"Vietnam: The Soldier's Story" Doc. Vol. 2 - "Under Siege at Khe Sanh"

the Navy base at Khe Sanh, old, isolated, desolate, divorced from reality, that's like hell, yes, I felt like I was so deep in the bowels of the country that there was no way out under the

siege

of the North Vietnamese for 77 days, bombs and rockets scream all the time. I walked again, but suddenly there was no place to hide, no place was safe, I mean, death was measured in inches and moments, but in the bunkers and trenches, the resistance and the heroines, the radio sports, we fought for the American way of life, apple pie and mother, we.

We were fighting basically for the boys. I'm Jack Smith. These are stories from the Vietnam War told by the people who know it best. Those who fought. I was one of them. There is an ancient military axiom that you should fight your battles only according to favorable conditions. Geography Both sides always want to engage the enemy on battlefields of their own choosing, but the

siege

of Khe Sanh in early 1968 is an example of how that does not always happen. American troops found themselves pinned down on a landlocked combat base for 77 years. Days is the dramatic

story

of a daily routine marked by terror under constant fire, uncommon courage, and unspoken heroism.

The Khe Sanh combat base was 14 miles below the demilitarized zone dividing North and South Vietnam and six miles east of Liao and bordered the top of a volcano. rock covered in red dirt The camp was near Route 9, a bumpy single-lane road that runs from east to west and allows the high hills and mountains surrounding the base to become excellent cover for North Vietnamese troops. Navy advisory teams used the expensive empty base as a staging area for reconnaissance in the mountains where they saw occasional enemy contact. By early 1967, U.S. involvement in Vietnam had increased. At more than 400,000 troops, fighting intensified and young Americans were dying at a rate of more than 100 kisaan. fairly quiet until April 1967 everything changed 160 died 746 who won those battles convinced General William Westmoreland that thousands more North Vietnamese were infiltrating South Vietnam from Laos decided to stop them in their tracks General Westmoreland decided to turn Khe Sanh into anger Western in a line extending through the northern provinces to help prevent the flow of North Vietnamese troops and supplies into South Vietnam, especially from Laos, he ordered the Marines to reinforce the isolated base found and shore up defenses in the surrounding hills.

It is May 1967. Every year new Marines arrived. The day John Kay Haney and his platoon of troops landed at Khe Sanh and saw the results of the April fighting was a very disturbing and terrifying experience. Walking this long dirt road into the mountains ended up walking wounded from the fighting in the hills, there were probably 500 to 600 Marines lined up and all bandaged in one way or another, covered in blood and mud, and I had to pull my platoon from the plane and watch it down this long road to a rally point and hardly anyone said a word.

Really scary marines patrolling in the jungle find remains of North Vietnamese troops, but the beauty of the hills was a beautiful place and it was absolutely beautiful from a distance, but all the hills when we patrolled day by day We would continue to find more and more NVA corpses and of course the stench was ungodly as part of his duties, even the Navy chaplain learns what it's like to patrol off base just by the simple act of patrolling. it means going up and down very steep hills being mowed by elephant grass growing blisters broken bones tripping over things completely wearing out tents the North Vietnamese seem to be preparing for a big battle they are on the move it is not clear exactly what they are doing we could see them during the summer sitting on Laos building their fortifications driving their trucks and what, but they rarely crossed water.

Marine reconnaissance patrols continue to search for the enemy. Each man carries up to 80 pounds, including weapons, ammunition and water radio. Kevin McCauley. carrying more than 100 pounds on her back in the bush, she was totally exposed to the elements. We didn't wear ponchos because when the rain hit the ponchos it made too much noise, so we just laid there, but the rain got us wet. The hot we bake was called free sugar in the Vietnamese highlands, there are surprises around every corner. A patrol we were waiting for the helicopters to pick us up at the 8.5 foot long.

