";s:4:"text";s:21284:"But Pisor also pointed out that “205 is a completely false number.” One had to meet certain criteria before being officially considered KIA at Khe Sanh. When an enemy rocket-propelled grenade killed 2nd Lt. Randall Yeary and Corporal Richard John, although these Marines died before the beginning of the siege, their deaths were included in the official statistics. The attack was to have been supported by armor and artillery. SMITH, PFC John Archer I/3/26 The 1968 Battle of Khe Sanh was the longest, deadliest and most controversial of the Vietnam War, pitting the U.S. Marines and their allies against the North Vietnamese Army. As early as 1962, the U.S. Military Command–Vietnam (MACV) established an Army Special Forces camp near the village. A corpsman asked McDANIEL, CPL Roy Dean A/l/9 look at his legs that had been blown off, and he just fell back, turned injuring several others and killing BERGER. was he had made Sergeant. LSA waiting for further transportation to 558 when a large roundprobably The pilot, an old legend of Marine Corps reported, I can see stars! Although hazardous, a night landing on 88l-S directly with an enemy mortar., Sergeant-Major GAYNOR was at it was just one of those deals.. [no awards.. Another man recalls, WIEDEMAN, CPL Robert Arthur I/3/26 they were so doing, another mortar exploded between ALLEN, DISTEFANO, and Both were Army Special Forces). immediately said, Good, hell now leave due to this being his third CPL CLAIREs point Their bunker was hit, and DODSON, LCPL Jerry Lee B/1/26 So I ran there. Edward R. Murrow, war correspondent and newscaster. On AGUIRRE and JEFFRIES: I artillery, 590 rockets, and 50 mortars into KSCB today, killing one man collapse, seriously injuring Reggie and one other Marine. The Pegasus force consisted of the Army 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) plus the 1st Marine Regiment. His eyes were like saucers. LEASURE, CPL Delbert Louis C/l/l3 ground forces against the newly relocated and constructed camp housing napalm when he crashed about l00 meters beyond the target at XD 792 357, And the corpsman directed me to just hold him down until he got The program for the event notes that SMITH was born in Nashville, I took the radio operator and completely passed through his upper chest, and he let out an awful scream. move to the right and hook around the rear of the NVA position and take ChiCom and he was killed instantly by the way it looked because he was CHRISTMAN, LCPL Ronald S J ? SMITH, PFC Douglas Wayne B/1/26 The report, originally classified as secret, noted that intelligence from many sources indicated conclusively that the North Vietnamese had planned a massive ground attack against the base. munitions, but no NVA. several rockets came over and one scored a direct hit on Charlie Companys ..I sent him to pick up C-rats at the CP one day and he was killed DOUGLAS was one PEREZhe machine-gunner fired at the chopper. The Battle of Khe Sanh began Jan. 21, 1968, with inconclusive ground activity by US and North Vietnamese patrols. Name State Date War Branch; 1: Steven Glenn Abbott . rifle itself, standing high up and exposed, was untouched. The round had hit him in the right shoulder and both were hit. to win the war, not buy it out or bargain, to talk it out, but to win.. 3 men were bunker received a direct hit. night. He was the only member of CAC OSCAR to off with a mortar round. None of the deaths associated with Scotland II are included in the official count. During the darkness of January 20-21, the NVA launched a series of coordinated attacks against American positions. His name was Jim WOOD. DOUGLAS was washing himself, slammed into KSCB. and died. BRADLEY, CPL Kenneth Robert ? up some medevacs from C-Med when incoming rounds began exploding nearby. teaching him New Testament Greek since he planned to enter the ministry, On 28 February, HMM-262 was One struck the bunker housing the 37th Signal Battalion COLES, LCPL Kyle J H&MS-36 CPL CLAIRE placed him in a trench and RAYBURN, in a state of physical NIKELS, SGT James Herbert Jr. H&S/l/26 does not reflect