For those of you who could not attend the 1997 Reunion in Saint Louis, I have scanned
tape recorded transcripts of the comments made on our visit to Jefferson Barracks and at
the banquet. It's not the same as being there, but this page will provide a fairly
complete accounting of both events.
VISIT TO JEFFERSON BARRACKS NATIONAL CEMETERY, MISSOURI 12 JULY 1997
[Four bus loads of attendees at the Khe Sanh Reunion made a pilgrimmage to Jefferson
Barracks National
Cemetery, near St. Louis, to pay respects to their fallen brothers who were involved in
two incidents during the 1968
Siege battle: the patrol that was ambushed on 25 February atXD848407, and the C-130K
that crashed at XD 933404
on 6 March. The unidentifable remains from these two losses were buried in mass graves
in Section 81 of Jefferson
Barracks (Graves 289, 290, and 291 for 25 Feb; Graves 327, 328, and 329 for 6 Mar).
Enroute from the hotel, Mr.
Tom Mclntyre [81s, 1/26], who had been riding a motorcycle, stopped alongside the road
and saluted the busses as
they passed. A box lunch had been provided to eat while enroute. The group assembled at
a small, modern chapel
on the cemetery grounds for a small memorial service. Mr. Bill Jayne [B/1/26], current
head of the VA cemetery
system, was asked to address those assembled]
Mr. Jayne: ..in dignity and a fitting resting place for a lot of our brothers
from Khe Sanh. Their burials here in the
cemetery go back to as far back actually as 1806. Some of the earliest ones from Fort
Belfontaine, which was set
up right after the Louisiana Purchase were moved in a mass grave disinternment in the
early 1900s and placed here.
I guess there've been burials here in this ground since 1926. It's a beautiful site,
beautifully kept, and I really want to
thank Ralph [Church] and his staff for opening the chapel for us today [and] putting up
the flags.
The group burials that we are going to see today -- Ray asked me to say a few words
about that. Primarily, the first
thing to say is that group burials as the result of wars are nothing new, and in fact for
most of recorded history that's
the way battle deaths were buried. And you'll see thousands and thousands of mass graves
from the Civil War, for
example, in cemeteries throughout the Country -- several of them here. But in recent
years, thankfully, it's been
much more practical to make identifications. But, yet, still it's impossible to make
identification in every case, so
you got mass graves. A lot of the ones in the area where we're going to go to stem from
World War II, and I believe,
and I believe it was during World War II that the Army, which ran the cemetery at that
time, decided that they would use Jefferson Barracks here in St. Louis because of its
central location, as a place for mass burials. And you'll see a lot of air crews from
World War II -- probably the most notableone is a mass grave of over a hundred POWs
who were killed by the Japanese on a little island off the Philippines called Paloua.
The mass graves that we're going to see -- basically what happened to the BRAVO Company
burials --and I talked
to some of the people in the Army Mortuary Command which made those kinds of decisions in
those days --they
had a case where they had at least eight individuals; they knew from documentary evidence
that there were
supposed to be nine. They had no grounds for ruling anybody out. So they were faced with a
choice of identifying the
grave as all Unknowns, or using the names that they had from documentary evidence. On that
basis, they chose to
put the names on the stone, and they listed nine people. About five years later, one of
the nine came home from
Hanoi, Ron Ridgeway. And so they got a new stone that had eight names on it.
The mass grave from the C-130 that went down: not all those who died on that crash are
buried in that site, and
apparently they were able to identify some individuals and they were buried individually.
But the mass graves are for those cases where they've got -- basically documentary
evidence, but no physical
evidence that they can use to identify individuals. The air crashes are the best examples.
With that I'll turn it back to
Ray, and on behalf of the VA I'd like to welcome everybody here and let you know that the
people in the VA who are
responsible for the cemeteries really take it as an honor and a privilege to be able to
serve the people of the country
in this way.
Chaplain Ray W. Stubbe: Thank you Bill. I thought what I'd do is have a couple
prayers, a couple scripture readings,
a brief meditation, and then I would like to open it up for anyone who wants to say
anything about someone they
might know who is here, and I want to read the names of the people who are involved.
Let us pray. O Lord, our God, in the midst of so much that we cannot understand, give us comfort that we can comfort each other; give us your love that we may love each other. You embrace us so that we may embrace each other, and bring the pieces of our lives, the pieces of our hearts together and be made whole within the presence of each other that You give us as a gift. We ask that You would be with us today. Bless us all that we may be aware that You are always ready to heal, to restore, to make whole, and that You continue to bless us with life, love, and forgiveness,and peace. Amen.
Psalm 23: "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down
in green pastures: he leadeth me
beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake. Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I willfear no evil: for thou
art with me; thy rod and thy staff
they comfort me. Thou prepares't a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with
oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness andmercy shall follow me all the days of my
life: and I will dwell in the
house of the LORD for ever. " [KJV]
And from Ezekiel, the prophet, Chapter 37: [verses 1-14]:
"The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the
LORD and set me down in the
middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very
many Iying in the valley, and they
were very dry. He said to me, 'Mortal, can these bones live?' I answered, 'O Lord, GOD,
you know.' Then he said to
me, 'Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.
