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

the Marine base at Khe Sanh ancient isolated desolate divorced from reality that's like hell yeah I felt like it was so far into the bowels of the country that there was no way out under siege by the North Vietnamese for 77 days bombs and rockets scream all the way again yet suddenly there was no place to hide no place was safe I mean death was made measured in inches and in moments but in the bunkers and trenches endurance and heroines radio sports over here fighting for the American Way of life apple pie and mother we were fighting basically for the guys [Music] [Music] I'm Jack Smith these are stories of the Vietnam War told by the people who know it best those who fought it I was one of them there's an ancient military axiom that you should wage your battles only according to favorable geography both sides always want to engage the enemy on battlegrounds of their own choosing but the siege of Khe Sanh in early 1968 there's an example of how that doesn't always come to pass American troops found themselves pinned down in a landlocked combat base for 77 days it's the dramatic story of a daily routine punctuated by terror under constant fire uncommon courage and unspoken heroism the Khe Sanh combat base was 14 miles below the DMZ that divides north and south vietnam and six miles east of the Liao's and bordered on top of volcanic rock covered with red dirt the camp was near route 9 a rutted single lane road running east to west and allows the high hills and mountains ringing the base would become excellent cover for the North Vietnamese troops in the mid-1960s Marine advisory teams used the dearly empty base as a staging area for reconnaissance into the mountains where they saw occasional contact with the enemy by early 1967 America's involvement in Vietnam had grown to more than 400,000 troops fighting intensified and young Americans were dying at the rate of more than 100 kisaan had been fairly quiet until April 1967 everything changed [Music] 160 died 746 who won those battles convinced general william Westmoreland that thousands more North Vietnamese were infiltrating into South Vietnam from Laos he decided to stop them in their tracks general Westmoreland decided to make Khe Sanh the Western anger in a line extending across the northern provinces to help prevent the flow North Vietnamese troops and supplies into South Vietnam especially from Laos he ordered the Marines to reinforce the isolated found that base and to shore up defenses on the surrounding hills it is May 1967 fresh Marines arrived every day John Kay Haney and his platoon of troops landed Khe Sanh and see the results of the April fighting it was a very eerie and a terrifying experience winding down this long dirt road towards the mountains was all over walking wounded from the hill fights they were probably 500 to 600 Marines standing in line and all bandaged one way or the other covered with blood and mud and I had to take my platoon off the airplane and watch him down this long road to an assembly point and hardly anybody was saying a word it was really really terrifying Marines on patrol in the jungle find remnants of the North Vietnamese troops but the beauty of the hills cover was a gorgeous place and it was absolutely beautiful at a distance but all the hills when we've gone patrols from day to day we would just continue to find more and more dead NVA bodies and of course the stench was was ungodly as part of his duties even Navy chaplain race to be learns what it is to go on patrol outside the base just the simple fact of going on a patrol means going up and down very steep hills being cut by elephant grass farming blisters broken bones tripping over things getting thoroughly exhausted tents the North Vietnamese seem to be preparing for a major battle they are on the move it is unclear exactly what they are doing we could see them during the summer time sitting over in Laos building their fortifications driving their trucks and what but they rarely came across the water marine reconnaissance patrols keep searching for the enemy each man carries as much as 80 pounds including weapons ammunition and water radio man Kevin McCauley hauls more than 100 pounds on his back on the bush she would just totally exposed to the elements we didn't carry ponchos because when the rain hit the Poncho's it made too much noise so we just laid out there but rain we got wet it was hot we baked was called free sugar in the Vietnamese highlands there are surprises around every corner one patrol we were waiting for the helicopters to pick us up at eight and a half foot long Bengal tiger came out in front of us not more than five to six feet away one of the fellows took a picture of it and I had a rifle ready to shoot it in case it jumped at us and he was aiming all over the sky the patrols continued their foe remains elusive then after the hot summer the monsoon season arrives in force that was never colder than there was a case on because the skin gets wrinkled and chapped and it's like being immersed in water all the time in November 1967 still convinced caisson will be a major battleground