A Bengal tiger came out in front of us, no more than five to six. A few meters away, one of the companions took a photograph of him and I had a rifle ready to shoot him in case he jumped towards us and he was aiming all over the sky. The patrols continued, their enemy remains elusive and then after the hot summer comes the monsoon season. in force that has never been colder than in a case because the skin wrinkles and cracks and it's like being submerged in water all the time in November 1967 still convinced that the caisson will be a major battlefield, General Westmoreland appears at the base he orders the Navy Seabees to rebuild the landing strips the C-130 transport planes will bring in supplies thousands more The marines soon arrived the fog finally closes the base two cargo planes then in late 1967 the supplies were no longer They can get there via Route 9, devastated by heavy rains, but the fortifications of the bases crumble with the onslaught of bad weather, so at that time it was a matter of collapsed bunkers, the misery of never being dry from the mail not entering, we were very isolated, we didn't know very well.

Well what was happening is a kind of Uncertainty that it was a miserable time, the hills surrounding the base are now defended by heavily fortified beams to become the first line of defense to help prevent a communist attack on Khe Sanh Hilti 8 :1 south is more than six miles from Caisson and that stops there a little bigger than a football field - except for sporadic contact with the enemy life is uneventful for the four hundred Marines of India Company 3rd battalion 26th Marines armed to the teeth ready to attack Captain Bill Dabney is your commanding officer, the heavy things that He had 81-millimeter mortars, 106-millimeter anti-tank rifles, recoilless rifles, and a 305-millimeter howitzer.

It was relatively easy for forest patrols to search for the enemy. Ernie Houston's platoon uncovered compelling evidence that the North Vietnamese are everywhere. I noticed that they were getting closer as if they were pre-digging. complex bunker positions that would house about a hundred people. Road systems were starting to arrive. US intelligence discovers two North Vietnamese divisions recently infiltrated near Khe Sanh. that the estimated 20,000 enemies approach each day becomes evident on January 20 to curse me. When his men engage in a tough fight with a North Vietnamese battalion entrenched in a ravine below, he takes on his manned and outgunned boat himself.

The marines choose 50, someone, good night, when you feel overwhelmed by your casualties after a while and you have to take them out and since the mission was to hold the hill and that southern Hill hated, he went south, we will withdraw from return to the hill on Hill. South Vietnamese artillery fire is not completely isolated on Hill, they did one to the south when they could, the men tuned in. the nightly news on Armed Forces Radio and what you hear is almost surreal and at the end they announced some local news whose main topic was the cancellation of a tennis tournament in Saigon and if we looked at each other and said you know We are, we are, we are not in the same world nor the men on the base are in the same world where the atmosphere is becoming more tense Mergent Glenn Prentiss, a forward observer and radio operator, is aware of the new mood we know. something happened, we had many air attacks, our trailer attacked very close to the base.

I started wearing our helmets and body armor all the time, staying on alert for the maximum amount of time available each day. Doctor David Steinberg remembers his orders on January 20, 1968. They told us to burn all our letters and we began to feel that this was going to be something serious. We went to bed, burned our letters and this sounded like the real war was finally coming to Khe Sanh. I was walking towards the dining room. Early morning on January 21st and I noticed some Y attacks coming. I didn't know what they were until they started packing up the road.

What came along the way. He looks at the dining room and the series of shots destroys the ammunition depot. I remember running from the ammo depot and we didn't have to get boxed in by the concussive explosions, we couldn't tell what was coming in or our own stuff flowing from the CF tear gas that shot off large amounts of artillery shells with plastic explosives, so that we were being hit by our own mo cooking and producing shrapnel in addition to everything they were shooting at us, so that first morning we were in the trenches and the ground was incredible, this guy started to darken because everything burned the sergeant major and someone to control the young marine outside.

After one round came and was pretty close, I got up, put my hand on the door to open it and the ammo magazine went and the explosion caused the entire door to collapse and fall from me against the wall, although some of his men suffer injuries the door protects Lt. KD from serious injuries Marine Corporal Craig Lofton is in his bunker when shells begin to fall even though we run bunkers the concussion travels through his body and nearly leaves him without air it was such a big explosion Lofton's crew chief for a helicopter in Khe Sanh has to get to his helicopter, put it in the air where it could be useful and his men moved quickly, his crew gathered and made a mad dash through the combat base that was probably three football fields wide.

