Posts by Peter Brush

This article describes the harrowing experience of a young Marine during the Battle of Khe Sanh, and after. Date: August, 2025 In 1967, Ronald Ridgeway was a student at Sam Houston High School in Hallettsville, Texas.  In June, Ridgeway quit school and enlisted in the Marines. He was 17 years old and “wanted to get…

U.S. strategy for the defense of the DMZ during the Vietnam War called for interlocking bands of artillery fire, and the firebase at Camp Carroll was the linchpin Date: 1997 American military commanders are taught to use generous volumes of firepower instead of manpower to accomplish their military objectives and to minimize their casualties. Thus,…

Describes the efforts by the US Army to provide the Marines at Khe Sanh with air drops of food and other supplies. In 1993 a monument was dedicated in Arlington National Cemetery to the Marines who fought at Khe Sanh, arguably the longest and most bitterly contested battle of the Vietnam War. This formally acknowledged…

The court-martial of a Marine at Khe Sanh results in a method of confinement that reflected the unique circumstances of that battlefield. By Peter Brush By mid-February 1968, enemy artillery, rocket, and mortar attacks against the Marines at the Khe Sanh Combat Base had become a daily occurrence. The base was surrounded by an estimated…

The Marines at Khe Sanh had to deal with two enemies: The NVA, and thousands of rats. ©2002 Peter Brush Note: This article was originally published in Vietnam Generation, Volume 4, Number 3-4, Summer-Fall, 1992, pp. 94-98. Men who received orders to Vietnam had certain expectations of the place, based on their general life experiences…