Thus says the Lord GOD
to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews
on you, and will cause flesh to
come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and
you shall know that I am the
LORD. ' So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there
was a noise, a rattling, and
the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them,
andflesh had come upon them,
and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me,
Prophesy to the breath, prophesy,
mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O
breath, and breathe upon
these slain, that they may live. ' I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came
into them, and they lived,
and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. Then he said to me, 'Mortal, these bones are
the whole house of Israel.
They say, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off
completely. " Therefore prophesy, and say to
them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from
your graves, O my people;
and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD,
when I open your graves, and
briny you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within y ou, and you
shall live, and I will place you on
your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and win act, says the
Lord. " [NRSV]
Some of you were involved in this. There was a mission -- to go out -- and gather the
pieces. And they had been there
for awhile, probably over a month, and in the case of the air crash, several months. And
there had been attempts to
get them before, and some had been recovered. But the jungle bacteria, the air strikes,
fire from the napalm strikes,
gnawing by rats and other animals, had shattered these bones. There was a leg -- a finger
-- an arm -- a skull. It was a
scene of death -- great, overwhelming death.
For those who gathered the bodies, it was a dark day of night. A body was lifted by a
boot only to have it detach
from the rest of the leg. One corpse was covered with flies which instantly covered the
face and hands of the man
picking up the body.
For some people, it has become a continuing nightmare: did I get all the pieces together? And all the right pieces?
It's similar to the vision Ezekiel was given, in our scripture reading today. Because
this was a battlefield also in
which he was placed, in what is now modern day Iraq. The people of Israel had been carted
from Jerusalem, the
Templc even the big stonesÄhad been destroyed. Everything that held their life together
was destroyed. Everything
that centered it was gone. All their hopes were dashed. There was no future, and they were
all carted off to this
strange place called Babylon. And there were all these pieces of their life, shattered.
Ezekiel was placed in this valley. These bones have been picked by the birds and dried
in the sun. It was a scene,
not of death, but of the "great death," death in all its fullness.
And he tells Ezekiel to look at these bones. He is telling him to face the reality, to
look squarely into the pain, to
regard all this destruction of their hope and future.And he says, These bones are the
people that you're with: they, too, are separated, disjointed, not whole, separated in
their own lives -- their dreams dashed into pieces, their families destroyed or separated.
They are not whole; they are not healthy.
We have pieces of "what happened" within us, we have pieces of ourself still
over there -- our concerns, our love,
our giving of ourself, we have been shattered and have shattered connections with others
that were once strong.
There are fragments of dreams, there are fragments of not-knowing by family members of
their son, husband,
brother, friend.
And he says, You must prophesy to these bones. The vision is actually a very positive one.
He's placed in a valley, and you remember the valley -- the valleys of our life
--"Yea, though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me -- Thou art with
me." No matter where we are, no matter
how diffcult the situation, no matter how much threat and destruction surrounds us, the
great promise is that we are
never alone, never abandoned.
And secondly, there is a lot of hope there because -- bones! Bones, that have nothing
in them that would indicate
anything that they could live, or would again live. And, how can you tell one one person's
bones from another? Is
there anything that would cause these bones to come to life? You can't say to one bone,
This is a rich man, this is a
poor man, this is a black man, this is a white man, this is an educated man, this is an
old man, this is a young
man, this is a friend, this was a fellow who made my life miserable: they're all bones.
All the bones! Prophesy to the
bones. So there is sheer grace. All the bones. Not just the good bones, or the bones we
like. But all the bones.
And then he says, Come from the four winds. The creation and restoration of new life is
by something which is all
around us. The life doesn't come from some never-never land far-off in the heavens, but is
as close as the breath of
air we inhale. God has placed us in such a way that we are surrounded by sources of life.
Indeed, we are hugged by
life. We are supported by the strong arms of God by means of all that surrounds us. We
needen't have the right
understanding of God's grace in order to receive it.
You don't have to go to certain places to find this, or do certain things. God is all
around us. I come to this reunion,
and I was talking to somebody the other day: it's like a bottle of "white-out;"
you put a drop of ink in it, and it all
disappears. And we've had our problems, and we have our personal problems, and we have our
griefs and we have our pains, and we have our "whatever we have that's
negative." But people come here, and it's a family, and there's so much love here,
and so much brotherhood and so much good, and so much life, and we're so blessed with each
other who are gifts
of God to us. And so, prophesy to the winds. The winds are all around us. They come and
they go, just as we
come and go from this reunion. Say to these bones, Come alive!
So the bones come together. The bones --. Personal wholeness. And then he says, I
saw an exceedingly
large -- and in the Hebrew it says -- Army. Everyone coming together. Families
coming together. People getting their
lives together. Wholeness, togetherness, being joined together. And how we need each
other. How we need to hug
each other. I know in battle - the rounds would come inÄand in one of the few times that
I could reflect on what I
was seeing, and not just be "in it," was when I would see Marines hug each
other. And I'd say, Now isn't this
interesting! Here are Marines -- hugging each other! But you see that here at the reunion,
too. The hope is there. The
life is there. God blesses us.
