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What do you remember about Khe Sanh? A friend, a funny moment, a difficult day, a lesson learned, or a memory that has stayed with you all these years? Share it with your fellow Raiders in the Red Clay Rocket! Send to: admin@khesanh.vet
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THE FOLLOWING STORY WAS PREVIOUSLY POSTED ON THE KSV FACEBOOK PAGE
My 9 Days at Khe Sahn
By: KENNETH CZYSZ
FLIGHTLINE CREW
Forward –
As a USAF Air Cargo Specialist – 15th Aerial Support Squadron, I was assigned to the DaNang Air Base flight line for my one year tour. I arrived in country in early January of 1968. My duty was loading and unloading various cargo planes, of which the majority was the C-130. Within the first couple of weeks, we were taking in rockets at night and I heard the Tet Offensive was starting.
My Khe Sahn experience began with our top sergeant coming into our line shack saying that he received a request to ask for volunteers to help on the flight line at a Marine Firebase up at Khe Sahn. The time frame for the stint was 9 days.
I was in country for about a month at that time and thought about it for a day or so before I told him I would go. A fellow airman and I were getting ready to head up to Khe Sahn. The morning we were supposed to go, the other airman came down with an ailment so I had to go by myself.
I was issued a M16 and ammo and off I went. The following is a recollection of those 9 days. I am not a journalist, so I didn’t keep a daily record but I decided that I could write/paraphrase about the highlights (lowlights) of my Khe Sahn experience.
Rats –
Upon arrival I was assigned to a hooch and was surprised to find out everyone slept in underground quarters. As I entered the hooch and looked for a place to sleep, I was told that the only bunk that was available was in the back room where the C Rations where stored. It was a bunk with upper and lower unoccupied. I took the upper.
My first night was a real wakeup call as while asleep, I felt something run across my legs. As we were told not to turn on any lights after dark, I used my lighter to see a couple of the biggest rats I have ever seen scurry into a hole in the wall.I spent the whole 9 days in that back room sleeping with my boots on and my flack vest over my head. I vaguely remember someone asking me how I slept that first night and some laughter in the background. It turns out they knew about the rats and left food out on table to keep the rats from getting too hungry.
C130 –
On Feb 10th we witnessed a Marine C130 (Silver) landing on fire and after not returning to the tarmac like usual. After waiting a couple of minutes, another airman and I took a Jeep down to see if I they could use some help. We were stopped and told to turn around as the plane was on fire and could possibly explode. Sadly, 8 of the 11 men on board perished and the plane was destroyed.
F4’s –
While heading back to flight line shelter on forklift, I was startled as the first of two F4’s screamed over my head – it seemed like 300 feet or so above me. I never heard them coming. They headed over to the valley below and went into an attack formation over the valley. They flew in a vertical circle about 180 degrees opposite each other. They took turns dropping the napalm bombs followed by rockets and ended up with cannon. Once finished they took off at high rate of speed. It was quite the experience to witness this and I hoped Charlie ate every one of those F4’s payloads.
Guard Duty –
Our hooch senior officer made an announcement that there was a possibility that the NVA was going to attempt to overrun the base that night and said we were to take turns manning the entrance to stop potential satchel charges being thrown into the hooch.
I remember the eerie feeling of silence and darkness - lit up by our flares. Good thing I was accompanied by a Marine in the trench in front of the hooch with me.
Purple Heart –
As anyone who spent time at Khe Sahn knows, there was always incoming at any point in the day. To us on the flight line, it seemed more so when a plane landed. My primary job was to either pick up pallets from the tarmac or hook up rollers to the tailgate to assist the offload of cargo (most of which was ammo). I was on the forklift returning for another pallet when an incoming round landed close to me.
The closeness made me jump from the forklift and in doing so, I scraped my hand and forearm on the tarmac. I jumped back on the forklift and finished the job. After that, I went to the medic tent for some bandaging.
The medic came back with a tag to fill out for a purple heart. I told him I wasn’t hit and my scrapes were self inflicted. He said if you are bleeding, you are eligible for a purple heart. I told him that I didn’t want one without being injured by shrapnel or bullet. I never regretted that.
Near miss –
I had one other near miss when it was my turn to run the rollers out to hook up to the tailgate. We usually waited for the first sign of the tailgate opening to run them out. For some reason, I hesitated for a moment and a round landed right behind the plane. I believe I dodged a major one by doing so.
