Khe Sanh

[LAH]

The battle began on this day, 1968 with a firefight involving the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines and a North Vietnamese battalion. It lasted for roughly 66 days. Anyone here take part in this?

[William Yanda]

No, but I heard about it almost every time we marched in Army Basic Training, Spring 1971.

[Kraschenbirn]

Yup! I was crewchief for 8th Combat Engineers (1st Cav Div) Command & Control aircraft. At the end of March, '68, we flew the first Army support team into Khe Sanh in preparation for Operation Pegasus (1-15 April, '68) and, for the next three weeks, flew direct support for the Engineers and SeaBees reopening Highway 9 from Dong Ha to Khe Sanh. It was what we called 'ash & trash', hauling whatever needed to be moved: survey parties, demo teams, heavy equipment parts, mail, casualty evac, etc.

Bill

[richhodg66]

Too young, but just wanted to say thanks to all you guys who went when duty called and when it wasn't popular to do so.

[JBinMN]

I did not take part, but it is a part of USMC history.
It is/was taught in boot camp as one of the battles that is to be remembered as a representation of the USMC , "Do, or Die!" attitude during the VN era. The NVA wanted another "Dien Bien Phu", but did not get what they wanted...

Credit to the other US Military outfits that supported the base & those US Marines there at that base & the surrounding area is due. It is well worthy of remembrance , IMO, & Thanks! for bringing it up as a topic!!


Here is a good read ( .pdf file) about the upcoming events & the battle) :
http://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Pu...00313800_5.pdf

Further readin if you would like to know more about that year(1968):

http://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Pu...00313800_6.pdf

[Rick N Bama]

I wasn't there, but I was in Vietnam at the time. When it started I was TDY from Tan Son Nhut to Phan Rang. The Aircraft activity at PR increased about 100%.

BTW, Khe Sanh is where the AF learned to drop cases of Eggs from the rear of a C-130 flying about 5' off the ground without breaking any. Yes fresh Eggs were delivered to KS. Probably not many, but they did get some from time to time.

[LAH]

Amazing stuff here. Thank you guys for what you did. God Bless. Two locals here were there after the fact to help protect those who rebuilt.

[ARKLITE881South]

It was 77 days, i was in Khe Sanh first, then up to HIll 881 South, India Co. 3rd Batt 26th Marines. I was one of the very fortunate ones. We lost 7 helicopters on the Hill the first month.

[ARKLITE881South]

It was 77 days, i was in Khe Sanh first, then up to HIll 881 South, was with India Co. 3rd Batt 26th Marines. I was one of the very fortunate ones. We lost 7 helicopters on the Hill the first month. should add, ''We'' landed on Hill 881 South 12-26-67 and left the Hill 4-18-68.

Sorry about the double post.

[nekshot]

I thank all of you who served. The draft stopped a couple of month before I would have had to enlist and with the raunchy atitude nobody was signing up that I knew. My folk were very sympathetic of the troops but very ticked off at Johnsons tight hold over the military!

[shdwlkr]

Was not in the military when Khe Sanh event was going on but we were told when the Marines needed help they called on Army Rangers to come to their aide. That was in 1970 Fort Jackson, South Carolina Airborne Ranger Fort back then, lots of running not much food as I was considered a fat boy 6 foot 4 inches and 265 pounds, left there a few months later at a nice 178 pounds amazing how the Army could trim you down in just 4 months went on to become a Combat Engineer Site Chief still pick on a few of my Marine friends that when in trouble call the Army we get a good laugh out that as we realize that when in a fight all that matters is who has your back not which branch of the military they belong too

[Lon246]

HMM-163. H-34 pilot. The "Evil Eyes". In and out of Khe Sanh, the hills, Cam Lo, Con Thein, The Rockpile, and well, all of I Corps including some Recon Extracts and Medevacs in places where humans weren't meant to be. Left Quang Tri in Mar '68, the end of my second tour.

[Blanket]

Not me but my cousin was at the SF base there

[LAH]

Great men among us. And thank all of you.

[jaysouth]

I was air operations NCO in the 1st Bn, 8th Cav, 1st cav division. I did not get a whole night's sleep for the month preceding Operation Pegasus planning the air assault. We were attached to the 3d bde and and went in of the 2d day of the air operation. We landed on a mountain top about 3 km SE of the marine base and set up our artillery battery and battalion operations center.

The Marines had been besieged at their base for over three months with an estimated 20,000 NVA troops surrounding them and attacking daily. By the end of day three of our relief operation, we could not find anyone to fight. They disappeared over the border because they could not fight our airmobile concept.

The whole debacle was caused by the Marines fighting WWII over again and the incompetence of westmoreland and his toady staff. It is a disgrace that we hung that many US Marines out in a fixed base that became the biggest artillery/mortar/ rocket impact area on earth with out adequate planning or support. I have tremendous respect for individual Marines, but their brass hats didn't have a clue how to fight the NVA or interdict the southward flow of supplies.

It was a terrible waste of young american lives and from a global perspective, a total debacle.

[Plate plinker]

Much respect and appreciation for all our Vietnam veterans. Such a raw deal for so many. I always enjoy when I get the pleasure to meet and shoot with this group of men.

[eck0313]

The last picture of Westmoreland I saw had him wearing a US Army uniform. He commanded US forces in Vietnam from 1964 to 1968. Blaming the Marine Corps leadership for carrying out Westmoreland’s direction is stretching it a bit, don’t you think?

[Plate plinker]

Maybe he meant MacNamara?

[lefty o]

khe sanh was strictly a westmoreland fiasco. he got backing by macnamara and LBJ, but it was westmoreland! the Marines did not want to be there.

[Echo]

Not meaning to chop the post, but I bought the book "Dereliction Of Duty", By 3-star McMasters, about LBJ & RSM doing their part to help get LBJ elected - and couldn't finish it! About 2/3 through I was ready to find their graves, dig 'em up, chop 'em into chunks, and feed the crabs in Galveston Bay! I tried, but after reading another couple of pages, had to put it down. HEAVILY footnoted - there are FIFTY-TWO PAGES of footnotes at the end of the book, showing the sources of all the data. Still haven't finished the book - hate it...