We think of these people we knew -- some of us knew personally. And I want to read
their names, and then I hope
that someone says something. These aren't all the people who were killed in these
incidents; some of them were
fortunately identified so their families have that rest.
From the 25th of February:
Michael
Baptiste
Jerry Dodson
Frederick
Billingham
Bruce Jones
Michael
Brellenthin
John Lassiter
James
Bruder
David Scarbrough
From the plane crash, March 6th:
Herbert
Aldridge
Charles Boyer
Joseph
Brignac
Donald Bumstead
Jeffrey
Conlin
George Elliott
Robert
Ellison
Michael Gray
James
Grezegorek
Blucher Hall
Frederick
Hampton
Paul Hicks
Howard
Hollar
Andrew Jackson
Larry
Kennedy
James Miles
Roger
Minch
Dallas Moore
James
Moore
Thomas Moss
Winford
McCosar
Richard O'Hare
Vic
Pizzaro
Samuel Robinson
Kenneth
Stanciu
Stanley Strong
Michael
Sears
Daryl Terhune
William
Terrell
Louis Toner
Thomas
McMillan
Howard Waldron
Joseph
Marturano
David Anderson
Dennis Mead
If anyone wants to say anything, I'll close with a couple prayers, and then we can visit.
John Kaheny: William Terrell was, like many of those young men up there, a fine,
fine young Marine. I wouldn't be
here today if it hadn't been for him and another Marine from Third Platoon, Alfa Company,
1/26 by the name of
Vickers, who was also on that plane ride. They were both incredibly fine people. And on a
certain date in May of
1967, they saved my life, and I'll never forget it. Thank you.
Ernie Husted: Standing up here in front of everybody is probably one of the
hardest things I've ever done in my life, so
bear with me. I remember listening on the radio transmission the day the platoon got in
trouble and was later killed.
And being in recon I was listening to this transmission and thinking how many times we had
felt like that. And so I
listened to the radio transmissions until there were not any more that day. And I felt so
helpless. The day that they
went outÄto correct the problem, to even the score, to bring the bodies back, they had
recon over on the trenches,
helping to watch the area so they could release the people to go out. And we watched and
we listened again. And
somebody went out and they brought the folks back. And being down here today is kinda a
chance to see their final
resting place, and say good-bye to them. So I'm glad I'm here.
Colonel David Lownds: I speak for no individual. As a Commanding Offcer, I speak
for those who have no one to
speak for them today, here. I want you to knowÄthat although I don't know any of them
personallyÄI may have
paced them on the back, I may have shouted at them, but they were my brother, and they
will always live within my
heart, regardless of their name. And if you don't think a commander suffers when he looses
people, you're sadly
mistaken. Because it goes deeply into your heart. It never leaves. The loss of one, single
individual is more than
enough. When it gets into a hundred, that's almost unbelievable. There are battles where
thousands are lost; I can't
imagine what the commanders of the units must have felt. So I speak for those people who
weren't personally close
to. I speak for all the brothers who died, and I know
that they are all in our prayers. Thank you.
Tom Winston: I would like to pay my respects to that C-130 crew...
Wayne Magee: To me this occasion is the final good-bye to the crew of the 311th
Air Commando Squadron that was
flying this airplane. Like the Marines, they were there doing their job, proud
professionals. Also, it's a double closing
for me. I was in the sister squadron, 309th Air Commando Squadron. After leaving Vietnam,
I went to the 374th
Tactical Airlift Wing and flew "blind bat" missions and other ones up and down
"the Trail." There's a C-130 monument
right next to this monument that shows Laos, where they went down. Unbeknown to a lot of
you, the C- 1 30s were
flying "blind bat" missions up and down "the Trail." I know this one
here was a little after Khe Sanh, but even during
Khe Sanh, the "blind bat" missions were flying. This is, for me, a final closing
with them. They were there, they did
their job, they were professionals.
[Note: "Blindbat" refers to C-130flareships used in Laos, from Ubon RTAFB].
[Voice]: I'm a little choked-up. I left Khe Sanh over 30 years ago, and when I
left I forgot almost everything that
happened except [?]. Now it starts all over again. I came back here and I found some of
the people that were with
me. We had the ammunition dump at Khe Sanh, and it was almost like the 4th of July almost
every day. But five of
my companionsÄ troops that were with me are here today; we only had 15 there. It was our
T/O. I'm very proud of
being there. It used to despise me to see the television and see what I call the "All
American Chickens" protesting
about what you guys were doing. and so forth. But [?] was behind most of us at that time.
And actually, this
reunion -- I think another phase is opening up. And I haven't been to one before. This is
my first one, but I hope to go
to others. I retired from the Marine Corps. I've had a new career since then, and next
year I retire from it too. People
say, You used to be a Marine; I say, Hell no, I'm still a Marine!
