Banco Intercontinental, S.A., Santo Domingo, Dom Rep
CSI Leasing de Centroamerica, San Jose, Costa Rica.
Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT, Miami, Florida
Banco Internacional de Costa Rica, Miami, Florida
Other Comments:
Would like to hear from any Marine/Corpsman who served with me. (See "The Missing List" on the right side) In particular, I'd like to locate the following: MCRD San Diego Platoon 3070 recruits who graduated in Sep 1966, Marines that underwent Infantry Training with Y Company, 3rd Bn, 2nd ITR, MCB Camp Pendleton Sep-Oct '66, and those who took basic wire communications school in the same base Oct-Nov '66; 9th Comm Bn (RR&C Co) Marines who served in 1966-1967 at MCB 29 Palms, California, the wife of a senior NCO at MCB 29 Palms who picked up my buddy and me from an aircraft accident site near the town of 29 Palms, and rushed us to the base hospital on June 30 1967; 2nd LAAM Bn, HQ Battery, in Chu Lai, Vietnam, from Feb 68 to May 68; 2nd LAAM Bn, Alpha (A) Battery, in Ky Hoa Island, Chu Lai, Vietnam, from May 68 until Oct 68; MASS-2, Dong Ha DASC/ASRT Detachment, Dong Ha, Quang Tri, Vietnam, from Oct 68 to Jan 69, also Hill 55 ASRT, for whom I set up their wire comm; MASS-2, Vandegrift (LZ Stud) Task Force Hotel DASC/ASRT Detachment, Ca Lu, Quang Tri, Vietnam, from Jan 69 to Feb 69; H&S Co., 1st Bn, 6th Marines, Camp Lejeune, NC, from Mar 69 to May 69.
Description This campaign was from 30 January to 1 April 1968. On 29 January 1968 the Allies began the Tet-lunar new year expecting the usual 36-hour peaceful holiday truce. Because of the threat of a large-scale attack and communist buildup around Khe Sanh, the cease fire order was issued in all areas over which the Allies were responsible with the exception of the I CTZ, south of the Demilitarized Zone.
Determined enemy assaults began in the northern and Central provinces before daylight on 30 January and in Saigon and the Mekong Delta regions that night. Some 84,000 VC and North Vietnamese attacked or fired upon 36 of 44 provincial capitals, 5 of 6 autonomous cities, 64 of 242 district capitals and 50 hamlets. In addition, the enemy raided a number of military installations including almost every airfield. The actual fighting lasted three days; however Saigon and Hue were under more intense and sustained attack.
The attack in Saigon began with a sapper assault against the U.S. Embassy. Other assaults were directed against the Presidential Palace, the compound of the Vietnamese Joint General Staff, and nearby Ton San Nhut air base.
At Hue, eight enemy battalions infiltrated the city and fought the three U.S. Marine Corps, three U.S. Army and eleven South Vietnamese battalions defending it. The fight to expel the enemy lasted a month. American and South Vietnamese units lost over 500 killed, while VC and North Vietnamese battle deaths may have been somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000.
Heavy fighting also occurred in two remote regions: around the Special Forces camp at Dak To in the central highlands and around the U.S. Marines Corps base at Khe Sanh. In both areas, the allies defeated attempts to dislodge them. Finally, with the arrival of more U.S. Army troops under the new XXIV Corps headquarters to reinforce the marines in the northern province, Khe Sanh was abandoned.
Tet proved a major military defeat for the communists. It had failed to spawn either an uprising or appreciable support among the South Vietnamese. On the other hand, the U.S. public became discouraged and support for the war was seriously eroded. U.S. strength in South Vietnam totaled more than 500,000 by early 1968. In addition, there were 61,000 other allied troops and 600,000 South Vietnamese.
The Tet Offensive also dealt a visibly severe setback to the pacification program, as a result of the intense fighting needed to root out VC elements that clung to fortified positions inside the towns. For example, in the densely populated delta there had been approximately 14,000 refugees in January; after Tet some 170,000 were homeless. The requirement to assist these persons seriously inhibited national recovery efforts.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
January / 1968
To Month/Year
April / 1968
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
People You Remember Holmes, Gascoigne, Franco, et al in the HQ Comm Section of 2nd LAAM Bn in Chu Lai.
Memories Landed in Danang around 5:30PM, January 30, 1968. A little after 7:00PM all hell broke loose. I had heard from another Marine, a grunt CPL and CAP member returning from leave after extending his tour, that all was quiet and well in Viet Nam. Or so he maintained from San Bernardino to Anchorage, Anchorage to Kadena AFB, and through two nights of hell raising in Okinawa (28-29 Jan 1968) and all the way until the rockets started landing on us in Danang. It was my first time ever to see and hear a gunship fire its miniguns at night. Tensions ran so high that a cigarette butt thrown away still lit was confused for an incoming tracer, causing the whole line to open up. A little later on, the protruding antenna of a PRC-25 carried by shadows in front of us probably saved a Marine grunt patrol from being fired upon. It was a memorable start of one's tour of duty in the Nam.
By the time I reported to my unit the next day in the afternoon, the greeting First Sergeant asked from which grunt outfit was I being transferred. I guess I looked a little disheveled.
