Khe Sanh 50th anniversary

| January 22, 2018

Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle at Khe Sanh, Vietnam. 45,000 US Army soldiers and Marines were besieged by more than 100,000 North Vietnamese Army troops for nearly five months.

Veterans in Oroville, California marked the anniversary yesterday, according to the Oroville News in a link sent to us by Rob.

The luncheon was put on by Khe Sanh veterans Craig Tourte and Tom Horchler. Many of these gatherings have reunited other Vietnam and Khe Sanh veterans. It’s a shared camaraderie that seems to root deeper each year.

“Even if you’ve never met a guy before, you start talking, and it’s like you’ve known him forever,” Tourte said.

A booming bagpipe rendition of the “Marine Corps Hymn” kicked off the casual festivities. Many were accompanied by family members and loved ones, and those flying solo to the event were happy to reconnect with old friends. While many in attendance were local, others traveled from Sacramento, Rocklin and the Bay Area to join their brothers.

Though Sunday’s reflections brought up tough memories of loss and talk of handling post-traumatic stress disorder, not all tales were sad.

From table to table, one could easily catch snippets of war stories that mirrored something from a movie, mixed with the chatter of buddies catching up and inside jokes that would resonate only with a Marine were shared between each gentleman.

Category: Historical

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Ex-PH2

Wrecked helicopters on the ground
Ammo dump exploding
Sikorski delivering blivets of water and getting shot at
A-4 delivering bombs along the hillside
Arclight sputtering in the hills surrounding the base
Hercs dropping loads while taxiing for takeoff

sj

Wow. 50 years. Seems like yesterday…not that I was there or even close but we were all following it from shithole Phu Bai.

HMC Ret

Year I joined the Navy. It was on the nightly news every evening. Many killed, more wounded physically, probably all psychologically affected to some extent. Kudos to you bad MFers. True studs.

Atkron

Badasses, one and all.

Much respect!

Perry Gaskill

There are still some unanswered questions about Khe Sanh. The most important one is what the North Vietnamese hoped to accomplish in the first place. It’s debatable if just the location was strategic enough to justify all the effort.

One of the views is that the NVA intent was to surround the base, and force a surrender similar to what happened to the French at Dien Bien Phu. Another is that it was an elaborate feint designed to distract from the 1968 Tet Offensive later that January. Yet a third is there was serious intent to take Khe Sanh, but a prior limit placed on how much of a price the NVA was willing to pay.

What might be a definitive answer, that of NVA commander Vo Nguyen Giap, was that Khe Sanh was a feint. Still, if you think about it, it’s the kind of thing Giap would say as a matter of revisionist history.

Sometimes when I look at old photographs of Viet Nam, such as the one of Khe Sanh above, it reminds me of the remarkable amount of skill and effort it took to build some of the set defenses. Given time and materials, GIs and Marines could have probably built the Pentagon out of sandbags if you had asked them to.

2/17 Air Cav

“Given time and materials, GIs and Marines could have probably built the Pentagon out of sandbags if you had asked them to.” I have no doubt. Whatsoever. Collectively, the most ingenious, creative, and inventive human beings on earth.

26Limabeans

“what happened to the French at Dien Bien Phu”

If Ike had let the planes take off there never would have been a Vietnam War. The Viet Minh could have been defeated right there.
Of course building your base at the bottom of a punchbowl is not exactly smart either.
I guess Ike tired of saving the French for the second time in a decade.

rgr769

I saw it from the air in the back seat of an OV-10 Bronco in June or July of 1971. The NVA had dug trenches and erected barbed wire fences across the Khe Sanh runway so aircraft couldn’t land there anymore.

Steve1371

I am pretty sure the population inside the wire of Khe Sahn was more like 4,500, not 45,000 as stated in the article. There were probably 45,000 troops involved in breaking the siege. Most units were under maned and far below their authorized level of staffing. The units inside were reinforced in anticipation of a prolonged battle. Glad I wasn’t there at that point in time but it wasn’t a lot of fun anywhere in country at that time. Sharp clashes were taking place all along the DMZ.

