History of Oscar Company - USMC Combined Action Platoon ...

However, CPT (later COL) Bruce B. G. Clarke, who was the senior U.S. Army
District advisor for Huong Hoa, wrote in April 1968 that the attack began at 0500.
If so, that would make the village the first unit attacked.
It is possible that both assaults were meant to be coordinated, but due to the
fortunes of war and the difficulty of coordinating separate major actions, one
"went off" too soon (or too late).
(A Marine infantry officer who served in a region that had several Combined
Action units once told me; "Oh, we loved the CAPs! They made great trip flares!")
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The US forces at the HQ and surrounding area included a double CAP of Combined
Action Company "Oscar" (HQ and O-1), two platoons of the 915th Regional Force
Company, and the four-man U.S. Army advisory group led by Army Captain Bruce
B. G. Clarke, whose team medic, SFC Jim Perry, also figured prominently in the
defense, by leading the medical effort to care for the wounded.
The CAP HQ element was commanded by USMC 1st LT Tom Stamper and acting
Co. GYSGT, SSGT Robert Boyda, and CAP O-1 was led by SGT John J. Balanco.
There were perhaps 22 Marines and two Navy Corpsmen, as well as their Bru.
The total strength of the defense force at the HQ compound consisted of
approximately 178, the bulk of whom were Viet and Bru indigenous forces, four
US Army advisory personnel, and the CAP Marines.
CAP 0-2, led by Sergeant Roy Harper, had a squad of Marines and one Navy
Corpsman, but was separated from the HQ and CAP 1, lying about 200 yards to
the West on Hwy. 9 at the edge of the village of Khe Sanh.
On the morning of Jan. 21st, 1968, under cover of one of the dense fogs that
often blanketed Khe Sanh at that time of year, elements of the crack 66th
Regiment, 304th Division of the PAVN (NVA) attacked the Huong Hoa District HQ
and the Oscar CAPs in and around Khe Sanh Village under cover of fire from their
artillery (located on Co Roc Mountain in Laos), mortars, and rockets.
CPT Clarke had just completed checking the fields of fire and artillery coordinates.
It is almost certain that he was at times under the guns of the NVA, who,
however, probably held their fire to maintain surprise. (Had they known who he
was, and what great damage he would soon inflict on them, they might have
reconsidered!)
When the attack started, CPT Clarke ably coordinated the supporting arms,
delivering the fire so close as to be almost on top of the US positions. In addition
to the Marine artillery, he was on a different radio and frequency, which he used
to keep in radio contact with an Air Force FAC (forward air controller) who called
in air strikes against the North Vietnamese. CPT Clarke also maintained contact
with Robert Brewer, the Senior Quang Tri Province Advisor (CIA) in Quang Tri City.