Rev Ray Stubbe: Having been at Khe Sanh quite a few months before the battle
there in '68 I obviously got to know
quite a few of these people, and I could talk about many. But I want to mention one that
you probably don't know,
and that's Robert Ellison. I've come to know his mother, Mirian Eaton. Robert wasthe one
who did the cover photo on Newsweek about the "Agony of Khe Sanh." Robert had
been a photographer in the Civil Rights marches with Martin Luther King, had done
photographs for Life magazine, and had done all the photographs inside, including the
patrol, all those colored pictures that I'm sure you've all seen. He lived in the lines
with BRAVO Company, 1/26, or nearby, and got real close to the Marines there. And he took
all those photographs from the 25th of February patrol that appeared later on in that
Newsweek magazine and he took them all down to Saigon with his people there, and they
said, Good photographs, you've done your job, take a rest. And -- I got this from his
mother who had gotten it from his co-workers -- he said what any of us would have said and
sometimes felt when we got transferred, he said, But my brothers are there, my friends are
there, the people I've lived with for all these weeks who have -- we shared everything --
are there. So he went back to Khe Sanh. He said, I'm not going to
leave Khe Sanh until all my friends leave Khe Sanh. So he was heading back to Khe Sanh --
on that plane -- that crashed.
Tom Winston: [inaudible remarks].
Rev Ray W. Stubbe: I think it's appropriate at this time to mention that Tom
just found out this morning that he's
going to be able to get his brain surgery on the 4th of August. He has Huntington's, a
fatal disease, and has been waiting for years to get some kind of word on that, and he
just found out this morning. His sister-in-law came and said he will have his operation on
the 4th.
Let us pray:
Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, we thank You that we have each other and that You enfold us
to Your heart through the
arms of so many lovely people around us. We ask You that You would help us to realize our
time together is very
short, and that we must make the most of it, in terms of healing and helping each other,
and saying how much we
appreciate each other, and bringing life to one another. May we honor the dead by serving
the living.
In Your Holy Name we pray. Amen.
EVENING DINNER KHE SANH VETERANS, INC. 12 JULY 1997
Mr. John Kaheny: At this time I would like to call the little gathering of our
family to orderÄas if you call a family to
order at any time! And I would ask the Color Guard to march on the Colors. [A
multiservice Color Guard posted the
Colors, multi-service due to the multi-service composition of our organization].
Please remain standing while we play
the National Anthem. [National Anthem]. Now I ask you to remain standing, and I'll
ask our President Emeritus For
Life -- our Chaplain for Life -- Reverend Ray Stubbe to come forward and give us an
Invocation.
Rev. Ray W. Stubbe: Let us pray.
As we care and we share, we feed and are fed; This is, O Lord, our Daily Bread. For when
we share what's even
least, We taste of Your eternal feast. From the seeds of our love in actions sown, The
bread that nourishes all is
grown. Bless us, O Lord, and these gifts which You give us: this food, this fellowship,
this comradeship, this great
nation, this organization, that we may be a blessing to others, and nourished to bless
each other.
In Your Holy Name we pray. Amen.
Mr. John Kaheny: Thank you, Ray. You may march out the Colors. [Colors retired; shouts of Arrugha].
Before we engage in our family banquet, I'd like to make a few announcements. The first
thing I'd like to do is to
thank all of the members of our families, especially our spouses who are here tonight who
are here to share with us
this significant reunion of our association. At this time I would like to ask Pat D'Hondt,
if she would come forward.
She has a letter that was written to her that I think will be of significance to all of
you.
Mrs. Pat D'Hondt: Good evening. Two weeks ago we received a telephone call in
the afternoon from a gentleman who
was trying to explain that he had just bought a computer. He went on to explain that he is
married to a lady whose
father was killed in Khe Sanh. At that point I said, You want to talk to the Gunny. So
through this conversation, my
husband [?]. She has since written to us, and I'll share the letter. The reason I want to
share this letter with you
tonight is to encourage all of youÄhusbands and wives, Marines, kids, whatever -- if you
come across sons and
daughters, open your hearts and your homes. These loved ones of ours need healing. We have
a young lady with us
tonight, Nita Brown, daughter of Sergeant-Major Bean, who was with us. So in the years to
come, if you have an
opportunity to meet the young people, remember they're your children. [She then read
the letter]:
"Dear Camille. Hello. It's been a wonderful feeling with me ever since I talked
with you. I've waited for a very long time
to find someone who knew and remembered our dad. I called [?] in Florida to tell her the
great news, and she was so
happy, she cried with joy. The other kids knew also, and we are all so happy. You can both
write to me and tell me
anything; we all would love to know more about our dad. We want to keep in touch with you
always. I am very happy
to know now I have two new members to my family. Please send me a photo of yourselves so I
can carry it with me
always. When you see Henry Radcliffe, give him my address and phone number and have him
contact me. It would
be wonderful to hear from him. I will close for now and am looking forward to hearing from
you. Love, Anna Marie
Turner Leahy, First Sergeant Robert Turner's daughter."
Thank you.
Mr. John Kaheny: Thank you, Pat. I have received today a FAX that came in from
General Davis who could not be
with us today, but it says:
"Greetings to all you heroes from the battle for Khe Sanh.
"I am convinced from my visits with many of you while there that you endured one
of the most serious challenges of
the Vietnam war. And I heart not one concern or doubt that you would prevail. Your
staunch, heroic defense inspired
warriors everywhere.
