"In early October 1966, the men of "A Co.," my rifle company, part of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, boarded C-130 cargo planes for the short flight to a hilltop Special Forces base in the far northwest corner of South Vietnam called Khe Sanh. Within days, the entire battalion arrived, along with a battery of 105-millimiter howitzers.
My battalion, known as 1/3, had been deployed around Danang, along the Vietnamese coast, helping to "pacify" civilians — assisting with farming, improving security, anything to keep the Communists from extending their influence among the population. Now we had a new and much different mission. Decision makers in Saigon and Washington had charged the Marines with fortifying the northern border and defeating the influx of Communist forces.
At Khe Sanh, 1/3 was assigned base security, providing reaction forces for reconnaissance units and interdicting North Vietnamese activity in the area. It was a grueling job — but it also provided an up-close view of the crescendo of enemy activity that would culminate, months later, in the dramatic siege of Khe Sanh and the Tet offensive…"
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makes flight stands for 1/300 scale aircraft.
