To the Limit: An Air Cav Huey Pilot in Vietnam

18 Khe Sanh

2 6 3 Khe Sanh 18 March 31, 1968, Operation Pegasus/Lamson 207 In the early days of March, 1st Cavalry Division commander General Tolson met with the III MarineAmphibious Force commander to make the initial plans for the assault that would relieve the beleaguered Marine outpost at Khe Sanh. Khe Sanh is in the northwestern corner of I Corps, just south of the DMZ and east of the Laotian border and some 35 miles north and west of Quang Tri. The small outpost was established there to oppose any NVAunits attempting to infiltrate south from the DMZ, but it was a dynamic tactical error. The 1st Cavalry usually builds their forward bases on mountain peaks when operating in mountainous areas. This will allow them at least to control the high country surrounding any outpost constructed near the bases of mountains. Khe Sanh, on the other hand, is on a treeless, dusty, red dirt plateau that has 1500-foot-high mountains on two of its four sides. This high ground is controlled entirely by the NVA forces and is so close to the base that NVAartillery need not arch their rounds; they simply aim the tubes dead at the base and “bore sight” them with deadly accuracy. While the Cav was engaged in Hue, the NVA cut off all highway supply routes to Khe Sanh. The base, totally isolated by land from the rest of the war, is surrounded by triple-canopy jungle. The terrain consists of sharp falls down mountainsides to tiny obscured streams of 264 TO THE LIMIT water, then sharp slopes skyward up the next mountainside. Should you be unlucky enough to incur an engine failure in this part of I Corps, there would be virtually no chance of a fatality-free autorotation. The fighting at Khe Sanh is so volatile that no one—not even the Joint Chiefs or the MACV commanders—can be sure if the base is still owned by the U.S. Marines. NVA sappers, under cover of darkness, have actually tunneled right up to the encircling barbed wire. An entire 25-man Marine scout patrol was ambushed in full view of the Khe Sanh perimeter guards.1 Every man perished, and the bodies rotted in the tropical sun for five days before their fellow Marines could fight their way out 100 yards to recover the corpses. During late March of 1968, Khe Sanh is receiving nearly 200 NVA artillery rounds a day. President Johnson is determined that Khe Sanh will not be an American Dien Bien Phu.2 He has instructed the entire military establishment to hold Khe Sanh at all costs. Subsequent to his order, B-52 Arc Light strikes originating in Guam have bombed the jungles surrounding Khe Sanh into stubble fields. More tons of ordnance have been dropped around this outpost than fell from the skies in all of World War II. Khe Sanh is the major news headline coming out of Vietnam in late March of 1968. It is under these circumstances that I am awakened at 0500 hours on March 31, 1968, and told to report to the mess tent immediately. After being in Camp Evans for only three weeks A/229th has pulled up stakes again and moved—lock, stock, and helicopters—further north to the city of Quang Tri. Quang Tri lies less than 12 miles from the DMZ itself. The only town between us and the country of North Vietnam is a Marine outpost called Dong Ha. Once again, we are putting up tents and building sandbag revetments to protect the Hueys. This is in addition to our normal 12-hour workdays. Sleep is deep and days off are rare. 1. Historical records refer to these Marines as the “Lost Patrol.” 2. Late in the Indochina War, as the French and the Vietnamese prepared for peace talks, French military commanders picked Dien Bien Phu, a village in northwestern Vietnam near the Laotian and Chinese borders, as the place to pick a fight with the Viet Minh. This was a tactical mistake, as the Viet Minh surrounded and, in the end, overran the French forces, killing 2,200 of the 13,000 French Foreign Legion troops who defended the village. 2 6 5 KHE SANH “This morning we begin Operation Pegasus/Lamson 207,” Major Beyer announces to start the meeting. “At 1300 hours we will crank and join the rest of the 229th...