KHE SANH COMBAT BASE
1967
@ a dominguez
This sign would greet you as you arrived at khe Sanh in 1967. If you landed while the base was under attack, you might not notice it.
I took this picture late in October 1967. My tour was up. My enlistment was nearly over. I was going home. I was in an Air Force Caribou. The runway was still being rebuilt by the SeaBees. Only choppers and small fixed wing aircraft could use it.
This is a map of the KSCB from May of 1967. I copied it from THE VALLEY OF DECISION by Ray Stubbe and John Padros. The area circled in red is where most of the Sub Unit 5 communication platoon lived.
@ l larsen
The tent behind the pole on the right was my home when I first arrived at Khe Sanh. It housed the wire platoon.
@ a dominguez
After I left the wire platoon tent, I shared a hard back hootch with others in the communications platoon. This is the view out the back door facing south on the Grey Sector. The small shelter half tent in the background sat on top of a bunker on the perimeter. The Marine who slept in that tent came overseas with me on the USNS Barret in September of 1966. I don't remeber his name but he was part of 1/26. His nickname was Frenchie. Richard Arsenault lived in the bunker below.
@ l larsen
Many Marines who served at Khe Sanh debate as to whether or not there was an Enlisted Club on the base. Indeed there was. Here it is in all it's glory in 1967.
Marines would line up to buy two beers apiece for 20 cents each. Sometimes Carling Black Label was the beer of the day. Often though, it was beer from South Korea called Crown beer. The beer was nothing special but the cans were very strong.
Prior to May of 67 the Enlisted Club was in an underground bunker near the Mess Hall. When the 26th Marines showed up, they kicked us out of there and made it the Staff NCO club. I suspect after the seige started in January of 68, the slopchute ceased to exist alltogether.
@ a dominguez
This was the Mess Hall in 1967. While much of Marine Corps was eating off of metal trays, out of mess kits or eating C-rats, this Mess Hall had real plates. A touch of class I guess. It may have been due to the Senior Officer Present. He liked things to be neat. As you might tell by the flowers and the artillery brass placed in from of the Mess hall. I believe that it was one of the first structures hit during the seige.
Later in 1967 this was the Commanding Officer's home.
On the left is the Khe Sanh Post Office and on the right is the PX. I don't recall what else they had in the PX, but I did buy a Seiko watch there for $17.00.
@ l larsen
During much of the second half of 67 the runway was undergoing repair. Supplies arrived either by parachute drop like this or the LAPES system over the airstrip.
@ l larsen
Marines stand on top of the COC and watch an air strike on Dong Tri (hill 1015)
@ l larsen
Blue Sector CP. Radio call sign Blue.
@ l larsen
The canvas covered bunker on the right was a machine gun bunker. It was in the Blue Sector. It was on the north side of the runway at the very east end of the line. The runway stuck outside the wire past here.
@ l larsen
This bunker was also in the Blue Sector. I belive it had a radio call sign of Blue One.
@ l larsen
We always called this the Old French Bunker. I think that it actually had been built by the US Army when Special Forces owned the base.
@ l larsen
This was the Sick Bay when I arrived at Khe Sanh. It was not Charlie Med.
@ l larsen
This was the top of an Air Force bunker. It did not look like anything special from the outside. Those inside lived better than the Marines though.
@ l larsen
1967 KSCB gun pit.
@ l raddigan
This is a watch tower. The blueish looking bunker right behind it is the COC. I am not sure but the hootch on the right may have been the Sub Unit 5 company office at one time.
bravenet.com