"I was proud to observe your gallant actions and to know that you were a key part
of our 3d Marine Division effort.
"Congratulations! Have a good reunion! Semper Fi!" ls/ Ray Davis, CG, 3d Marine
Division, 1968-69.
[New Board of Directors and officers stood up and received applause, followed by the standing of the out-going Board and officers].
Before I sit down and have a good time, I want to thank the staff here at the hotel and
the staff of the Chamber of
Commerce who have done such an outstanding job in giving us such a great reunion. Jackie
McCormack and Leon,
are you here? [applause]. Thank you very much. This has been very special. Thank
you.
[Dinner].
[Remarks by Tom Winston and E.L. "Tim" Craft].
Mr. Iohn Kaheny: Before we do move on, I want to make a point of personal
privilege, and that's to recognize one of
my former riflemen, Russell Turner, who has been working with us throughout the whole
convention. He's one of my
favorite people, and I'd like to give a hand for Russell. [applause]. There are
many who put this thing together, but I'm
a "Turnertrained man" and I wanted to be sure to recognize him.
There's someone here I'd like to introduce; that's "Mac" Radcliffe who
trained me as a Second Lieutenant at The
Basic School, and he's been paying that price ever since. I'd like him to come up here,
and he will introduce Colonel
Lownds. [applause].
Col HJM "Mac" Radcliffe: That's the nicest thing John ever said about
me. Back in 1966, when I was training [?] for
Vietnam, John came through and I happened to be there, and I know damn good and well he
took my whole family
heritage to task on more than one occasion. I think some of the terms were -- and I'll
clean it up because I respect
the factthat the ladies are here, but I think he made reference a couple of times to the
fact that my parents were never
married, [laughs] and I ate animal defecation or something [laughs]. What I
would like to do -- is Ken Pipes here? Is
he still awake? Get up here, front and center. [applause]. And folks, what you
don't hear in any other organization
other than Khe Sanh reunion events is that the burden of command responsibility lays
heavily on those of us who've
been lucky enough to commanded people like you all who are in this audience tonight. Earle
Breeding? Where are
you? Come up here. [sounds of Aarugha and applause]. I knew you, Earle, a long time
back in your enlisted days
and there is a record in your SRB about you being UA before!
These three extremely handsome, young guys here who could probably pass for Robert
Redford's younger brother,
were all Company Commanders at Khe Sanh. And the three of us -- we took a helluva hit up
there. I'll never forget
one day when I was going down to Charlie Med, and I had a little Mule that I think was the
last rolling stock. And I
had this young Marine from Haiti who was driving. And I called him "Papa Doc"
which just infuriated the hell out of
him because he didn't like Duvalier, who was a dictator down there at the time. And I
said, Look, we're going down to
Charlie Med down here to say good-bye to a couple of our troops, and if we start taking
incoming, I want you to run
that damn mule into the ditch, and you go one way, and I go the other. And he said -- he
had this French accent --
Mon Capittan, I take care of Mule. I said: Who'se supposed to take care of me? He said, I
take care of Mule; it's
more valuable to the Company! [laughter]. So, lest any of you troops out there
think that offcers got "hoy" they did a
dam good job of putting us in our place. So we zoomed down on that mule, and we did take
incoming. I rolled down
and rolled over and Herve took the mule -- he wasn't concerned about me; he was concerned
about that mule, and I
layed in the ditch, and -- so help me God, folks -- General Tompkins is there --
Commanding General. And I looked up
and I said, General, what are you doing here? And he said, I came to see how the troops
were doing. And -- I've never
been known to keep my mouth shut too much -- and I said, Well General, don't you have
television down there in
Dong Ha; can't you watch it on CBS. Because we were worried about loosing -- is the guy
who came here tonight to
be with us. And he came because I told him when I called him -- because I was a Captain up
there -- as we [Ken
Pipes and Earle Breeding] were.
And I remember on the 8th of February, folks -- I was going to say something today at
Jefferson Barracks, and
I just couldn't do it -- I took a helluva hit -- as did my fellow Company Commanders here,
and I lost 50 some Marines
that day, about 30% of my Company -- WIA and KIA. And thanks to the Regimental Commander
the word came
down from higher headquarters, No reinforcements! No counter-attack! I don't have to tell
you, those are my troops.
And I took some Marines from my Company -- I couldn't take the Company out. We went out,
counterattacked and
took the hill back, hand-tohand fighting, confirmed -- no Associated Press bullshit --
body count; we've got the
pictures to show you --over 150 NVA.
When Colonel Lownds made his comments today about the responsibility of command, and
what it means to loose one Marine, how it hurts. But you can't show that, folks, when
you're in command, because you think you have to stand tall and not waver, and not be
brushed aside by the horror of combat. You need to be a leader. You need to lead by
example -- these two guys led by example. Let me tell you something: Nobody to this date
has ever heard. After Alfa got hit -- my Company, Alfa, 1/9, two days later, after we
reconstituted and tried to rebuild the Company up. Coming into my perimeter is some
unknown individual with a radio operator. And I told my troops: Nobody gets into the
Company perimeter I don't know about it. And they called down and they said, We got
somebody coming into your area. And I said, Stop him. We had a lot of press people
and others coming in. And I said, Who is it? And they said, I don't know who he is, Sir.
