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KHE
SANH COMBAT BASE
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A few places and names are synonymous with the history of
the Marine Corps.
Tarawa, Iwo Jima, the Chosin Reservoir. Vietnam added a
few more and Khe Sanh was one of them.
Base Exchange Khe Sanh Combat Base
The crunched aircraft is VT-21, a rocket or artillery round
landed on the right rear side of the machine.
Photos Courtesy Jim Kennedy VMO-3
This was on the first day of the `68 TET offensive. There were
eight of us, 2 crews there and we were on our way to take
off to keep our aircraft from being damaged. Before we
could get there, another barrage came in and you see the results.
I was a gunner on this one, Pineapple was crew
chief, Capt. Bigelow was pilot, don't remember the
co-pilots name.
When the round hit next to the bird it caused a rocket on the
right side to fire, you can see it missing from the pod.
It then went into the left side of the tail boom on VT-12,
continuing through the aircraft and exiting through the
nose. Then it went through a revetment wall and through a 46 parked
inside the revetment. Who said those little rocket motors aren't strong??
Jim Kennedy at Khe Sanh
Photos Courtesy Jim Kennedy VMO-3
Captain Art Graff relaxing at Khe Sanh, 1967.
What's so funny, Art? (Dick Musante)
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Khe
Sanh Today |
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Although still a poor area, these healthy, smiling
children of Khe Sanh village are a far cry from
the dirty, fearful kids we often saw. One little girl
of 9 or 10 asked me where I was from. I answered, "Maryland,
U.S.A." and she seriously responded "Ah,
a Middle-Atlantic State." And no one tried to
sell their sister or mother. Photos
and Text Ron Zaczek |
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Khe Sanh is now a coffee plantation. Looking north,
along the red trace of the old runway, coffee
trees grow on either side of the strip, but nothing grows
in it. This monsoon photo is taken from the southern end of the runway
near the beginning of the plateau. 26th Marines HQ would be about
halfway up the photo on the left, and the tower a short
way beyond that.Photos
and Text Ron Zaczek |
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The group is gathered around the Vietnamese Battle
Memorial at the north end of Khe Sanh's runway, in
what was the aircraft turnaround. Hills 881 and 861
are buried in the monsoon beyond the berm at the end of the runway. The
refueling area and Charlie Med were to the immediate left
and the revetments to the right. The dirt that
once filled the revetments remains piled in high
mounds, but the revetments, like everything metallic that was left
behind, were scrapped.Photos
and Text Ron Zaczek
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Ron and Grace Zaczek at Khe Sanh's "Liberated
Base Monument" under monsoon. Hills 950/1015
invisible in the background. As the translated text shows, the
people who build the monuments get to write the history.
LIBERATED
BASE MONUMENT
THE
AREA OF TACON PONT [sic] BASE BUILT BY
U.S. AND SAI GON PUPPET.
BUILT
1967. AIR FIELD AND WELL CONSTRUCTED DEFENSE SYSTEM.
CO LUONG [town] DONG HA [county] QUANG TRI [province].
U.S. AND ARMY PUPPETS USED TO MONITOR THE MOVEMENT AND
TRIED TO STOP ASSISTANCE FROM THE NORTH
INTO THE BATTLE OF INDO CHINA (3 COUNTRIES).
AFTER 170 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF ATTACK BY THE SURROUNDING
LIBERATION ARMY, TACON (KHE SANH) WAS COMPLETELY LIBERATED.
THE LIBERATION ARMY DESTROYED THE DEFENSE SYSTEM
FOR THE BATTLE OF INDO CHINA.
112,000 U.S. AND PUPPET TROOPS KILLED AND CAPTURED.
197 AIRPLANES SHOT DOWN.
MUCH WAR MATERIAL WAS CAPTURED AND DESTROYED.
KHE SANH ALSO ANOTHER DIEN BIEN PHU FOR U.S.A.
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