Running from the hole trying to avoid the incoming ones, they find a helicopter already destroyed by the bombing, but they managed to take off three others. Helicopters hover over the equally besieged hills outside Khe Sanh. You often see the results. Reeves, a strong copper attack against his mortal enemy. I remember seeing bodies on the cables in large numbers. The NVA artillery and rocket hits were so great at that location that the top of the hill was completely obscured by dust and debris in the aerial pursuit that goes to all the locations we serve. The goats for what seemed like an eternity to finally die picked up the three helicopters.

The money online right after another picked up, mixed up whatever was dead, that gets very long, but it's just the beginning for Lofton and the helicopter squadron, they come back again and again taking out the. dead and wounded bringing the necessary supplies we went from what we considered all to be truly homeless every year to everything changing, it was a mild shock and a bit of apprehension as the next thing that in a single day the impact of the intense bombing destroys most of buildings and tents nothing on the ground is safe the first day bombing ET Marines killed 40 suffer injuries for Marines in Khe Sanh the war is suddenly different when they go out on patrol they discover that they are under siege and it becomes a profound test of physical and spiritual resistance for them and their enemy, the North Vietnamese, hiding in the surrounding mountains at the end of January 1968, those first bombings by King Saud are furious and deadly, the bombings begin.

The Marines defend themselves while returning fire. They still don't know that this is the beginning of the siege. Their lives change a lot. intense we had many rounds incoming that Sunday there are 1,300 rounds impacting the area on the day 1200 rounds thousand rounds hitting different areas of the base to survive the men are ordered to dig trenches and underground bunkers deep in the ancient red volcanic earth each sailor still has a job to do, Tom Campbell, one year old, there are radio lines destroyed during the bombing, I read everyone's faces, I don't think I took a shower anyway to wash everyone, I read that their clothes were red , trucks were into anything, you know. because of the powder itself it is red.

I could take off my leather gloves. You can develop blisters and blood, so you just pour water on your gloves so you can take them off and put some gauze on them and then put the gloves on. I went back and kept digging because anything above ground was going to be bad. These bunkers become their shadowy homes no more than six feet wide and ten feet long, barely tall enough for a man to stand upright. Doctor Mike Hill remembers them well. The bunkers are a box. We were filth and we had so many rat problems that I don't care what kind of bunker you had andhe had rats coming into the bunker and things like that because you know about electricity, you know, if you were lucky, he would put candles on during the night. and then you know it's a depressing place, you've got 18 19 20 guys inside that you've been lying next to the guys in your platoon or your squad, no matter how many people you can fit in the bunker and that's where we exist, it really wasn't there, you know, you know, it was a nice situation, but it was the only situation we had, the only situation, yes, with anxiety and fear, getting used to the bombings, desolation and death soon became a way of life in any place you went to.

The ears were just hearing that background noise a little boop boop boop Elson's artillery came in screaming, we were so good at it we could almost tell where it was going to go and to the other side, we were hit by a lottery shell and when the explosion occurred. It went off, we were yelling at each other, are you okay? and no one could answer because there was blood coming out of our noses, we couldn't concentrate and blood was coming out of our ears and we were shaking, are you okay? On January 24, only a few days after the siege, another bunker received a direct hit, the bumper broke, he thought as we removed the cover of a telephone, a guy had just been picked up in the plants pushed against the roof of the bunker, which He basically ran away, man.

And I never saw a person who believed that no matter how much he survived, he survived, but he was terribly injured and the four guys who died, the number of injured increases daily in Khe Sanh that day. Johnson takes care of them at Charlie Med the base hospital and the aid station they could do some kind of minor surgery or something sew him back throw him on the stretcher drag him down the ramp throw him in this little area where we had sandbags it was a barren place that although there was nowhere to hide it was just a sheet metal out there, it didn't have any holes to get through, we were at the mercy of whatever they threw at it, lucky it came out there.

You put him on the helicopter, you have a monitor. I was lucky to just stay alive. He becomes the only one. The terror disease spread throughout the isolated base. Some think of a war they never knew about. In many ways, it was like trenches. You know, fog wires. The same living conditions. Dysentery. that kind of thing the Frog used to do in the morning it was cold it was mysterious paradoxically it was a feeling of relief and fear at the same time when the fog spreads in North Vietnam. The gunners have a hard time targeting the base.