And I didn't have very much
radio disciplineÄin fact, my whole company didn't. They said, He has a moustache and a
cigar and has his radio operator with him. Well I knew right away that was Colonel Lownds.
I knew Colonel Lownds from before, and when I was talking with him -- he probably
doesn't even remember this. He
looked at me and he said, How you doing, Captain? I said, Fine, Colonel. He said, No -- he
pulled me aside away
from the radio operator, and he said, Mac, how you doing? And I said, I'm hanging in
there. And he said, I know you
will. And he gave me a cigar.
Just that touch, folks, just that touch. And I knew what I'd known before, but
reinforced the fact, that we had a
caring, concerned, intelligent, super Regimental Commander, who knew what the hell it was
to 'take it,' 'take it,' 'take
it,' and bounce back to be a Marine. Colonel, God bless you!
[applause]
["MAC"] Radcliffe, Ken Pipes, and Earle Breeding, along with John Kaheny,
continued to stand behind the Colonel
during his remarks]
Colonel David Lownds: Thank you very much. You know how to bring a grown man to
tears, that's for sure. I've
known these three men for many years now. They're all outstanding figures as everyone else
in the Regiment is, as
far as I'm concerned.
It's really a pleasure to be here and to talk with you all. I must confess, though,
after talking with nearly everybody
and walking around the room, that I felt I was a pretty good Commander and I thought I had
a pretty good hand on
what the hell was going on in Khe Sanh. I didn't! I didn't! They did! These guys never
kept me fully in touch
I planned to tell you just a few instances as I saw them -- and my version might be
different from what you've heard
from the people around here. And if you'll excuse me, I got this in big print because as I
get older my memory goes
a little bad. The story goes that Oliver Wendel Holmes, a Justice from Massachusetts, got
on a train, and I guess he
was going down to see the Boston Red Sox loose again. I can say that because my dog's name
is "Fenley" and my
wife's car is named [?], so I think I have the right to make that comment. And he got on
the train and the Conductor
came around to collect the tickets. And the Justice started looking all around, What have
I done with my tickets?
And the Conductor said, Don't worry about it, Mr. Justice, I know who you are. And he
said, My good man, you don't
understand the problem: Where am I going? [laughter]
That's my problem; I can't remember from there to here, so you'll have to excuse me.
I think if I had to start off by saying any one thing, I'd have to quote an Army man,
General MacArthur. He made a
speech at West Point, which, if any of you have never read, you should read; it's really
outstanding. I think it's
entitled, [?], Duty, Honor, Country. He made a statement in there that very aptly
satisfies me and that is, he said,
Unhappily, I have neither that eloquence of diction, poetry of imagination, and brilliance
of meteaphor, to tell you all
that you mean to me. Your courage, your determination, your fortitude, your obedience --
everything about you is
outstanding.
And I think I could stand up here for a week and I could never tell you what you have
meant to me.
You know, being a Marine Commander -- it just isn't -- it really isn't just being a
commander. As you've heard nearly
everybody here say, You're a band of brothers. Well, in my case, I guess you'd say, A band
of sons. I don't know
that people ever really realize that if you're in command of a group of Marines, not
necessarily in combat, but when
you go home at night, they really all sit down at the table with you. I mean, you can't
take them out of your mind.
You're always thinking of them. And when the end of the day comes, and you go home and you
sit down at the
table, they're all with you. And I feel the same way -- I don't care if you're a regiment
or a division or a corps, if you're
the Commanding General or the Commanding Colonel, you take those people home with you at
night. They're yours.
And you love them and want them.
I got taken to task on a TV program by an eminent Army General who I said, I told the
West Point cadets, You
gentlemen take care of these enlisted people, because they're going to determine whether
you live or die. And
they've gotta love you and you've gone love them. And the moderator said, General, what do
you think of that? And
he said, Well, I don't know that 'love' is the right word; you've gotta respect -- . Hell,
with all deference to the General
you love each other, not in a sexual way, but -- you see these guys hugging each other.
That's what makes an
organization and makes people. And so, that's a start of my talk anyway.
And then I was going to read General Krulak's letter, but I know you are all very
familiar with what -- I was here and I
was there, and people are going to say, I was at Khe Sanh.
And I stand up here proudly and say, I was at Khe Sanh and I was really damn proud to
serve with you. I could say, I
was at Iwo and I was proud to serve there, but Khe Sanh, since I had the distinct honor of
being the Regimental
Commander and Base Commander, I was there. And so I won't read that to you; I'll just say
that that's it.
