Part One: The Road to Khe Sanh

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Mike Peeler
  • 58th Airlift Squadron commander
ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Editor's Note: This is the first part of a historical summary on the Battle of Khe Sanh, and looks into how strategic air power contributed to the defense of the Khe Sanh base Jan. 21 - July 9, 1968. The author references multiple resources including Tactical Airlift by Ray L. Bowers, Air Power and the Fight for the Khe Sanh by Bernard C. Nalty, Khe Sanh: Keeping an Outpost Alive by U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Burl W. McLaughlin, and Vietman War: Battle of Khe Sanh by Kennedy Hickman.

The Marine outpost at Khe Sanh had been a U.S. military garrison since 1962, with strategic importance in South Vietnam.

The base itself lay among broken and covered lush forests of tall elephant grass atop a plateau north of a village bearing the same name. Overlooking the garrison from all directions was a series of mountain peaks, averaging in height about 1,500 feet above the base and rising to 4,000 feet to the north. The base was at the western end of a string of outposts that defined the demilitarized zone separating the U.S.-supported south from the communist-supported north.

From this garrison, U.S. Marines and South Vietnamese Rangers could patrol North Vietnam's key line of logistics, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, from five critical hilltops. In a conventional war, the base would be considered the forward edge of the battle area, the front line of friendly forces.

Khe Sanh Combat Base, as it was called, was supported from the larger bases in the south via convoys, although bridges were often taken out by weather or enemy action. To make the trip from Saigon or Da Nang, resupply cargo and troops would travel north on Highway 1 along the coast, then west on the dilapidated Highway 9 into the secluded jungle base of Khe Sanh.

Infrastructure at the small combat base included an airstrip large enough to support Marine helicopters and small fixed wing aircraft (DeHavilland C-7 Caribou) as well as accommodations for about 6,000 men. In 1967, a naval construction detachment modernized Khe Sanh's 1,500-foot runway, adding an additional 2,400 feet and improving the subsurface to prevent the frequent saturation of the unstable soil beneath the airstrip. According to Bernard C. Nalty, by January 1968, the base had evolved into a well-organized defensive position with a runway that could accommodate the largest American tactical airlifter, the Lockheed C-130 Hercules.

Laying within striking distance of not one but two enemy sanctuaries, (Laos, 16 kilometers due west; and the demilitarized zone, 25 kilometers to the north), the strategic location that made Khe Sanh so important to the U.S. war effort made it an obvious target for General Giap and his North Vietnamese troops.

In late 1967 and early 1968, in preparation for his Tet Offensive, General Giap's guerilla forces began infiltrating the cities of South Vietnam, while both conventional and guerilla units began surrounding the base at Khe Sanh. He planned to attack Khe Sanh in the hopes of drawing U.S. forces to the outpost and away from other strategic targets elsewhere in the south. Though skirmishes had taken place in the hills surrounding the Khe Sanh Combat Base during the previous months, it was mid-January 1968 when General Giap's 20,000 men began a siege of Khe Sanh that would prevent overland resupply for the next 11 weeks.

At about 5:30 a.m. on the morning of January 21, 1968, mortars, artillery shells and rockets began exploding among the bunkers, trucks and helicopters. One such attack destroyed the Khe Sanh ammunition storage area, scattering shrapnel over half of the runway and preventing C-130s from landing. Under a tactical emergency designation (the highest airlift priority), six C-123 Provider transport planes were diverted from their scheduled missions, loaded with 26 tons of ammunition, and flown to Khe Sanh. They landed on the potholed runway, by the light of artillery flares, under heavy automatic weapons and mortar fire.

Thus began the saga of Khe Sanh, which eventually ran into 78 days of emergency aerial resupply sorties to the embattled outpost. During the siege, U.S. strike aircraft rained nearly 100,000 tons of munitions down upon the North Vietnamese while other planes-- primarily U.S. Air Force transports--flew in essential supplies of food, ammunition, and other necessities to Khe Sanh's defenders.