CPL Robert Edward Niles

Birth – 3 Nov 1946

Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, USA

Death – 9 May 1967 (aged 20)

Quảng Trị, Vietnam (Khe Sanh)

Monument – National Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Plot – Panel 19e, Line 73

 

US Marines, 3rd Marine Division, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, F Company

Hill 778 Khe Sanh, South Vietnam, Quang Tri province.

★ Purple Heart

 

The Battle of Khe Sanh was conducted in northwestern Quaag Tri Province, South Vietnam with roots in 1967, and extending viciously throughout 1968. It was the longest, deadliest and most controversial battle of the Vietnam War.

 

During the battle, a massive aerial bombardment campaign (Operation Niagara) was launched by the United States. Over 100,000 tons of bombs. Five tons of bombs for every one of the 20,000 NVA soldiers in the fight. President Johnson was determined to hold Khe Sanh at all costs. The jungles surrounding Khe Sanh were burned and bombed barren and Khe Sanh became the major news headline coming out of Vietnam in late March 1968. The cost on American lives lost has been estimated to be around 1000 with NVA loses ten times that number.