general Westmoreland shows up the base he orders Navy Seabees to rebuild the air strips of c-130 transport planes gonna bring in supplies thousands more Marines soon arrived fog finally closes the base two cargo planes then at the end of 1967 supplies can no longer come in by route 9 washed out by the heavy rains worse the base fortifications fall apart from the onslaught of bad weather so at that time it was a matter of collapsed bunkers the misery of never being dry of mail not getting in we were very isolated we didn't know quite what was happening it's a type of uncertainty of it was a miserable time the hills surrounding the base are now defended by heavily fortified beams until you 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 it stops slightly larger than a football field there - 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 for attack Captain Bill Dabney is their commanding officer the heavy stuff we had 81 millimeter mortars 106 millimeter anti-tank rifles recoilless rifles and 305 millimeter howitzer it was relatively easy to forests patrols looking for the enemy Ernie Houston his platoon discover hard evidence the North Vietnamese are everywhere I notice they were moving in like they were pre digging positions bunker complexes that would hold like a hundred or so folks Road systems were starting to come in American intelligence discovers two newly infiltrated crack North Vietnamese divisions near Khe Sanh that the estimated 20,000 enemy is moving closer each day becomes apparent on January 20th to damn me at his men they get into a heavy fight with an entrenched North Vietnamese battalion in a ravine below he'll eat himself his boat manned and outgunned Marines choice 50 someone good night when you get burdened by your by your casualties after a while and you have to get them out and since the mission was to hold the hill and that southern Hill hated he went south we will withdrawn back to the hill on Hill South Vietnamese artillery fire not completely isolated on Hill they made one South when they can the men tune into the evening news on Armed Forces Radio and what they hear is almost surreal and at the end of it they announced some local news the lead item of which was the cancellation of a tennis tournament in Saigon and if we looked at each other and said you know we're we're we're not in the same world nor are the men on the base itself in the same world where the atmosphere is growing more tense Mergent Glenn Prentiss a forward observer and radio operator is aware of the new mood we know there was something happened we had a lot of airstrikes our trailer strike really close to the base I'm started wearing our helmets and flak jackets all the time being on alert to maximum time available each day corpsman David Steinberg recalls his orders of January 20th 1968 we were told to burn all of our letters and so we began to feel that this was going to be something serious we went to bed we burned our letters and this sounded like the real war finally comes to Khe Sanh I was walking to the mess hall early in the morning the January 21st and I noticed some strikes of Y coming in I didn't know what they were until they started packing on the road what hit the road look at the mess hall and the series of rounds hits destroys the ammo dump I can remember running from the ammunition dump and need not lock down by the concussion explosions [Music] we couldn't tell what was incoming or our own stuff flowing off CF tear gas going off large amounts of artillery shells plastic explosive and so we were getting hit by our own mo cooking off and producing shrapnel plus everything that they were firing at us so that first morning we were in the trenches and the ground just unbelievable this guy started darkening because of everything burned the sergeant major one someone to check on the young marine outside after a round came and it was fairly close I got up put my hand on the door to open it up and the ammo dump went and the explosion caused the whole door just to come just to cave in and from me against the wall though some of his men suffer wounds the door shields lieutenant KD from serious injury Marine corporal Craig Lofton is in his bunker when the shells start falling even though we run bunkers the concussion travels through your body and almost knocked the air out of it was that large of an explosion Lofton crew chief for a helicopter at Khe Sanh has to get to his chopper get it in the air where it could be useful and his men moved quickly their crew assembled and made a mad dash completely across the combat base which was probably three football fields wide running from hold the hole trying to dodge the incoming they find one helicopter already destroyed by the shelling but they managed to get three others off the ground the choppers fly over the equally besieged hills outside Khe Sanh often sees the results Reeves a heavy copper attack against their deadly enemy I remember seeing bodies in the wires large numbers the the impacts from the NVA artillery and rockets was so great on that one location that the top of the hill was completely obscured by dust and debris in