, the outpost sat just two miles south of the DMZ, giving it a strategic vantage point over one of the main North Vietnamese infiltration routes into South Vietnam.

Due to its exposed position within range of North Vietnamese artillery firing from across the Ben Hai River, Con Thien endured relentless shelling throughout its occupation, with more than a thousand enemy rounds landing on the base in a single day during some of the heaviest bombardments. More than a dozen Marine operations were involved in the broader fighting around Con Thien, including Operation Kingfisher, Operation Kentucky, and Operation Hickory II, all depicted on this sheet alongside a scene of Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines on patrol. Marine units rotated through the position roughly once a month given the scale of casualties inflicted by the constant artillery fire, and by the time the base was finally turned over to South Vietnamese forces in 1969, American losses at Con Thien totaled roughly 1,400 killed and more than 9,000 wounded.

Despite the punishing conditions, the Marines successfully held Con Thien throughout its two year defense, denying North Vietnamese forces control of a position that would have exposed the nearby logistics base at Dong Ha to sustained long range fire.