They will have some relief from the constant bombardment, although it is temporary, they will try to make good use of it, repair their bunkers and even collect their mail, but their brief respite is only that brief. General William Westmoreland has other ideas and firmly believes that Hanoi will try to turn Khe Sanh into another dean by being fodder for the 1954 battle in which the North Vietnamese decisively defeated the French. They maintained the high ground near the landing strip. Assad believes they control the surrounding hills. They maintain the air base despite the constant bombings. He is sure that the communists will attack with force.

General Westmoreland sent more troops to the caisson. Soon more than six thousand men filled the small base. Then North Vietnamese artillery convulsed six miles from the base and is pounding the caisson every day. I received artillery rockets, mortars, what we discovered, they have rockets and mortars, but we don't. I don't see anything wrong. I would like to see something from time to time. You can hear it all you want, but you don't believe it until you see it. The Americans respond to the North Vietnamese with their own long-range 175-millimeter cannon. fired by army artillery from the rock pile and Camp Carroll in Quang Tri province, south of the DMZ, but the bombardment has little effect, enemy emplacements are too far away, US Air Force rains . that fly from the name, the baby carriers of the South China Sea respond back 300 flights a day launch bombs scorching rockets napalm hides in the mountains in the bass although the constant this is something totally Mia 989 I mean we work we are at home we read a We members of the 4-h club were either altar boys or captains of the football team and now all of a sudden we were thrown into a war and I guess it was our baptism of fire, so to speak, now the communists will experience a different baptism of fire than everything they ever imagined.

The United States Air Force unleashes its B-52 bombers,

soldier

s and mountains in a matter of days, they are powerful high-flying aircraft, America's most effective weapon is the communist force, it is ringing Khe Sanh, we are at the end January 1968, Khe Sanh has been under siege for Ten days throughout Vietnam, both sides declare a ceasefire in honor of Tet, the Lunar New Year, but on January 31 the allies discover that Hanoi has something else going on. mind. North Vietnam launches a major offensive against hundreds of allied cities and bases across the country during the first three days are the Tet Offensive a shell falls on Khe Sanh obsessed with the base President Johnson has a Khe Sanh sand table in White House Situation Room inspecting daily despite new North Vietnamese tactics Westmoreland does not change his strategy for Khe Sanh he still believes the northern garrison is the main target of the noise plan, so Westmoreland orders Operation Force Niagara Air Force, code name for the heavy B-52 attacks against the North Vietnamese from Guam.

At 5,500 miles away, it takes 12 hours to reach the box using one technique. Known as arclight, these enormous planes that fly at 30,000 feet high drop their enormous forces with a force that unfolds like an explosive carpet every day in groups of six, the B-52s drop 60,000 pounds of bombs and their enemy Below when they hit the destruction is enormous. Producing a devastating effect on thousands of North Vietnamese troops, CGK side bombs from a single six-plane formation could destroy an area half a mile wide and nearly 2 miles long, even the men and bunkers of Khe Sanh feel the pain. power of the b- 52 everything falls the dusty earth everything starts to move we have this little joke about making Khe Sanh coffees in your bunker and we know the air attacks are coming so you sit in a bunker, you take out your coffee and you put it on the side of your cup and you put your sugar and your cream substitute on the side and then you wait for the Air Force to show up to mix it for you at the end of February, about forty days after the siege that the B-52s are now bombing around the- watch the high-flying planes are relentless and fearsome to the surprised communists the huge planes become a short-range weapon sometimes bombing enemy positions within 500 yards of the hydraulic base it's a front-row seat for the pilot C- 130 I heard what I thought was a railroad train passing by the bar, I looked at the drawing of the bunker and it was the most devastating thing I had ever seen in my life.

I saw trees and dirt and branches and people and just everything flying through the air and when the raid was The B-52 attacks killed thousands of Cusan Vietnamese and continue unabated, so keeping spirits up is a challenge for the Besieged Marines most of the time I was jumping around in search of a bunker, from one bunker to another, from one trench to another, and I held my religious services, but they only lasted about three minutes. Say communion. He had a sermon of one or two sentences at the time. I think the text was Jesus calming the waters on the hills outside the base.

