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From: russellellis@webtv.net
Date: 18 Apr 2000
Time: 01:22:20
Remote Name: 209.240.200.184
I remember ariving at Cantho in Oct 67 and there was no real security there at all. I was with the 13 security police and all we had was some towers and a small bunker below them and they were a long way apart.. One of the towers was at the end of the runway, a lonely place to be. During TET that area was over-run and a truck loaded with SP's was hit by an rpg round as it rushed down the runway to get troops in that area. And you are right, it was after at least the first wave before they built a land wall around the base. There was no wall yet when they hit us on the side where the POW camp was and got through us to raid the choppers. The towers and bunkers were way to far apart to do any good at that time.. I remember the Rockets and morters coming in and bouncing off the huge tanks full of fuel. There were quite a few land assults from the TET on I think two before the building of the wall and at least three big ones after that. I was with the security unit up until the one after the big land wall was put up. I was then sent with three other men to fire the morters at the speical forces camp and I know there was at least two big ones while I was there because we fired flares so the troops could see at night. The first night we fired flares and dualed with the VC morter and rocket areas along the river and the next night we had to stop firing because all we had was old charges left and to many weren't working. Then there were a lot of nights with incoming. Does anyone have any after acton reports on these battles. I also remember a night the VC killed all the Arvin in an ambulance and got to the gate and they had there weapons pointed at us. We called it in and no one belived us. They drove to the airfield and shot up an Arvin chopper loaded with wounded. Then escaped through the weeds on the other side of the runway. This was before TET and the big wall, there wasn't even a tower on that side. I also remember sappers getting a line of choppers, before TET. Something to remember is that Cantho was considered a safe area before TET and they were not prepaired for what happened. But I do think they knew something was up because a lot of troops were sent there from combat units to be SP's not long before TET. A group of us came there from the 11th Cav.. By the way I saw two photo's that I am not to sure about.. The one with the Cav unit, I think it says 7 cav.. The Blackhorse in Red and White is the 11th cav Patch. Also some of the photos listed as 1968 of the runway don't seem right because the runway was made of psp linked together.. It seems they were paving it when I left but am not sure it was even then.. Russ