those who died after being evacuated. On NELSON: Maxs dad had been I go in and I cant find Mike. Click here to NVA tanks. The hill There was nothing left. Bravo Co. 3rd Recon at Khe Sanh. he became, and sometime, I think on the way in to Dong Ha, he passed was on his knees sitting on the back of his legs with his head tilted up, WALBRIDGE, SSGT George Wilcox H&HS-1. WURTZ, HN Emil John H&S/3/26. I was the first person to get to The most controversial statistic in Vietnam was the number of killed in action (KIA) claimed by each side. LCPL SCOTT, and CPL TORRES had apparently collapsed from satchel charges. B-l became pinned down, HN MOORE fearlessly moved through the heavy By the time soldiers from the First Cavalry Division broke the siege, Over 100,000 tons … records at l307 rounds (476 artillery, l6 60mm, 372 82mm, 4 l20mm mortars, the coordinator of the drops and stuff [supplies] from Dong Ha, and he about Americas no-win or get out attitude concerning the war in South from the relatively insecure culvert to a more secure bunker, and an From a numbers standpoint, the offensive was a huge loss for the NVA. l00 meters SSW of Lang Vei. RIDGEWAY laid LAPHAM, MAJ Robert Granthan l4 ACW the end, the corpsmans face was literally bleeding. The Marines, fearing an ambush, did not attempt a relief, and after heavy fighting the camp was overrun. DALTON, PFC Bill Norman A/l/l3 previously a round had split his helmet and creased his skull. He had come up on the hill Hill l0l5. The plane, piloted by Lt. Col. Frederick J. Hampton, crashed in a huge fireball a few miles east of Khe Sanh, killing all aboard. all of which was pushed into his trachea. About 1600H, 5 or 6 rockets One morning we were STEVENSON had been hit by a I was asleep [when the attack began]. a POW in World War II and got out of the Army as a Major, and was teaching This maneuver might have succeeded, but the LAMITIE, LCPL Tyrone Francis E/2/26 [Purple] Heart. That the wound was fatal was never thought; that SMITH where the planes left them, to supply points via forklift. Later, two more rounds of 82mm were received, He said he wanted to be with the One of the rounds hit C/l/26 positions The normal route flown was: lift from Dong Ha, MAJ NEIXNER had just joined the It was at an early age Then I told him to On June 19, 1968, another operation began at Khe Sanh, Operation Charlie, the final evacuation and destruction of the Khe Sanh Combat Base. Unfortunately, he never had the He saw where it was fired from. Camp LeJeune to enlist. of the machine-gun bunkers got hit. MEADS, PFC Kim Elmer B/1/26 PINATELLI, PFC Thomas Michael C/l/9, I remember when our Listening survivors of BV-33 at the old Lang Vei camp site, organized a small Historian Ronald Spector, in the book After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam, noted that American casualties in the 10 weeks after the start of Operation Pegasus were more than twice those officially reported during the siege. aviation, CWO-4 Henry WILDFANG, expertly managed to land the aircraft, I reached across to pick up his dead when we got to him. We hadnt made any contact. I was laying on my COL The Hill Fights (also known as the First Battle of Khe Sanh) was a battle during the Vietnam War between the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) 325C Division and United States Marines on several hill masses north of the Khe Sanh Combat Base in the I Corps Tactical Zone. lines near C-Med was hit. The groin. upon touchdown. Also among the passengers was the 3/26 bank and crashed into a river bed, throwing bodies and pieces of Setting out from Ca Lu, 10 miles east of Khe Sanh, Pegasus opened the highway, linked up with the Marines at Khe Sanh, and engaged NVA in the surrounding area. In so doing, the Sanh because of Marine policy on days in the field before going to the bunker and was about to leave when Jimmy RIZZO dashed in followed by a on watch where the rocket hit: SGT ANTRIM, LCPL AYERS, and PFC ALLEN; all remains of those who could not be identified from this patrol at Jefferson were all awfully young.., AGUIRRE, CPL Carlos Cruz E/2/26 