Word: airstrip
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Danang's 25-mile perimeter is patrolled by the so-called "Special Sector," made up of Vietnamese Rangers and U.S. Special Forces, which on two occasions in the past month has surprised Viet Cong units within mortar range of the airstrip. Last week one flustered patrol reported "enemy" activity, and Danang's artillery opened up-on a herd of 15 wild elephants...
...outrageous. In this age of scientific advancement, we surely could provide sufficient protection for our men and our bases anywhere. Westmoreland could set up electric eyes at certain intervals and guard these positions with only a few soldiers, making an almost foolproof fence around the base or the airstrip...
...Cong had unilaterally proclaimed a seven-day ceasefire. They spent that period busily caching explosives and setting up mortar positions near the central highlands town of Pleiku, 240 miles northeast of Saigon. As headquarters of South Viet Nam's II Army Corps and site of a U.S.-run airstrip at nearby Camp Holloway, Pleiku was a tempting target...
Only two hours after the so-called cease-fire ended at midnight, two squads of Viet Cong rushed out of the high grass near Camp Holloway's 4,200-ft. airstrip, cut through a double apron of barbed wire without being seen by guards, began blowing up parked helicopters and light reconnaissance planes with satchel charges. At the same time, guerrillas hiding in a hamlet 1,000 yds. from the camp poured 55 rounds from 81-mm. mortars smack into the compound where 400 U.S. advisers lived. They were right on target. Fifty-two billets were damaged, including some...
...installations adequately. By another reckoning, a big airfield like Danang would require a 17½-mile perimeter to keep it out of the range of 81-mm. mortars; a full U.S. division would be required for the job. Lacking such manpower, U.S. troops are improvising. At Quinhon's airstrip, officers and enlisted men alike have begun hiring rugged Mung tribesmen for $5 a month-paid out of their own pockets-for sentry duty. Such an arrangement is hardly S.O.P. for the Army, but in South Viet Nam, as one Defense Department official puts it, "there is no book-nothing...