I have a bunch of stories. One story is kind of a personal thing, I don't think my
sister would object to it. My sister,
Pat, when she was a youngster -- when I say youngster, 15 or 16. My dad served in World
War I in the Army. At
Christmas time he'd always tell the story -- or used to start telling the story and say,
Pat, did I ever tell you about the
guy in the Army that I served with? And she'd say, Dad, don't do it. And he'd say, Well,
let me tell you this; I'll tell
you once more, Pat. He said, the mail call'd come and they'd call out the names: Lownds,
here; Majorsky, here; Smith, here; Jones, here. And this poor, old, Corporal or PFC, with
tears in his eyes, would say, No mail for me? He'd say, No. My sister—well that was
the end. She broke up.
Well, just to show you how things come around. Probably none of you know this—or maybe the gentleman's in the room today, I don't know. I went out on Chuistmas Day and was walking the lines, and I come beside this Marine who was sitting beside the road, crying, and I asked him, What was the matter? What is the matter, son? He said, Colonel, I just got here a few days ago, been in country now for about a month, and I haven't got any mail. And I said, Where have you been? He said, They keep transfering me—. Well, evidently what happened the young man was put in one place, and then when something happened some where else, they had to move him somewhere else, so they kept moving him.
Well, right away, tears came to my eyes, because I knew what in the hell he was talking about because I had watched my sister cry many Christmasses. So I went back to the CP, and I said, I don't care what happens, I don't care if you move heaven and earth, this man gets mail today! Not tomorrow, today! They came back, Bad weather for helicopters. I said, I don't care whether the helicopters are flying or not flying, bring it up by carrier pigeon, I don't care.
Well, they can't find it.
Find it! Find it! Or I'm going to see theGeneral. And eventually the young man got his mail. The story has always stuck with me.
I think determination, willingness, attention to duty—. The Commanding Officer walked down in the ammo dump, and there was some still exploding. This man wasn't part of; ammo people. This guy was there, and I said, What are you doing down there? Stuff was exploding all around. And he said, Taking charge of this post and all government property around. Well, that is the fust General Order. And I said, Well, you get out of here because no sense in you being here. But he stayed there, regardless of what was happening, because it was his duty to do so.
I don't know whether it's true or not, so I'm not going to state it unequivocably, but I'd have to guess that you people in this room came the closest to B-52 strikes as anybody. The JCS at the time of Vietnam had a restriction that said you can't come within a thousand meters of the troops. And that didn't quite satisfy me because I knew—or I thought I knew—I guess I did, as it turns out—but I thought I knew where theiu jump-off point would be. So I went to General Tompkins and said, I want a B-52 strike. He said, Well, they're already in the air. I said, I don't care. I had talked to the Aiu Force people to make sure that, Number One, they were accuuate within 250 meters, and Number Two, that they could change it in the aiu. And he said, I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do it. He said, You're welcome to talk to General Westmoreland.
We had a helluva Marine General down there [in Westmoreland's staff]. I don't know whether any of you ever served with him or knew him, John Chaisson. He was kind of the "3", the operations guy and a helluva officer, a Harvard graduate, intelligent as they come—rough as they come. I don't know it to be true, I understand that somebody gave him a bunch of sass at school when they were going to junior school, and he laid him out low, and kept his promotion down one year. And John said, I'll talk to General Westmoreland again. I said, I'd had about enough. I want something. How about you patch me through to the President. Oh! That shook them! So, to make a long story a little shorter, they finally said, OK, we'll change it; we'll put it where you want them. So I told them: 250 yards in front of the front lines by the early dawn. "Oh! Can't do it!" Said, How 'bout 500. I said, No, I want them 250. Said, We gotta go back to Washington. So they went back to Washington and Washington eventually gave us a [?], so we got a B-52 strike. So it just stands to reason that you guys were probably the closest to a B-52 strike as anybody ever had been. I don't know if they had any in DESERT STORM that beat it, but I don't think anybody in Vietnam ever beat it.
And incidentally as a by-line, I am told that that B-52 strike wiped out two battalions or the better part of a regiment, so it was worthwhile.
A couple other stories. [Note: Thefollowing stories occurred prior to the Siege battle] I had the gentleman who was the Preventative Medicine guy come in the bunker and he said, Siu, we have a problem. I said, What's my problem? He said, We can't find the rats. I said, Well, that's no problem, is it? We're getting rid of them. He said, Well, no. He said, Part of the time we poison them, and when that doesn't work, we trap them. He said, But now, we can't poison them and we can't trap them. So I said, Well, just keep on it, Chief. He said, OK. About three days later he came back and he said, I got the problem solved. I said What wac the solution to theproblem? He said, Well, the rats are gone because the Vietnamese workers coming in to load sandbags would catch the rats entering the traps, break their back legs, stick them in their pockets and take them home for their evening meal.
I was ordered to take the Commander to see the Millers, who were the missionaries
putting the Bru language into
Bru writing. Nobody had ever done this before, and they were working for the Wycliffe
Bible Institute. And when I got
back, his driver said to me, I'd prefer if we didn't do that anymore. I said, What's the
matter? He said, Come here, a
minute. So he showed me; there were two holes in the jeep. I said, Gees! General Hochmuth
will kill me if the
gentleman gets killed. He said, Well, I just want you to know that I don't enjoy going on
those sojourns anymore!