the air chase is going everywhere we serve goats for what seemed like an eternity to finally die down picked up all three helicopters money online right after another picked up blended whatever dead that gets very long but it is only the beginning for Lofton and the helicopter squadron they return time and again pulling out the dead and wounded bringing in needed supplies we went from what we considered all and really homeless for every year at to everything changing it was shock mild shock and a little apprehension like what next in a single day the impact of the heavy bombardment destroys most buildings and tents nothing above ground is safe in the first day shelling ET Marines died 40 suffer wounds for the Marines at Khe Sanh the war is suddenly different going on patrol they find they're under siege and it becomes a profound test of physical and spiritual endurance for them and their enemy the North Vietnamese hiding in the surrounding mountains [Music] late January 1968 those first bombardments of King Saud are furious and deadly shelling starts Marines fight back as they return fire don't yet know this is the beginning of the siege their lives change very intense we had a lot of incoming rounds that Sunday is at 1,300 rounds impacting on the area day 1200 rounds a 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 every marine still has a job to do year-old Tom Campbell there's radio lines blown apart during the shelling read everybody's faces that I don't think I had a shower anyway to wash everybody was a read their clothes was red trucks were in anything you know from the dust itself is red I could get my leather gloves off you can evolve on the blisters and the blood so you just pour water down into your gloves so you could pull them off and you put some gauze on them and then you put your gloves right back on and kept digging because anything above ground was going to be bad these bunkers become their homes sombre no more than six feet wide and thirty feet long barely high enough for a man to stand upright medic Mike Hill remembers them well the bunkers a caisson were filth and we had so much rat problem that I don't care what kind of bunker you had and he had rats coming into bunker and stuff like that because you know electricity you you know if you were lucky he had candles put on at nighttime and so you know it's kind of a dismal place you have 18 19 20 guys inside that you've been lying next to on top of underneath the guys in your platoon or in your squad however many people you could fit in the bunker and that's where we existed it really wasn't there you know you know a pleasant situation but it was the only situation that we had the only situation yes with anxiety and fear getting used to the shelling desolation and death soon become a way of life anyplace you went your ears were just listening for that background noise a little boop boop boop Elson artillery come screaming in we got so good at it though we could tell almost where it was gonna go and go the other way [Music] we were hit by a lottery shell and when the explosion went off we were yelling to each other are you okay and nobody could answer because we had blood coming out of our nose couldn't focus and blood coming out of our ears and we're shaking each other are you okay On January 24th only a few days into the siege yet another bunker takes a direct hit [Music] he ripped the bumper thought as we got the top off a phone one guy he was just picked up on the plants pushed up against the the ceiling of the bunker which was basically run away man and I never saw a person believed as much as he survived he survived but he was terribly wounded and the four guys who were killed the number of wounded are increasing daily in Khe Sanh [Applause] that day johnson cares for them at Charlie med the base hospital and aid station might perform some minor kind of surgery or something sew him back together again throw him on the stretcher drag him up the ramp throw him out in this little area we had sandbags in was a barren place out there that though there wasn't any place to hide that was just a sheet of metal out there he didn't have any holes to crawl in we were just kind of at the mercy of whatever they threw it lucky got out there got him on the chopper you got a monitor I was lucky [Music] just staying alive becomes the only go sickness of terror spread throughout the isolated base some think of a war they never knew it was in many ways like trenches you know fog wires same living conditions dysentery that kind of thing the Frog would roll in typically in the morning it was cool it was mysterious it was paradoxically a sense of relief and fear at the same time when the fog rolls in North Vietnam's Gunners have a hard time zeroing in on the base no they will have some relief from the constant shelling though it's temporary they try to make good use of it they repair their bunkers and even collect their mail but their brief respite is just that brief general william Westmoreland has other ideas he strongly believes Hanoi will try to make Khe Sanh into another Dean being food the battle in 1954 which the North Vietnamese