West Dickens Avenue: A Marine at Khe SanhIn January 1968, John Corbett and his fellow leathernecks of the 26th Marine Regiment fortified a remote outpost at a place in South Vietnam called Khe Sanh. Within days of their arrival, twenty thousand North Vietnamese soldiers surrounded the base. What followed over the next seventy-seven days became one of the deadliest fights of the Vietnam War—and one of the greatest battles in military history. Private First Class Corbett made do with little or no sleep for days on end. The enemy bombarded the base incessantly. Extremes of heat, cold, and fog added to the misery, as did all manner of wounds and injuries too minor to justify evacuation from frontline positions. The emotional toll was tremendous as the Marines saw their friends suffer and die every day of the siege. Corbett relates these experiences through the eyes of a twenty-year-old but with the mind and maturity of a man now in his fifties. His story of life, death, and growing up on the front lines at Khe Sanh speaks for all of the Marines caught up in the epic siege of the Vietnam War. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 14 | |
Welcome to Khe Sanh | 23 |
West Dickens Avenue | 44 |
A MillionDollar Wound | 65 |
On the Job Training | 89 |
Under Enemy Fire | 121 |
In Enemy Sights | 149 |
Theyve Come to Kill Us | 163 |
Home Is Where You Dig It | 188 |
SeventySeven Days of Combat | 208 |
Back to the Jungle | 239 |
Im Leaving | 244 |
Epilogue | 251 |
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Common terms and phrases
81mm mortar Ackerman airstrip ambush ammo dump ammunition ARVN attack barrel Battalion blown bombs Bravo Company bullet bunker C-ration canteen cargo chopper combat base cover crater crew Da Nang dirt emplacements enemy fire enemy guns enemy mortar enemy shell enemy soldiers explode feel feet fighting hole flak jacket flares forward observer foxhole front grenades gun pit gunners head hear helicopter hooch incoming inside jungle Khe Sanh killed land Lang Vei look M16 rifle Mack Marine Corps morning mortar rounds Nang nearby night noise North Vietnamese North Vietnamese Army Okinawa outpost patrol perimeter pilot plane poncho positions radio rifle Rockpile roof sandbags shot shouting shrapnel sleep sound South Vietnam squad stand stretcher strike target tell trench line valley Viet Viet Cong Vietnam wait walk watch weapon wear West Dickens Avenue wire wounded