Page 67 - Stand Down Vietnam

Our airfield was also a drop off place for wounded and
killed in action. We had a lot of helicopters landing
with bodies hanging all over the place. The U.S. Army
AMED processed the dead for return stateside. We had
an Army Hospital at the airfield for the wounded.

I was sent Da Nang to escort General Walt as he went to
several lectures. I was at Phu Bai during the TET

Offensive. We had the 3d Marine Division, a Sea Bee
Company, and a Marine Corps Rifle Company and an RVN
Boot Camp.

When the TET Offensive started our airfield was a busy
place. We had bodies coming in so fast that we had to
stack them in the mess hall ten high.

We got hit several times. We had an aircraft hit and
crash-landed with a General aboard. It crashed into
our ammunition bunker. That destroyed almost all the
ammo we had at the airfield at the time. All we had
left was what we had on us at the time of the crash.
We had seventeen killed that night; mostly women who
had been working at the airfield. They had been
cleared to work at the airfield.

We kept being attacked, one time we took more than a
hundred mortar rounds on the runway. It took over four
hours to repair that runway. We had seven buildings at

the airfield. When the TET Offensive was over, we only
had one building standing.

We were not prepared for the TET Offensive; a cease-
fire had been declared. We were always on guard and
prepared for attacks, but the TET Offensive was much
larger than we expected.

In my mind, the TET Offensive lasted nearly a year.
Every week we would get hit two or three times.