Looking for the Marines in my Units US Marines Combined Action Platoons (CAC/CAP) Vietnam 1965-1971 Website http://capmarine.com/index.htm Supplemental site http://www.cap-assoc.org/ For the same Purpose 7th Engineer Battalion (Rein) Assn. First Marine Division, FMF Pacific Viet Nam 1965 - 1971 Sign In Website 7th Engineer Battalion (Rein) Website http://www.usmc.org/7th/
Other Comments:
When the Lord was creating Vietnam veterans, He was into His 6th day of overtime when an angel appeared. "You're certainly doing a lot of fiddling around on this one." And God said, "Have you seen the specs on this order? A Nam vet has to be able to run 5 miles through the bush with a full pack on, endure with barely any sleep for days, enter tunnels his higher ups wouldn't consider doing, and keep his weapons clean and operable. He has to be able to sit in his hole all night during an attack, hold his buddies as they die, walk point in unfamiliar territory known to be VC infested, and somehow keep his senses alert for danger. He has to be in top physical condition existing on c-rats, very little rest and he has to have 6 pairs of hands." The angel shook his head slowly and said, "6 pair of hands....no way." The Lord say's "It's not the hands that are causing me problems.... It's the 3 pair of eyes a Nam vet has to have." "That's on the standard model?" asked the angel. The Lord nodded. "One pair that sees through elephant grass, another pair here in the side of his head for his buddies, another pair here in front that can look reassuringly at his bleeding, fellow soldier and say, "You'll make it".......when he knows he won't. "Lord, rest, and work on this tomorrow." "I can't," said the Lord. "I already have a model that can carry a wounded soldier 1,000 yards during a firefight, calm the fears of the latest FNG, and feed a family of 4 on a grunt's paycheck." The angel walked around the model and said, "Can it think?" "You bet," said the Lord. "It can quote much of the UCMJ, recite all his general orders, and engage in a search and destroy mission in less time than it takes for his fellow Americans back home to discuss the morality of the War, and still keep his sense of humor." "This Nam vet also has phenomenal personal control. He can deal with ambushes from hell, comfort a fallen soldier's family, and then read in his hometown paper how Nam vets are baby killers, psychos, addicts, killers of innocent civilians." The Lord gazed into the future and said, "He will also endure being vilified and spit on when he returns home, rejected and crucified by the very ones he fought for." Finally, the angel slowly ran his finger across the vet's cheek, and said, "There's a leak...I told you that you were trying to put too much into this model." "That's not a leak", said the Lord. "That's a tear." "What's the tear for?" asked the angel. "It's for bottled up emotions, for holding fallen soldiers as they die, for commitment to that funny piece of cloth called the American flag, for the terror of living with PTSD for decades after the war, alone with it's demons with no one to care or help." "You're a genius," said the angel, casting a gaze at the tear. The lord looked very somber, as if seeing down eternity's distant shores. "I didn't put it there," he said. (Pause for reflection)........God bless Nam vets
Vietnam War/Tet Counteroffensive Campaign (1968)/Operation Hue City
From Month/Year
January / 1968
To Month/Year
March / 1968
Description The Battle of Huế during 1968 from January 30 to March 3, (also called the Siege of Huế), was one of the bloodiest and longest battles of the Vietnam War (1959–1975). Battalions of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), two U.S. Army battalions, and three understrength U.S. Marine Corps battalions defeated 10 battalions of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN or NVA) and the Viet Cong (Việt Cộng or VC, also known as National Liberation Front or NLF).
1st Marines and 5th Marines operation to drive NVA out of Huế (Battle of Huế) during Tet Offensive
With the beginning of the Tet Offensive on January 30, 1968, the Vietnamese lunar New Year (Vietnamese: Tết Nguyên Đán) large conventional American forces had been committed to combat upon Vietnamese soil for almost three years. Passing through the city of Huế, Highway One was an important supply line for ARVN, US and allied forces from the coastal city of Đà Nẵng to the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). It also provided access to the Perfume River (Vietnamese: Sông Hương or Hương Giang) at the point the river ran through Huế, dividing the city into northern and southern areas. Huế was also a base for United States Navy supply boats. Considering its logistical value and its proximity to the DMZ (only 50 kilometres (31 mi)), Huế should have been well-defended, fortified, and prepared for any communist attack.
However, the city had few fortifications and was poorly defended. The South Vietnamese and U.S. forces were completely unprepared when the North Vietnamese army and Viet Cong failed to observe the promised Tet Truce. Instead, the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army launched a massive assault throughout South Vietnam, attacking hundreds of military targets and population centers across the country, among them the city of Huế.
The North Vietnamese forces rapidly occupied most of the city. Over the next month they were gradually driven out during intense house-to-house fighting led by the Marines. In the end, although the Allies declared a military victory, the city of Huế was virtually destroyed and more than 5000 civilians were killed (2,800 of them executed by the PAVN and Viet Cong according to the South Vietnamese government). The North Vietnamese forces lost an estimated 1,042 to 5,000 killed, while Allied forces lost 668 dead and 3,707 wounded. The tremendous losses negatively affected the American public's perception of the war and political support for the war began to wane.