decisively defeated the French men held the high ground close down the airstrip Assad believes control the surrounding hills hold onto the airbase despite the constant shelling certain the Communists will strike in force general Westmoreland sent more troops into caisson soon more than six thousand men crowd the small base then North Vietnamese artillery convulsed six miles from the base is pounding caisson every day I got artillery rockets mortars what we found out they got rockets and mortars but we don't see nothing that's bad I'd like to see something every now and then you can hear about it all you want but you don't really believe until you see it the Americans answer 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 a little effect the enemy emplacements too far away the US Air Force rains flying from de nom the baby carriers of the South China Sea answer back 300 flights a day they drop bombs rockets searing napalm is hiding in the mountains [Music] on the bass though the constant [Music] this is something totally Mia 989 I mean we work we're at home we read the members of the 4-h club or we were altar boys or we're captains of the football team and now all of a sudden we were placed into a war and I guess it was our baptism of fire so to speak now the Communists will experience a baptism of fire unlike anything they ever imagined United States Air Force unleashes its b-52 bombers soldiers and mountains in a matter of days is powerful high flying airplanes America's most effective weapon is the communist force it is ringing Khe Sanh it is the end of January 1968 Khe Sanh has been under siege now for ten days all across Vietnam both sides declare a ceasefire in honor of Tet the Lunar New Year but on January 31st the Allies discover that Hanoi has something else in mind North Vietnam launches a major offensive against hundreds of towns cities and allied bases across the country during the first three days is the Tet Offensive one shell falls on Khe Sanh obsessed with the base president johnson has a sand table of Khe Sanh in the White House Situation Room that he inspects daily despite the new North Vietnamese tactics Westmoreland does not change his strategy for Khe Sanh still believes is northern garrison is the main object of the noise plan so Westmoreland orders operation Niagara Air Force codename for the heavy b-52 strikes against the North Vietnamese from Guam 5,500 miles away it takes 12 hours to get to caisson using a technique known as arc light these enormous planes flying 30 thousand feet high drop their huge with a force rolls out like an explosive carpet every day in groups of six the b-52's drops 60,000 pounds of bombs and their enemy below when they strike the destruction is enormous producing a devastating effect on the thousands of North Vietnamese troops the cgk side bombs from a single formation of six planes could destroy an area half a mile wide and almost 2 miles long even men and the bunkers at Khe Sanh feel the power of the b-52s [Music] everything falls the dusty dirt everything starts moving we got this little joke about how to make Khe Sanh coffees in your bunker and we know what they airstrikes gonna come so you sit in a bunker you take your coffee out you put it next to your cup and you put your sugar and your cream substitute next to it and then you wait for the Air Force to show up to mix it for you by the end of February some forty days into the siege the b-52s are now bombing around-the-clock the high flying airplanes are relentless fearsome to the shocked communists the huge planes become a close-in weapon sometimes bombing enemy positions within 500 yards of the base hydraulic is a c-130 pilot front-row seat I heard what I thought was a railroad train going through the bar I looked out the drawing the bunker and it was the most devastating thing that they have ever seen in my life I saw looked like trees and dirt and limbs and people and just everything flying through the air and when the raid was over b-52 strikes killed thousands of Vietnamese cusan continues unabated so keeping spirits high is a challenge for the beleaguered Marines most of the time I was hopping around for a bunker bunker to bunker a trench to trench and I did hold my church services but they were only like three minutes long I gave out communion I had a one or two sentence sermon at that time I think the text was Jesus calming the waters on the hills outside the base the incoming misses deadly as ever especially on 881 south many wounded go out on stretchers too many dead body matters to keep morale up captain bill Dabney makes a bold decision in the midst of the constant shelling some daily at 8 o'clock precisely at 8 o'clock and they targeted us we would raise the flag and then we had with deep holes right behind a flag bomb took about 25 seconds because we knew that the time of flight for the ramp was about 25 it was sort of given to finger disabilities wasn't a gesture of defiance and we really didn't have anything else apart here's the American flag up there and everyone was just elated at the sniper across the hill I need anyone was not as elated and figured that this