TBS 2-67 Cruisebook_Updated_7Jan23

Third Platoon
forcements, although some hostile actions continued
and recon patrols were active daily in various areas
around the Base. I was one of those who earlier had rotated
in through Dong Ha into Khe Sanh and lived
within a deep bunker (debris and accumulated C-rat
garbage outside our entrance attracted significant
rats). On one evening we set and trapped 14 BIG rats,
then reset them to snag 6 more by daybreak. For good
or bad, a rat bite became a ticket for an early lift out of
Khe Sanh for treatment. Latrine calls meant coming
out of the bunker during the cover of a surrounding
fog, racing to the adjacent sandbagged outhouse, and
hoping it won’t be your last with a purple heart citation
describing “….in combat while on the shitter”.
Showers for us meant carrying a 5 gal water can to
the reservoir drum topside the bunker to have water
flow down thru a garden hose to a tiny below-ground
shower stall. When water was scarce, we pumped out
the used shower water that fell through a grate-covered
drum buried in the bunker floor into a 5 gal water
can for reuse. Sometimes you do what you must do to
get some amount of that red dirt off your skin or
clothes. For about 3-4 wks our MASS-3 team continued
to provide air support operations and strikes very
close to our perimeter and beyond. At one point shrapnel
from a drop took down some of our communications
antenna. We also had a 2-man half-size shipping
container portable precise pencil-point radar beam
unit called a TPQ-10 that enabled us to run close air
strikes around our position in cloudy/fog days or during
nighttime bombing from up to 20,000 ft (in such
cases the pilot was not able to see the target, or a FAC
was not available, so we guided him) to drop on suspected
enemy units or truck parks (coming down the
‘yellow brick road’ from North Vietnam). The Air Force
had a larger similar setup for guiding and dropping its
B-52’s bombs from very high altitude).
At times Naval aircraft had to abort their targets in
the North, and then sought alternative targets before
turning home (otherwise they would have to waste/
drop their loads at sea to avoid landing heavy on their
deck). We invited and took in any carrier strike aircraft
to drop for us below the DMZ and be run on targets we
had a list for. Sometimes we ran up to 12-15 aircraft at
a time in a ‘mini arc-light or rolling thunder’ fashion
on our large suspected targets. Secondaries always
brought joy to everyone.
On or about late April, my unit evacuated Khe Sanh to
3‐42