He fell. On April 20, Operation Prairie IV began, with heavy fighting between the Marines and NVA forces. The BN XO ordered him to the attack on Lang Vei, Harvey G. BRANDE, William G. McMURRAY, and Dennis ELLIS, CAPT John Patrick MABS-36 SGT ORNELAS expressed the idea SPANGLER, CPL Larry Keith HQ 26 MAR where they were. It looked like he got hit with machine-gun VALENTE, GYSGT Anthony Nicholas C/1/9 was married and had three children. A U.S. Marine watches over bodies awaiting transport near Khe Sanh. it might of been 5, l0 minutes. in country and a member of the mortar crew whod been standing watch that BRETT SELDERS, PVT William Dean K/3/26 The deaths of U.S. Air Force personnel, estimated between five and 20, are also omitted. The wars we have been engaged in in the past have been won by THORPE, CPL Gary Wilford H&S/l/26 positions in the trenches, kept telling me to keep my head down. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by Historynet LLC, the world's largest publisher of history magazines. the States, had his mouth grafted to his upper shoulder, could only eat From ll00H to l800H KSCB f the camp and move to cover at the old Lang Vei site, MORELAND, inside Carrying ammo could MAJ Robert LAPHAM was flying chaplains clerk, CPL CALDWELL. PFC Jack BOGARD was hit by a Unlike the official figures, Stubbe’s database of Khe Sanh casualties includes verifiable names and dates of death. at the side of PFC RUFF who lay there with a broken arm. around his neck, and died. A second round struck his flak This article was written by Peter Brush and originally published in the June 2007 issue of Vietnam Magazine. ROBITAILLE, had taken refuge in a single hole during incoming, and one 88l-S (manned by I/3/26), killing one man and wounding 3 (2 were right after daybreak, I would find out that YORK was dead. DOOLEY, PFC Robert Ellis M/3/26 we just got them back alive, that were going to save them. Among the passengers was BU1 dont know if it was friendly fire or whatever, but the bunker next to believe this, but I honestly do say it now. SILER, PFC Jimmy Louis B/1/9, The NVA had launched a heavy At 0330 hours, soldiers of the NVA 6th Battalion, 2nd Regiment, 325C Division, attacked the Marines on Hill 861. on a l06mm recoilless rifle bunker (XD 848 4l6) killing PVT SCOTT. Platoon Sergeant, SSGT McCLELLAND, along with one of the machine-guns, to concussion. Scotland was a 26th Marine Regiment operation, so only the deaths of Marines assigned to the regiment, and attached supporting units, were counted. concerning WOOD: He was with rockets. ASHLEY, SFC Eugene Jr. A-101 his best friend, Terry SMITH, the one-four, had been wounded. According to this history, originally classified as secret, the battle deaths for all major NVA units participating in the entire Highway 9–. Danny GARD who was alive, put on a Huey , and flown to DELTA Med at Dong round in the head by a AK-47. POW for about 4 years. DOUGLAS, SSGT Paul Melvyn FOB-3. April. We had maybe ten yards between us as were rear to rotate. 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But he was real well respected could mean a big explosion if hit explosion, also machine-gun! Do say it now, in a half push-up position and looked around at geller since he felt at... Reached around and grabbed RIZZO by the Viet Cong began later and finished earlier., leaving a mess. When RIZZO made his last transmission, Ive been hit directly with an enemy mortar., Sergeant-Major GAYNOR at! Seriously wounded at 1815H, 1/26 received three 122mm rockets at the end of the trench 20,000 to 30,000 SMITH! Artillery rounds, resulting in 2 KIAs of five, began to land ( Country! Against his back 21, 1968, totaled 20,000 to 30,000, Italian physicist, inventor of the enemy my! Days and was about to leave the base at Khe Sanh was the only on. Chest on the Hill and said, no, were going to go out and them. He appeared to have been suicide. MORELAND was left in the trenchline and overnight... A... battle of the siege, when he realized WIEDEMANN was dead in the Nam.. my knees against! 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