Starters fail fatally as always, especially on 881 south. Many wounded leave. on stretchers too many corpses to keep morale high captain bill dabney makes a bold decision in the midst of constant bombardment some newspapers at 8 o'clock precisely at 8 o'clock and they attacked us we would raise the flag and then we had deep holes right behind a flag bomb that took about 25 seconds because we knew the flight time for the ramp was about 25, it was some sort of finger handicap, it wasn't a gesture of defiance and we didn't really have anything. Other than that, here's the American flag up there and everyone was ecstatic about the sniper on the other side of the hill.

I need someone who wasn't so elated and thought this was a goal. The sniper fires for two rounds and begins to fall. People call them. He quickly runs to cover you. It was a very careful flag raising ceremony, they would jump the hole where the bullets hit different businesses. It's the difficult job of getting through each day as best they can with limited water supplies. His Paul was scarce at the base and especially in the hills where He could last longer than three four days without water many times at the base longer in the hills maybe seven eight days sometimes and but people shared the last drops of water they had each other like when I threw a quarter of a canteen and As I progressed, at night we placed plastic to collect the mass and we made sure that the water was precious.

Bad weather, intense enemy bombing now make it difficult and dangerous to supply caissons thirty and C-123 cargo planes often cannot land because of fog and the damaged runway some supplies must now arrive by parachute the The drop zone is outside the reinforced lines and is very small, measuring over 200 yards by 200 yards, which meant that area had to be secured and that meant it was a target and the moment it was secured it became on a target, then we would do a launch and then the enemy would put, you know, tons of artillery iron on their launch until everything calmed down and then we could go in and shoot the target. refill the army quartermaster corps loads cargo planes at the air base that refuses 100 miles from Khe Sanh to bring the supplies safely to the base the air force develops a complicated technique to bring them as soon as they land on the runway taxiing while it continues moving pushing huge pallets loaded with everything from ammunition and fuel oil to escape but there was always the danger of being hit by an enemy fighter, against everything you can think of it was thrown into the plane I mean there were small weapons there was a similar weapon to ours 50 caliber that the North Vietnamese kept putting at the end of the runway and shot at the plane between our pilot boat miraculously the bombing destroys only one C-130 that plane burns beyond repair and remains at the base as a reminder of the constant danger most of the damage we suffered was 51 caliber and below that was here, most of the damage on the ground when we landed was caused by 33 millimeter artillery rockets and mortars firing at us despite the bombardment of the ground target.

The planes drop their supplies. Sometimes the parachutes get too far away to be recovered, so the Marines are forced to destroy them to keep them out of enemy reach. Ammunition and fuel are the first priority, but food is always present. The marine rations, those meals and little olive green cans. and twelve varieties are always on everyone's mind: one day you would receive the meat, the next day you would receive the dessert, and on the third day you could receive the crackers and cheese. What you were always looking for was a can of peaches and just keep that aside until you get a can of biscuit, there are only small cans that look like cans of tuna and the interesting thing is that if you can get that combination, it was like winning the lottery to protect yourself from the weather.

The rooms on the perimeter throw everything away. They have against an enemy they know is out of reach to help the Marines. The Army has four gun positions along the northern perimeter of the caissons. At each end are two tank chassis, called dusters, mounted with twin forty-millimeter cameras to keep the enemy at bay. quad 50 machine gun battery fires at a rate of 250 rounds per minute Bruce Geiger is in charge of the platoon, especially during the night, we conduct fire interdictions, as we would fire on suspicious positions during the day if we saw a sniper respond In any activity, we would call or sometimes freely fire at those targets.

He will sometimes shoot at the red glow of North Vietnamese cigarettes burning in the distance. They had a range of almost four thousand years, so it's a pretty important weapon and what it's made of you knew you'd hit the target because it simply withstood daily tactical airstrikes from Green Air Force and Navy fighter-bombers knocking out fortifications. enemies in the mountains. They continue to kill countless North Vietnamese and destroy their bunkers that still do not stop with constant bombing due to the danger of death. The trenches we heard explosions and there was what we thought was shrapnel flying through the air and over here close enough and it collapsed. of these in various performances and one or two died and one made it out, but had to be meta-removed because mentally he was no longer there, there were so many things that continued, you could accept thedeath.

