KSV News: Short Round 044

Modern Vietnam- 5

Khe Sanh & Hill 881N

At last!   From Northern Virginia, long ago and far away, we are finally approaching Khe Sanh.

We are driving north on the western side of South Vietnam from A Loui (A Shau Valley, west of Hue) to Khe Sanh on the Ho Chi Minh Highway, #9.  In this section, the north/south road parallels the mighty DaKrong River.  But, right now, the river is not flowing at all, and is completely dry in places. A decade ago, when we did the same drive, the biggest environmental issue was the industrial scale mining for gold in the river, using mercury/Quicksilver.  Of course, this polluted the river. Looking at it now, there cannot be a single fish alive 20 miles from Khe Sanh.

As we pass, I am remembering a passage from the “Eye of the Tiger”, a wonderful book / memoir by John Edmund Delezen, who served with Third Force Recon Company, in Vietnam.  His team was in a heavily vegetated hide on the banks of the Dakrong in this same area. They were looking for NVA river crossings.  While the rest of his team remained in the hide, he was detailed to a River overwatch position. Sitting on one of the boulders, he just had a feeling that something wasn’t quite right. Looking slowly around, he discovered that he was being patiently observed by large tiger sitting on a nearby boulder.

Well, folks, no surprise in Khe Sanh “Village”.  With one exception, in the whole “Village” area it is absolutely impossible to recognize anything from our days here.  Route 9 is a large metropolitan highway, four lanes in most places. Until you get way out of town, you can not even see past all of the buildings and construction to any vegetation.  I do not even bother to stop at the old base which now has a completely different airstrip installed during the failed invasion of Laos decades ago,.  Everything else in and around the base was bulldozed into the Red Clay decades ago.  They have installed a “museum” on the base site, with propaganda contents that are enough to make you puke.

The Rio Quan River, which ran behind the base and was our water supply, has been damed to create a large reservoir where Hill 558 used to be.  Hills 861 and 881S have been heavily planted with vegetation that makes passage up there almost impenetrable. And…….. the new huge windmills. The hills are covered with many dozens of them.  I guess something good finally came from, or despite, all the death and destruction.

The only recognizable landmarks are the venerable Hills 950 and 1015. They still stand as massive guardians over the base and the town.  Looking at those mountains now, it is hard to believe that I led a platoon patrol from 950 to 1015 and back.  Absolutely zillions of bad guy bunkers on the north side of that patrol route.  We were so fortunate not to disturb that hornet’s nest.

We drove west on Route9 from Khe Sanh Village to the Laotian border.  I have always wanted to see the tunnels that were dug from the west side of Co Roc to create the cliff face openings overlooking the Base where their artillery was.  Unfortunately, passage across the border into Laos was much more complicated than we had time to deal with.  Grudging credit to the NVA for creating this artillery position which eventually made the combat base untenable.

Instead, we found huge shopping centers at the border which were virtually empty. I had visited this area a decade ago.  Hundreds of small merchants there with inventory that is probably more than a decade old. Their life savings tied up in this inventory that will probably never sell. There just is no interest in cross border shopping.

And we visited the famous Lao Bao prison complex at the border.  Ho Chi Minh himself was even a guest there. The French, and later the Vietnamese, banished their most difficult prisoners to this is isolated and miserably hot location.  The gilluotine there got lots of use.  Interestingly, they used peacocks, which scream at any unfamiliar movement, as guards throughout the complex.

The next day, we visited Hill 881N. This was my third trip to the summit. In earlier years, it was difficult to get permission from the government. Now it is a breeze (no pun intended).  The place is covered with windmills and nothing else- there is no residential development permitted.

On earlier trips to 881N, it was remarkable to be able to see all the way back to the Base, and our positions on 881S and 861. With good optics, you could see everything we did within that quadrant of vision. Honest, you could even see someone taking a crap. I have no idea why it did not dawn on us that they had mapped every one of our defensive positions of significance that was visible from 881N.  Looking back, I’m pretty sure of that most of the attacks on 861 and 881S came through the areas that were visible from 881N.  And it was the perfect spot to launch rockets along the long axis of the base runway- hard to miss.  Looking back, we should have regularly dropped a couple of dozen bombs on the summit of 881N every couple of weeks. That would’ve been a good investment in the defenses of the Hills and the Base.

On this trip to the summit of 881N, the heavier vegetation and the windmills blocked a significant portion of that observation quadrant.  But the good news is that it is now easier to get to 881N. Attached, you will see a picture with the logo of a company that can take you up there in a four-wheel-drive vehicle.  $100 US.

Not a single person we came across had any interest in what had happened at Khe Sanh during the American war.  I found this a bit hard to deal with, but it is the reality. The Vietnamese have moved on to focus on creating a blooming economy. Every single person we met was genuinely happy to say hello and greet us with a smile.

No bad vibes.

SF

Bob Koury:  Website & Digital Manager