Memorial Day: Those who served in Vietnam

By Skip Miller

It is not "Vietnam" to the Americans who fought there. It is ‘Nam. A word that invariably is followed by a story, a memory, maybe anger.

The mission? Stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia.

The objective? Engage the enemy. Send out patrols. Find the bad guys. Rain hell upon them. Take that hill today, give it back tomorrow. Battlefields were jungle trails, nameless villages, outposts such as the Marines’ Khe Sanh.

On Jan. 21, 1968, 20,000 NVA regulars attacked a remote American airfield named Khe Sanh. Protecting the base were 5,000 Marines. The NVA encircled the base, and a 77-day siege ensued.

By the time the siege was broken, the Air Force had dropped 110,000 tons of bombs on the NVA positions – that is the heaviest bombardment of a single battlefield area in the history of warfare.

The siege was broken on April 8, 1968. The NVA lost an estimated 15,000 troops. Among the U.S. casualties were 199 Marines – another 830 were wounded.

A short while later the U.S. command closed the base. The Marines were withdrawn, redeployed.

That was Vietnam. That and more. It also was the heat and smells, the rain, the highland country. It was ancient cities and customs and a war that just was.

The veterans of that war are among those we honor on this Memorial Day.

Three of the veterans tell their stories of 'Nam:

  1. Sam Thompson was drafted and sent to 'Nam in 1969

  2. Bill Chase was an officer who faced certain death

  3. Jerry Beckett first landed in 'Nam in 1961