USMC Steve

There were less than 7000 Marines inside the combat base during the siege. Most of the 26th Marines and various support forces.

Ex-PH2

Considering everything, I wonder how any of them made it out alive.

Here’s something on the Hercs delivering stuff.

Atkron

I loved that show Wings, we would watch the hell out of it in the barracks at NAS Cecil Field.

Joseph Williams

Fifty years have passed ? Khe Shanh was not so bad to land to land at during the siege. Staying in one place too long was the problem. Hill 88 was the tricky one before the landing pad was built. One wheel or skid on the hill and one hanging in air. Basically hovering in air while unloading replacements and supplies.Also it got real interesting doing this while taking fire. Based out of Phu Bai asl . Joe

Steve1371

Joe Williams I was at one of those hills after the siege . Can’t remember 881 or 861. We had an OP walk into a mine field and set off two mines. Their Plt. Commander ran out to recover them and set off the third mine in the cluster. Sever injuries resulted from those bouncing betty’s. A med evac was called in and we removed them from there with them holding on to their legs on their chests. A UH-34 came in and did what you described by planting the left wheel on the hill while we loaded the casualties into the chopper on the other side. The rotor blades were missing the hillside by inches. Most incredible flying I have ever seen.

GEORGE BAXA

I flew out of Phu Bai 66 – 4/67. HMm163 was using the H-34. There were times. We flew med evacs out of Khe San off and on.

Stan Wisbith

Operation Scotland, what the Marines consider the siege, lasted from 1 Nov 67 till 31 Mar 68. On 1 Apr 68 Pegasus began. This was a combined 1st Cav/Marine operation to open the approximately 9 miles of closed road to the base. An engineering column had started up the road with a battalion of Marines on each side while the Cav was leapfrogging battalions in front of them. At that time I was a crew chief in the 229th, one of the 2 Assault Helicopter battalions in the Cav and my ship was in the assault gaggle.
Everything went like clockwork but some things still stick in my mind. On the first lift, as we flew over the ground column, I noticed that in the very front of the column there were either 2 or 4 (the exact number escapes me now) 8 inch self-propelled howitzers. This struck me as a rather strange place to put such beast. Much later it occurred to me that every one of them was probably loaded with a beehive round (an artillery version of a shotgun shell). Heaven help anyone caught in front of 4 of the 8 inch versions.
Another thing occurred as we were loading our 7th lift at LZ Stud. Landing 20 helicopters simultaneously creates quite a bit of rotor wash and the ships were bouncing around. The first person trying to get onboard was a NBC correspondent. He stopped and started desperately pointing to the ground. When I looked down I saw that the skid was setting on one of his feet. The only reason I’m telling this is that it probably didn’t help press/military relations at all that I laughed when I saw his foot under the skid. However, I did tell the pilots about it and the ship was moved.
There were some other things but this is enough for now

USMC Steve

I will bet that left a mark on his foot.

Deplorable B Woodman

’67, I was still in HS/Jr High.
A salute to all who were there….

timactual

Funny thing about Khe Sanh; in Jan. ’68 it was the critical western anchor of our defenses along the 17th parallel (along with the Lang Vei Special Forces camp) until June of ’68, when it was decided that it was no longer the critical western anchor and was abandoned.

Alex Voog

Google search “B-52 khe sahn aerial bomb” and check out the first amazing photo of all the bombing run striations. Blows ones mind at all that ordinance and the bricks the NVA must have shat when those arclight explosions began. I have read many bios/first hand accounts of you AMAZING MARINES that were present and endured that epic seige. Humbled…….and ever grateful and revered. REVERED.

Stan Wisbith

When I first flew over the base I was struck by the fact that the area around it looked like a sandbox. Rather than separate bomb craters the entire area was totally churned up.