was a target the sniper fires for two rounds start falling people call them quickly run for cover so it was a very carefully time flag raising ceremony they would jump the hole that the rounds hit different business is the difficult job of getting through each day as best they can with limited supplies water his Paul was scarce on the base and especially out on the hills we could go further three four days without water a lot of times on the base longer on the hills maybe seven eight days sometimes and but people would share the last drops of water they had with each other as if when I threw a quarter of a canteen and as it went further on we were laying plastic out at night to catch the dough and we look to do water was precious bad weather heavy enemy shelling are now making it difficult and dangerous to supply caisson thirties and c-123 cargo planes often cannot land because of fog and the damaged airstrip some supplies now must come in by parachute [Music] the drop zone is outside the reinforced lines and very small bigger than 200 yards by 200 yards that meant that that area that drop zone had to be secured and that meant that it was a target and the minute they secured it became a target so a we'd make a drop and then the enemy would put in you know tons of artillery iron on her drop until everything quieted down then it brings were able to go in and pull the stuff out the army quartermaster Corps loads the cargo planes at the denying airbase 100 miles from Khe Sanh [Music] to get the supplies safely onto the base the air force develops a tricky technique to the bring them by barely landing on the strip taxiing while still moving pushing off huge pallets loaded with everything from ammunition and fuel oil to flee but there was always the danger of being hit by enemy fighter I against everything you can think it was thrown at the aircraft I mean there was small arms there was a weapon similar to our 50 caliber that the North Vietnamese kept them putting on the end of the runway and would shoot the aircraft at the between our pilot boat miraculously shelling destroys only one c-130 that plane burns beyond repair and remains on the base as a reminder of the constant danger the majority of the damage that was that we took was from 51 calliper and below that was in here the majority of damage on the ground when we landed was taken from one 33 millimeter artillery rockets and mortars just firing at us despite the shelling ground fire target planes dropping their supplies [Music] sometimes the parachutes drift too far to be retrieved so the Marines are forced to destroy them to keep them out of enemy hands ammunition and fuel are the first priority but food ever-present sea rations those meals and small olive-drab cans and twelve varieties are always on everyone's minds one day you'd get the meat the next day you would get the dessert and the third day you might get the crackers and cheese the things that you always look for was a can of peaches and you would just hold that aside until you get a can of pound cake there's just little cans look like tuna fish cans and the interesting thing was if you could get that combination it was like winning the lottery to protect themselves from the time rooms on the perimeter throw everything they have against an enemy they know is outside the wire to help the Marines the Army has four gun positions along caissons northern perimeter in each end there are two tank chassis 'he's called dusters mounted with twin forty millimeter cameras to keep the enemy at bay the battery of quad 50 machine guns fire of the rate of 250 rounds per minute Bruce Geiger is in charge of the platoon particularly during the evening we do fire interdiction far as we would fire it suspected positions during the daytime if we were to spot a sniper respond any activity we would either call in or at times fire freely at those targets sometimes he's gonna shoot at the red glow of North Vietnamese cigarettes burning in the distance right Flair's right the black night sky it might miss with the first round that universe with the second round they had a range of almost four thousand years so it's a fairly significant weapon and what composes you knew you got the target because it just was bearing each day tactical air strikes by Green Air Force and Navy fighter bombers blow away enemy fortifications in the mountains they continue to kill countless North Vietnamese and destroy their bunkers that still doesn't stop for constant shelling from the danger of death the trenches we heard explosions and there was what we thought was shrapnel coming through the air and around here close enough and collapsed one of these on several brings and one or two died and one made it out but he had to be meta backed out because mentally he just no longer was there there was so much of it that went on you could accept death I could more by seeing it then someone just not being there at night and in the fog North Vietnamese troops dogged leap deep trenches and try to tummy under the concertina wire around the base when the weather clears and the fog lifts spotter planes call put their stripes to try to stop the