It is early April of 1968 and Alpha Co. 1/1 resupplied boarded trucks to transport us up to Khe Sanh to relieve the 26th Marines on the Hills of Khe Sanh.
We got as far as Dong Ha and then the Rock Pile and set up on the Hill tops overlooking the Base and Airfield. We climbed to the top of the Hill and I don't recall how high but is was high and exhausting to get to the top.
We would go down the hill every morning, noon and supper time for hot chow so we didn't have to eat C - Rats. Thinking back now it was dumb because by the you got back up the Hill you were hungry again and ate the C-Rats anyway.
I remember we would run patrols along the Highway and be escorted by a tank. We would hitch a ride on the tank instead of walking and one day we took some small arms fire while on the tank. The tank commander appear and told us to get off the tank they had to get out of there because we were taking fire. We all looked at each other and cracked up laughing thinking "are you shittin' me, your inside a ton of metal and we're on top exposed and you want to run away". We refused to get off and there was nothing the tank commander could do.
It must have been the middle to late April when we finally boarded trucks and left Dong Ha headed up Highway 9 to Khe Sanh. When we reached Khe Sanh Alpha Co was assigned to Hill 861 and 861A. My platoon and squad were on 861 while first Platoon with Eddie Neas was on 861A. During our three (3) months stay on Hill 861, 1st and 2nd Platoons would rotate between locations.
It was on Hill 861A were Cpl. Eddie Neas received his Third (3rd) and final Purple Heart and was evacuated out of Khe Sanh never to return. He told me years later that he spent the rest of his Tour out of harm's way.
We were shelled regularly by the enemy and men were killed and wounded but we stayed on the Hill and ran patrols everyday to the adjacent hills to find the Mortar squad that were lobbing the shells at us.
The Company CO Ray Smith got tired of the shelling and sent us out with orders to find and silence and destroy the mortars. We did just that. We went out and hid and waited for the enemy mortar team to arrive and when they least expected it we pounced on them and silenced the tube then destroyed it using incendiary grenades. The plan worked for awhile but then the bastards came back with long range mortars or rockets that proved harder to find and destroy some we did others not much.
We would stay on this hill for three (3) months without a shower or change of clothes. We didn't the stench because we all smelled the same and the enemy could smell us because we smelled just like them.