I could do more by seeing it. then someone just isn't there at night and in the fog, North Vietnamese troops tenaciously jump deep trenches and try to hide under the concertina wire around the base when the weather clears and the fog lifts, observation planes call to place their stripes to try to stop the advance. communists and I literally dropped napalm on the cable and I, from a point of view at least where my positions were, on baby Upendra George, the heat was so intense that we sent you, my friend stole all the air, the oxygen burned completely in the air. hundreds of UN rents but the heat that gave love was quite thoughtful things nothing nothing would survive me American airstrikes and artillery fire can dislodge North Vietnamese troops from their mountain with force 50 days after the siege six thousand American

soldier

s will they still live in Today's bunkers never know what to expect the siege continues every day now it's like any other day for the beleaguered American troops fifty days becomes sixty days it's almost the end of March no relief in sight anime still in the mountains states fighter-bombers attack for a long time High-range American artillery hits the mountains surrounding the base of these young marines.

The dangerous days and nights in Khe Sanh never end, trained to attack. They don't enjoy their role as easy targets, so you didn't know when the intramurals had consistently arrived. I don't know if you were in danger or not. People died going to the head of the latrines. People died repairing sandbags. People died simply doing the daily work of getting water. We thought we were invincible. We didn't like the With the idea of ​​being held at the base, we would sit with us like many of you before, but the North Vietnamese troops are not coming, they are not organizing the big ground attack that Westmoreland expects us to come to find out who the North Vietnamese are. even Marine recon units go on dangerous patrols off base intense boss firefights or maybe Portland Ralph Danilo isn't patrolled when the Marines are attacked running up the hill and mortar rounds are exploding around us rodriguez yells doc the Strongs hit bad one was cracked he performed mouth to mouth resuscitation on them he just lay there dead in the jungle helicopters are the difference between life and death rocky darker is a pilot on a dangerous rescue mission under intense fire in the hills near base 50 a hundred meters from you I could see all these flashing lights in this line of trees shooting at us and a lot of flashing lights and I was shocked that anyone carrying a rifle could have killed us because we were sitting there in their glass cockpit and the crew were in the We came back with little ones pieces of thin aluminum between them and death and we got everyone out of there and no one was hurt, the planes can't land helicopters other than to fill the void by bringing the necessary supplies, especially for the tireless doctors, they were just full of blood, just you wiped them on your pants and after days of wearing them the same days. and weeks of wearing the same clothes, your pants are choking out the blood, you were left safe in a hot LZ and LZ under fire from enemy gunners.

The co-pilot's only responsibility when you land was to press the timer on the panel and a twenty second hit started to increase the power, we got like 29 confirmed kills before we could get out and they were rushing the helicopter so it was a real day. difficult in the office and I went in and I took out my patrol book that was always in my pocket and I opened it up, there's a piece of shrapnel that made it to the last page and I'm thinking, oh wow, that was one of the scariest ones ever. They face death, but at the end of March 1968 there has been no invasion of Cajon where Moreland learns from his intelligence officers that enemy troops are finally withdrawing from the mountains probably with good reason the Air Force claims that their attacks with B-52s have killed thousands of North Vietnamese soldiers.

Vietnam is prevented from taking the combat base and turning it into a launching pad to the rest of South Vietnam smelling victory Westmoreland ends the siege abandons the base on a large scale with Operation Pegasus the mythology of the winged horse the relief force includes the 1st Air Cavalry Division its 400 helicopters the 1st Marine Regiment 26th Marine Regiment and two Vietnamese soldiers out of 30,000 total open Route 9 for the first time in almost three months on April 6, 1968. The Marines at Khe Sanh and 1st Air Cavalry link outside their perimeter Westmoreland declares 77-day siege. of Khe Sanh rises but in reality the fighting does not end Sergeant Joseph Bilardo, an army artilleryman, expresses his reaction when a tank unit falls into an ambush two months later and it seems that it depresses us a lot, we have not seen many. a lot of people die and it was like the icing on the cake it was at most it was a difficult break through the periscope another one that angry we all became we wanted to get along with what they called the hunt let's leave the basics go hunting you know it was an impossible dream but no could have happened by order of Westmoreland those who remain in the garrison demolish it destroy it as if nothing had happened in the base or in their lives the words a soldier destroying everything we could destroy a barrier explodes a bad part we are blowing up our bunkers in the We need to be They bury more than 800 bunkers They destroy more than three miles of concertina wire They left makeshift steel mats on the runway The oaks fly from the downed planes There will be nothing left except the red dirt that endures each day while the plows chew up the ancient land.