advancing communists and literally dropped napalm on on the wire and I'd from a vantage point at least where I my positions were at baby Upendra George the heat was so intense that we sent you my friend stole all the air the oxygen was completely burnt aloft for hundreds of UN rent but the heat that it gave love was things pretty pensive nothing nothing would survive me American air attacks and artillery fire can dislodge those North Vietnamese troops from their Mountain strong 50 days into the siege six thousand American troops remain him down living in bunkers today never know what to expect [Music] the siege continues each day is now like every other day for the beleaguered American troops fifty days becomes sixty days it is nearly the end of March no relief is in sight anime still in the mountains states fighter bombers attack long-range American artillery pounds the mountains surrounding the base for these young Marines the dangerous days and nights at Khe Sanh never end trained to attack they do not enjoy their role as sitting ducks so you didn't know when the intramurals had come constantly didn't know if you were in danger or not people were killed going to to the head to the outhouses people were killed repairing sandbags people were killed just doing day-to-day charge of getting water we thought we were invincible we didn't like the idea of being held on the base we would sit down as many of you with us before but the North Vietnamese troops do not come they don't mount the big ground attack that Westmoreland hopes we'll come to find out what the North Vietnamese are up to Marine reconnaissance units go on dangerous patrols outside the base intense firefights bosses or maybe Portland Ralph Danilo is unpatrolled when the Marines come under fire running up the hill and mortar rounds are going off all around us rodriguez yell doc the Strongs hit bad one was cracked 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 pilot on a dangerous rescue mission under heavy fire on the hills near the base 50 a hundred yards away you could see these flashing lights all in this tree line shooting at us and lots of flashing lights and it amazed me that any anyone carrying a rifle could have just outright killed us because we're sitting there in his glass cockpit and the crewmen are in the back with little pieces of thin aluminum between them and death and we got everyone out of there and no one was injured the planes can't land helicopters more than fill the gap bringing in needed supplies especially for the tireless medics just had the full of blood you just wipe them off on your pants and after days of wearing the same days and weeks of wearing the same clothes you pants are stifling blood set him down safely in a hot landing zone and LZ under fire from enemy Gunners precise typing the copilot's only responsibility when you when you touch down to the ground was to push the stopwatch on the on the panel and a twenty seconds hit start lifting the power we got like 29 confirmed kills before we were able to get out and they were rushing the chopper so it was kind of a real rough day at the office and I came in and I pulled out my patrol book that always over my pocket and I opened it up there's a piece of shrapnel that went all the way through to the last page and I'm thinking oh gee that was one of the scarier ones facing death but at the end of march 1968 there has been no invasion of caisson was Moreland learns from his intelligence officers that enemy troops are finally retreating from the mountains probably with good reason the Air Force claims its b-52 strikes have killed thousands of North Vietnamese soldiers Vietnam is prevented from taking the combat base and making it a launching pad into the rest of South Vietnam smelling victory Westmoreland ends the siege leaves the base on a grand scale with operation Pegasus the winged horse mythology the relief force includes the first Air Cavalry Division it's 400 helicopters the 1st Marine Regiment the 26th marine regiment and two Vietnamese ian's 30,000 troops in all they open route 9 for the first time in almost three months on April 6th 1968 Marines at Khe Sanh and the 1st Air Cavalry link-up outside its perimeter Westmoreland declares the 77 day siege of Khe Sanh is lifted but in reality the fighting doesn't end sergeant joseph Bilardo an army gunner calls his reaction when a tank unit falls into an ambush two months later and it seems that it bring us really really down we haven't seen many many people die and it was like the icing on the cake it was like a lot was a break difficult across the periscope another how mad we all became we wanted to get along what they called the hunt let's leave the basic go hunting you know it was a dream of pipe dream but it couldn't happen on Westmoreland's orders those who remain in the garrison tear it down rip it apart as if nothing ever took place on the base or in their lives the words one trooper tearing everything we could destroy a barrier blow up a bad part about it we're blowing up our bunkers that we need to be in they bury over 800 bunkers they tear apart more than three miles of concertina wire they