On or about March 31, 1968, our company, A 2/12, First Air Cavalry Division was patrolling somewhere in the vicinity of LZ Jane when we were for no apparent reason (it was not time for us to take over perimeter defense) marched to Jane.  On arrival we noticed other units strung around outside the wire of Jane.  We had never seen anything like this before.  Speculation was in the air.  What are all these units doing here?

We were told to order DX, extra ammo, claymores, trip flares, everything.  Talk about speculation, we had hurried up and waited before, but whatever this was, it was big.  We positioned ourselves outside the wire and the night was quiet.  Jane’s inside defenders did not have much to worry about this night as there were several hundred heavily armed combat soldiers between the enemy and the wire of Jane.

At first light the squad leaders were summoned and shortly after they returned to their squads, the speculation was over.  We were headed to Khe Sanh.  Talk about April Fools Day, this was the biggie, the only problem was, this was not a joke.  Many of our guys, just a month or two earlier, had been reading about Khe Sanh in their hometown newspapers and now they were going to get an up close look at the real thing.  What a first experience in Vietnam for the many new guys.  Our unit had taken many casualties in the Hue area in February and a large portion of our guys were just in country replacements.

The choppers started coming in and we were told we were headed for LZ Stud.  At Stud we were packed in and I thought what a bad time this would be for Stud to be hit with a massive mortar or 122 rocket assault.  The many Cav soldiers had no cover.  This may have been my only time in Vietnam that I wanted off of a firebase.  Give me a tree, a hole, a crop row, anything, but give me a fighting position and a little cover.  I got my wish the next day when we departed Stud for what was to become LZ Wharton.  My platoon was among the first to hit the ground and we were ordered down the slope of the hill dig in.  It wasn’t long until NVA artillery started coming in.  We only took one casualty, but the guys up the hill lost several people in the days that followed.  I am sure glad that the artillery came after we got off of Stud.

For a few days we patrolled off of Wharton, close to the Khe Sanh firebase where the Marines had been encircled for a few months.  After all, this was our mission.  We were to relieve the pressure on Khe Sanh.  We were airlifted to the base of a hill just south of the Marine base at Khe Sanh and we walked up the hill with dead enemy soldiers all along our route until we got to the top of Hill 471 where we could watch the cargo planes parachute supplies into the Marines at Khe Sanh.  The first thing we did at this hill was to bury the dead enemy soldiers, due to the smell of death. 

Webmaster note:    On the morning of April 4th, three companies of the 1st Battalion/9th Marines left the rock quarry perimeter at Khe Sanh and attacked Hill 471 (2,500 meters due south of the Khe Sanh airstrip) killing 30 NVA. On the morning of April 5th the NVA charged up Hill 471 but were repulsed losing 122 men. When the 2/12th Cavalry arrived on April 6th there were over 150 NVA bodies on the slopes of Hill 471.

I only mention dead everywhere and the smell of death to counter printed and documentary words that Khe Sanh was a ruse by the North to draw American forces away from the cities so the earlier Tet offensive would be more positive for the north.  Boy, what a ruse.  If it was a ruse, it may have been one of the best in the history of war.  I had never seen and never would see again the death that occurred on the hills of Khe Sanh.  The soldiers, sacrificed by our opponent was hard to believe if the assault on Khe Sanh was only a ruse.  We had not caused their deaths, Marine riflemen, artillery, B-52s, and other American firepower had caused it.  We were simply viewers of the carnage after the fact.  We were lucky, the enemy defenders had been decimated and had others fled before we got there.  The fights that we had all expected never happened at Khe Sanh, for us.  Other Cav units had it far worse than our unit had it at Khe Sanh, we had just been lucky.  

Cav units were operating all around Khe Sanh firebase and after approximately 10 days the 5^th of the 7^th walked up to the gates of Khe Sanh and the siege was over.  The Marines, on Khe Sanh, had never been so glad to see Army ground troops.  Dale Sandifer, a Marine tank commander inside Khe Sanh, told me years later how great the Marines with him felt when they saw the Cav choppers in the skies above Khe Sanh and how they watch the Cav operate on the hills prior to the final link up.  They had finally had the pressure taken off.  This reminded me of how proud I was to later have armored units supporting us in the rubber plantations.  After all we were all American combat soldiers and I would have been glad, at any time to receive help from Marines, Soldiers, Airmen, the Navy, the National Guard, anybody.

After the linkup our unit was airlifted back to Stud.  That night we raided food stocks, borrowing c-rations, LRRP rations, anything we could find.  We loaded up with the canned fruits, beans and franks, turkey loaf etc. because we had worked up a pretty good appetite during the preceding 10-12 days.  The next morning we were airlifted from Stud, back, to somewhere outside of  LZ Jane.  This was where our real come-down took place.  I was about to learn that combat soldiers needed a come-down.  After 10-12 days of real fear, little sleep, limited food, etc., a time of peace is needed in order to get combat soldiers ready to do it again.

Outside Jane, the Captain and the Lieutenants had gathered for the Captain to give orders for our next movement and the come-down (fun) was about to start.  At a 2000 reunion of our guys, Gary Jerald told of his first day with our unit.  He said he joined us the day we came back from Khe Sanh and he was awed by our hygiene, or the lack of, and by our over armed status.  He did not know what he was in for, but he was about to get a real welcome. He said he watched some of us screw the top off of a grenade, blow the blasting cap under a steel pot and put the grenade back together.  He then watched as one of us walked up to the group of officers (Captain, XO, Platoon leaders, and FO).  The soldier then told one of the Lieutenants, that the pin had come out of the grenade and he could not get it back in.  He stood their with his hand around the spoon of the grenade and acting like he was trying to push the pin back into the grenade when he fumbled it and the spoon flipped off.  Officers scattered in every direction as the rest of us enjoyed the show.  We laughed for several days and I still laugh about it.  After Khe Sanh this was good.  We had our bellies full of the borrowed food stocks, we had laughed for the first time in a while and this short time of peace was needed.

My younger brother, when I first told him of the grenade fiasco, asked why we were not scared of reprisals from the Captain or from the other officers.  My answer was simply that those officers had the same feelings that we had about going to Khe Sanh and about making it out of there.  The officers were just as happy as the rest of us.  They also had full stomachs and had gotten a little sleep the night before.  After all they were American combat soldiers, just like the pranksters, and after the fact they enjoyed a laugh just as much as the rest of us.  Luckily, none of them were hurt in their haste to get away from the dud grenade.

Khe Sanh could have been bad for us, but we were lucky.  Other American forces had cleared the way for us and we simply observed their work.  The Marines were relieved, mission accomplished.