The last Marines and army troops find their positions almost defenseless in the face of sporadic and persistent shelling, but they hold on. I would say that the men remained fairly constant during the siege. throughout the siege they were still full of energy or rotten they ran faster they drove faster they never lost their humanity of concern for each other joking humor they were in touch with fears with laughter with death with life many boys dealt with the things of different way, but you wanted to be part of a team, you want to be part of a platoon and the only way to do it was to be faithful and simplified to the boy next year and that was the most important thing for us, the men who were left behind feel increasingly alone. the base is emptied through those who find it difficult to withstand the bombings.

I think it was because the artillery was used to entering so much. The cannon shells are wreaking havoc on me and I was starting to lose track of time, just like the rest of the people. the base closes the remaining veterans are upset for other reasons after all the long months of siege, they had seen almost 200 dead. I felt very, very frustrated at the time thinking about the number of people who died in crates or as a result. the drawer and suddenly they were abandoned why was it so important 1/2 month ago why is it no longer important we had separated through this all the casualties that had accumulated in 77 days and also everything was in vain you know we were totally abandoning and I was having a hard time understanding it and I still don't fully understand it because of these young people it's time to move on we wanted to get out of there it was time for us to get out of that type of condition I remember leaving it looking down or releasing it I went in for air and came out for road was when you came out it was devastation I mean from the southern gates several miles down the road there was nothing greener than most of it we flew from the ch-53 helicopter, we made a kind of quark in the sky to avoid the fire that surrounded everything It was bombed I turned and looked at that beautiful beautiful area and we have turned it into the moon there is nothing but craters Sergeant Joseph Bilardo leaves the base in mid-July on the last half of the runway he and his men turned to look once again the desolate garrison everyone pauses for a minute it seemed like the war was over there were no sounds there was nothing there were no birds flying aerial bugs flying it was very quiet for that one and that's why they left the box in a moment we will return with the legacy out of the box for 77 days the marines at Khe Sanh sat and waited and waited some more for that decisive battle that never came while the larger war around them was taking some dramatic turns, the Tet Offensive ended but brought with it the year bloodiest of the war when more Americans died in action than at any other time at the end of March 1968 and in the midst of the Tet offensive and protests in his country, President Lyndon Johnson surprises the country by announcing that he will not seek re-election.

I will not seek or accept my party's nomination for another term as its president when Khe Sanh arrives. is abandoned General William Westmoreland has returned to Washington to become chief of staff of the army the official body counted Khe Sanh as one hundred and ninety-nine Americans killed 830 but the official figures do not tell the whole

story

of Kasaan, enemy estimates Deaths in the United States are 15,000 at most as a result of the relentless tide of B-52 and Communist attacks, but the exact number of North Vietnamese killed will never be known. Cuckoos Hanoi refuses to publish those figures.

In the end, the United States claimed victory at Khe Sanh. 6,000 trained. The Americans held out for 77 days against the North Vietnamese army. General Westmoreland prevailed. His blockade strategy at Khe Sanh prevented the mass infiltration of North Vietnamese soldiers into South Vietnam. For Captain Bill Dabney, who commanded the Marines on Hill 88 in the south, the siege was a testament and a tribute to the human spirit. What he saw in the newspapers were two young people who bravely survived under terrible hardships, the babies you heroically meet. the child who likes which shoulder should go out at night in front of the listening lines posts and sit there alert until the morning they stretch your parents they catch them just volunteer grab a stretcher I hope they don't have anything other than that the risk of life you stood in the trench and well, but you had to rise with renewed duty so that the Diary Sisters in July 1968, the Khe Sanh base was abandoned, but then, for the next four years, American forces occupied it and They abandoned it again and again, as if this isolated outpost somehow possessed some mythical importance.

I'm Jack Smith.