My memories of khe Sanh during the NVA battle to capture the base 1968. This is my story .
All hell broke lose at 00.30 on 21 January 1968. The base came under intense mortar and rocket barrage . Hundreds of mortar rounds and 122 mm rockets slammed into the base . Almost all of the above structures were completely destroyed.
The barrage of rockets and mortars also set off the main ammunition dump which was hit , it rocked the base which in turn sent live mortars rounds into the air which in turn sent live ammunition to explode when hitting the ground around us.
So not only were we being hit by the NVA artillery but our own ammunition was also raining down on us . Hours later after the bombardment another fire ignited a large quantity of C-4 and other explosives which included a cache of CS tear gas not only rocking the base again but covering it with tear gas.
It was a night that seemed like it was the end, it was like something you can not imagine in your wildest dreams. Was hard to believe that any one could be alive or even survive. The smell of gas the smell of burnt explosives the smell of death.
All of the information of what happened that night I found out later .We never were told the whole story . We lived in our fox holes from than on. All I know is I survived to live another day .
Something that you will never forget . It did not end that day or night little did we know that it was not the end . Sometime you wonder why you survived when others did not .
Some of my pictures at FOB-3. The destruction of our above living Huts. My fox hole ( Home). Huey helicopter coming into base .The red dirt of Khe Sanh which got into our cloths . Hole is from a mortar shell or artillery shell which made the hole.
Gerald's Memoirs 