I think that one thing that really impressed me: took the driver and the radio and went
back in the hills to a village -- a
little boy standing there, naked, and he couldn't speak any English and I couldn't speak
any Bru. but he held up
something. Now this was way back in the woods. He held it up. And as you know there's
plenty of clay there. He
made himself a clay helicopter to proportion. And he had even gone on to the point of
having the machineguns come
out of the helicopter at the right spots. I got a picture at home. It's always impressed
me that people say they were
dumb; they're not dumb, they just never had the chance to have an education. But he had
made this model
helicopter big as life, and it was great.
Oh, "Mac" was talking about General Tompkins coming in. He came in one day
and he said, Dave, why aren't your
patrols getting further out? Why is it taking so long to do this little bit? I said, Well,
care to go for a walk, General?
[laughter]. Sure! So I called Jim Wilkinson [Battalion CO of 1/261 and said, Jim,
we need a platoon to take the
General. So he said, OK. So he sent a platoon and we met them at the edge of the airstrip
and they started going.
They weren't going very fast. The General said, Well, let me get up there; let me show
you how to do this. About
three minutes he said, I understand; thanks; forget it! [laughter]. He learned
really quick [the density of the
vegetation and the sharp inclines and declines of the terrain].
Another thing that impressed me was -- everybody says Marines are hard-boiled, brutal
killers. I wish some of those
people could have been in Khe Sanh Village on Christmas Day. Some young -- and it had
nothing to do with me; it
wasn't to my credit at all. Some young Marine had sent home and got a Santa Claus suit.
Took some candy out of the messhall, and he went down into the village. And eventually --
let me tell you -- I went down with him just to see how it went -- and
eventually had to pull him out because he was getting mobbed. The compassion and the
caring that would make a
man who was standing there ready to live or to die, and then sending home for Santa Claus
-- it just -- like I say --
makes an old man cry.
There was an old man -- and everybody knows my cigar; I got one right here --the people
in the hills -- I ran out of
cigars for a couple of reasons. One is, I just ran out. The other is, way back I had taken
a box of cigars. I gave
them to the S-l, and I said, Put these cigars so when I run out, I got a box to fall back
on, and put it somewhere -- I
want that sucker there when I need it. And we got a bunch of incoming. I was out of
cigars. I needed a cigar to relax
my nerves a little bit. So I said, Send the "l" in. The " I " didn't
come in because, unfortunately he had been killed by
that blast. But the Top Secret Clerk said, Your cigars were in the Top Secret safe,
Colonel, and I hate to tell you
this. And I said, Well, you'd better hate to tell me if anything happened to those cigars!
He said, Well, I hate to tell
you, but that blast also took the Top Secret material out and took your cigars out, so I
didn't have any cigars. Well,
the people in the hills -- on 881 if I'm not mistaken -- they sent me down a box.
Well, it had been my habit, when I
went down to Khe Sanh Village -- there was an old Bru man -- he must have been 70, 80, and
he would be sitting on
the front porch, and we'd stop the jeep, go in and light up a couple of cigars in my
pocket. We'd sit down. I'd give
him one; I'd have one, and we'd smoke together. I got an awful lot of information from
him. He couldn't speak any
English and I couldn't speak any Bru, but he had ways of transmitting stuff to me and he
was really a big help. He
was a grand old guy, and I always wonder what happened to him -- I could never find out.
Well, I've taken enough of your time. I'll close by saying it was my pleasure, really.
I've enjoyed every minute of you.
I'm overwhelmed by your patience with me, your concern for me, and I thank you, and God
bless you all.
[Those present stood up, sustained applause, and spontaneous singing started by someone
in the midst of the
group of "He 's a Jolly Good Fellow. "]
Mr. Kaheny: Thank you, Khe Sanh Veterans, ladies,guests, and families. Chaplain
Stubbe, if you would
come up here and give us the Benediction. But before we do that I want to thank Sergeant
Tallis.
Would all of you in the Color Guard please stand, and give them a big round of applause.
[applause]
Chaplain Ray W. Stubbe: Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we thank You that you fill us and have filled us so abundantly. You make us
feel that there is no other group of people that we would rather be with forever than
perhaps this group. You fill us with love and life, and hope, and future, good
things, fun, and good memories. We thank You that You provide for us, and we ask Your
blessing upon us as we continue to embrace each other and those we love.
In Your Holy Name we pray. Amen.
Mr. Kaheny: Thank you Ray. And with that, ends our formal presentation, and now it's all up to Jerry Hays and his great show. He's a great Vietnam veteran and we're going to have some fun tonight, so enjoy it all. God bless all of you. I appreciate all the work of the Reunion Committee with Carl Oksnee and all the support staff did for us this weekend. This has been one of the best reunions we've ever had to me personally. [applause].
[50/50 raffle result was announced. Mrs. Lownds pulled the winning ticket. Winner: "T-Bone" Jones. Amount: 8186.00 out of a total of $372.00].
Mr. Bruce Jones: I'll just roll it back to the organization. It's kinda wild. I got lucky.
Mr. John Kaheny: OK. Have fun everybody. Vince, if you're out
here, you gotta see this guy; he's got some money for you. Let's get the music going and
have a good time. Thank you very much.