Return Flight back to Da Nang –
On my 9th day, I was heading back to Da Nang and I recall getting on the plane and lying on the floor holding onto a strap tied down the width of the plane. The loadmaster said hang on as we were, out of necessity, going in to a steep climb leaving Khe Sahn. When I arrived back at DaNang, I remember someone asking me where did I get so messed up in red dirt. I told him Khe Sahn. He seemed clueless.
I am currently a life member of the Khe Sahn Veterans Association and had the pleasure of attending the 2018 reunion in Washington. DC. On the last night, my wife and I attended the banquet and were seated at a table with all marines. As we introduced ourselves I didn’t mention that I was not a marine.
As the evening wore on and everyone seemed to mention what marine company they served in. I avoided stating that I was an Air Force veteran because I felt kind of out of place. Eventually, I was asked what company I served in, by a Marine officer at our table.
When I said that I was an Air Force veteran and told them my purpose for being at Khe Sahn was, I was pleased at how well they accepted me. I was even given a challenge coin when I shook the hand of the officer as we were leaving. I didn’t realize the honor it represented at the time, but do now.
Looking back 58 years ago, it seems somewhat surreal. There is a lot of my time spent at Khe Sahn that I don’t remember but I will always remember the above events and remain proud that I served with the Marines albeit, for a short time.
I am currently a life member of the Khe Sahn Veterans Association and had the pleasure of attending the 2018 reunion in Washington. DC. On the last night, my wife and I attended the banquet and were seated at a table with all marines. As we introduced ourselves I didn’t mention that I was not a marine.
As the evening wore on and everyone seemed to mention what marine company they served in. I avoided stating that I was an Air Force veteran because I felt kind of out of place. Eventually, I was asked what company I served in, by a Marine officer at our table.
When I said that I was an Air Force veteran and told them my purpose for being at Khe Sahn was, I was pleased at how well they accepted me. I was even given a challenge coin when I shook the hand of the officer as we were leaving. I didn’t realize the honor it represented at the time, but do now.
Ken Czysz
Former Staff Sergeant
USAF 1967 – 1971
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THE FOLLOWING WAS SUBMITTED BY DAVID JACOBSON (VIA FACEBOOK)
‘A hell of a soul’: Combat medic’s actions in Vietnam
lead his son on a mission to honor him
By LINDA F. HERSEY STARS AND STRIPES • August 4, 2026
WASHINGTON — A Vietnam veteran’s son is on a mission to gather the evidence needed for his late father — a combat medic — to be considered for a Navy Cross for his actions to save wounded comrades in battle near Khe Sanh base, a remote military outpost near Laos that is now a memorial site.
The Navy Cross is the service’s second-highest decoration for extraordinary heroism in combat awarded to a member of the Navy or Marines.
David Jacobson, of Massachusetts, has been collecting eyewitness accounts, old letters, newspaper stories, military reports and sworn affidavits about an enemy ambush on Hill 861 on March 16, 1967, and the actions of his father, Russell H. Jacobson Jr., to treat the wounded as he himself came under fire.
Russell Jacobson was shot multiple times as he moved the injured from the battlefield, and then returned to help others, according to the documentation. The North Vietnamese Army then used Jacobson’s broken body as a decoy to fire at Marines who tried to reach him.
“This was one of the opening battles of Khe Sanh, a period of heavy casualties and constant movement,” David said.
To be considered for a Navy Cross, “the act or the execution of duty must be performed in the presence of great danger or at great personal risk and must be performed in such a manner as to set the individual apart from his shipmates or fellow Marines,” according to the legislation authorizing the award.
Jacobson was a Navy hospital corpsman attached to a Marine unit in Vietnam. He was on a nighttime patrol with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines on Hill 861, which overlooked the base, when troops came under attack. The peak was named 861 for its height in meters.
“The North Vietnamese Army had professionally prepared their bunkers in depth, with fields of fire and camouflage beyond anything the Marines had ever experienced. It became a bloodbath for the trapped Marines who continued the assault as assigned,” David wrote on the website, KheSanh.vet, which is dedicated to the men who fought and served at Khe Sanh.
The battle was chronicled in Edward F. Murphy’s book, “The Hill Fights: The First Battle of Khe Sanh,” which described the bravery and desperation of the Americans, outnumbered and outgunned by a hidden enemy during a series of hillside attacks near the outpost.