left makeshift steel matting from the airstrip blow up the oaks of downed aircraft nothing is to remain except enduring red earth each day as the plows chew up the ancient land the last Marines and Army troops find their positions almost defenseless from the sporadic persistent shelling but they endure I would say the men stayed pretty much constant during the siege through the whole siege they were still full of energy or rot ran faster drove faster they never lost their humanity of concern for one another joking humor they they were in touch with fears with laughs with death with life lot of guys dealt with things different way but you wanted to be part of a team you want to be part of a platoon and the only way that you could do that was being faithful simplified to the guy next year and that was the most important thing for us the men left behind feel increasingly alone as the base empties through those who find the shelling hard to take I think it was from the artillery used to that much incoming the cannon shells are playing havoc with me and I was starting to lose track of time and so was the rest of the people as the base closes down the remaining long timers are upset for other reasons after all long months of the siege they'd seen almost 200 died I felt very very frustrated at the time thinking that the number of people who were killed in caisson or as a result the caisson and then all of a sudden were abandoned why was it so important to 1/2 months ago why isn't it important anymore we had separate through this all the casualties that had mounted up at 77 days plus that it was all for nothing that you know we were totally abandoning and I was having a hard time understanding and I still don't quite understand it for these young men it is time to move on we wanted out of there it was time for us to get out of that kind of condition I remember leaving it looking down or released I flew in by air and I went out by Road it was when you when you went out it was it was devastation I mean from the from the southern gates several miles down the road there was just nothing green than the most part we flew out the ch-53 helicopter we kind of quark screwed up into the into the sky to avoid the fire surrounding everything was bombed I turned and I looked at that beautiful beautiful area and we've turned it into the moon there's nothing but craters sergeant joseph Bilardo leaves the base in mid-july on the last half track out he and his men turned for one more look at the desolate garrison everyone pause for a minute it seemed like the war had stopped there was no sounds there was no nothing there was no birds flying air bugs flying it was very quiet for that one and so they left caisson in a moment we will return with the legacy of caisson for 77 days the Marines at Khe Sanh sat and waited and waited some more for that decisive battle that never came meanwhile the larger war all around them was taking some dramatic turns the Tet Offensive ended but brought with it the bloodiest year of the war when more Americans were killed in action than at any other time at the end of March 1968 and battled by the Tet Offensive and protests at home President Lyndon Johnson surprises the country by announcing he will not seek reelection I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president by the time Khe Sanh is abandoned general william Westmoreland has gone - back to Washington to become army chief of staff the official body counted Khe Sanh is a hundred and ninety nine Americans killed 830 but official numbers do not tell the whole story of Kasaan united states estimates of enemy dead are 15,000 to the most as a result of the relentless tide of b-52 strikes and communists but the exact number of north vietnamese killed will never be known cuckoos Hanoi refuses to release those figures in the end the United States claimed victory at Khe Sanh 6,000 trained Americans held out for 77 days against the North Vietnamese Army [Music] general westmoreland prevailed his blocking strategy at Khe Sanh prevented the massive infiltration of North Vietnamese soldiers into South Vietnam [Music] for Captain Bill Dabney who commanded the Marines on Hill 88 on South the siege was a testament and a tribute to the human spirit he saw it in the dailies they were two young men surviving manfully under terrible hardships the babies which with heroism you know the kid who like what shoulder is rightful to go out at night in front of the lines on the listening posts and sit there alert until morning they stretch your parents catch them just volunteer grab a stretcher hope they've nothing that wasn't that the risk of life you stood up in the trench and well but you had to stand up refreshed duty so the daily sisters in July of 1968 the base at Khe Sanh was abandoned but then over the next four years American forces occupied it and abandoned it again and again as if that isolated outpost somehow possessed some mythical importance I'm Jack Smith [Music] [Music] [Music]

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Id: vWYK-5bBJUI

Length: 52min 36sec (3156 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 23 2019