The enemy had hoped to take over a number of cities and spark a popular uprising by launching this massive coordinated attack. Yet none of us spoke, watching the CH-47s fly west and dump their loads of once valiant soldiers as if they were so much rubbish. On takeoff, human limbs slipped through the nets and waved eerily toward the ground. Once thirty or so bodies were piled below in nets, each helicopter flew off as others returned for more. By afternoon they were finished, and we watched huge CH-47s fly in to retrieve the dead. They accomplished this by driving APCs throughout the city and cemetery, where they tied the enemy's feet to the rear with ropes and dragged them in groups of ten or so to collection points along the road. The ARVNs were given the task of recovering the dead. 50-caliber M2 heavy machine guns, a hailstorm of air bursting mortar shells, and a US Air Force AC-47 gunship that circled at night for hours firing solid streams of red tracers that sailed out of the sky and splashed against the earth like water from a fire hose. Hundreds of men were pinned in the open between powerful First Cav and ARVN forces and were destroyed by an array of weapons, including. Johnny Suggs, is standing in the cemetery just north of our LZ next to remnants of the 812th NVA Regiment, 324th Division, who attacked the southern fringe of Quang Tri City and us. The Tet Offensive ended as suddenly as it began. Using my twenty-power spotting scope, I spotted for my company commander, Captain Michael Gooding, as he picked off advancing enemy troops with a 7.62mm M14 selective-fire rifle with a 2.5-power scope.įriday, February 2, 1968. I had a front row seat with members of my platoon atop our water tower. To stop allied troops from intervening, three other enemy infantry battalions deployed as blocking forces, supported by a 122mm-rocket battalion and two heavy-weapons companies armed with 82mm mortars and 75mm recoilless rifles. At this moment five enemy battalions and a platoon of sappers were attacking Quang Tri City and our landing zone. The rising smoke is from the Marine combat base at Dong Ha, eight miles north, after their ammo dump was hit by an enemy rocket during the night.
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