“Published accounts of the battle describe my father and another wounded Marine lying exposed for an extended period while enemy forces remained dangerously close, as the fighting continued around them,” David wrote.
As the fighting subsided, the North Vietnamese withdrew but first placed a grenade under Jacobson’s backpack, which detonated, shattering his right hip and tearing a kidney. His flak jacket had body armor that protected his torso, David said.
“When the Marines found Dad, there was no pulse,” David said. “He was loaded onto the medevac as a casualty, believed to be dead. However, he was still alive.”
The last casualties from clashes on Hill 861 were evacuated by helicopter on March 17, 1967.
Nineteen U.S. troops were killed and 59 injured in the fighting on Hill 861. The Marines secured the hill in late April 1967 before subsequent battles shifted to nearby peaks, by Marine Corps University, in Quantico, Va.
In a May 1967 letter to Jacobson, Marine Cpl. Herbert Thompson credited the corpsman with saving several Marines who otherwise would not have survived.
“Regardless of what you think, you and only you were the fact that they made it out OK,” Thompson wrote to Jacobson, while recovering from injuries at Portsmouth Naval Hospital, in Virginia.
Thompson ended the letter with the message, “Always remember you will have me as a lasting true friend.”
Jacobson’s medical records from Chelsea Naval Hospital, Mass., in December 1967 identified multiple gunshot and fragmentation wounds, broken bones and severe injuries to both legs, nerve damage and kidney trauma.
Jacobson received a Purple Heart while recovering at Chelsea Naval Hospital, where he was a patient for nearly a year.
He had dozens of surgeries to save and set his damaged limbs, remove the torn kidney and rebuild his right hip.
Shrapnel lodged in his body was never completely recovered and caused him pain, David said. Jacobson wore a leg brace and walked with a cane for the rest of his life.
“The war physically followed my father home for the rest of his life,” said David, who created a website in his father’s honor that documents Jacobson’s actions in that consequential battle. “The wounds he sustained on Hill 861 led to surgery after surgery over many years — a constant physical reminder of what that day had cost him. Only later in life did we begin to understand how extraordinary, and how traumatic his experience truly was.”
In “The Hill Fights,” published in 2003, the author described Jacobson’s actions under fire and sourced witnesses who fought in the battle, including Staff Sgt. Spencer Olsen, who received a Silver Star for his own actions during the engagement.
Jacobson died of lymphoma at age 68 on Jan. 9, 2015, which his family attributed to exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam.
“Looking back now, I realize how much we learned simply by watching how my dad carried himself,” David said about his father, who studied at Yale University after military service and worked as a physician’s assistant. “He taught us that while people cannot control the terrible things that happen in life, they can control how they carry it forward.”
David is assembling the evidence on behalf of his mother, Peggy, a retired nurse, and the entire family.
Peggy said that Russell only discussed his war experiences in bits and pieces, when asked questions or triggered by memories that saddened him.
“This is an honorable request by the family. It is a tribute to someone who gave it all — a recognition of valor,” said Denis Russell, the Veterans of Foreign Wars post commander in Plymouth, Mass., where the Jacobson family resided.
Russell and Roxanne Whitbeck, Plymouth’s veterans service director, are providing assistance with research, documentation and outreach to state lawmakers, military members and others to generate interest and support.
“Let’s do what’s right, even though it is posthumously,” Russell said.
The Jacobson family has asked the office of Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., to submit the recommendation, and the congressman’s staff has been sending forms for the family to complete, in preparation, according to their emailed communications.
Keating’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Federal statute allows members of Congress to request consideration for military valor awards, including the Navy Cross, with no time limitations.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has a biography of Jacobson on the In Memory Honor Roll.
“During his life, Russ had over 90 surgical procedures, primarily related to his orthopedic injuries sustained in Vietnam. The obvious outward injuries are what we saw,” the biography states.
“The emotional injuries remained inside. There is no question that Russ carried dark and unthinkable images and memories in his head. Though he would talk about it if asked, he never brought it up.
“His love of life, family and doing the right thing is the ‘nutshell perception’ people would have of this guy. Always [with] a smile on his face and a positive outlook, he was a hell of a soul.”
Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/history/2026-08-04/vietnam-veteran-son-navy-cross-22448580.html?
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