Word: gio
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...feel like an ant on a dart board," says a young U.S. Marine at Gio Linh, the American artillery base carved out of the top of a hill overlooking North Viet Nam (see color opposite). The camp's main gate bids a black-humor welcome to "the Alamo of Viet Nam." Like neighboring Con Thien to the west, Gio Linh is the merest outstretched fingertip of the U.S. presence in Viet Nam, an isolated and vulnerable outpost less than two miles from the Demilitarized Zone. It lies in a no man's land that has become the bitterest...
...artillery. "We usually get a few rounds in the early morning as a sort of reveille," says Gio Linh Camp Commander Major Richard Froncek. "Then we will get a few rounds at noon and then more at sunset." The North Vietnamese seldom shell at night, presumably because they do not want to give away their positions with muzzle flashes. Much of the life of the 480 men manning Gio Linh is lived below ground in heavily sandbagged bunkers supported by thick wooden beams that can take all but a direct hit. In summer, when the temperature reaches...
...followed quickly by the final sharp bang of its explosion on impact. The whole process takes about eight seconds, giving the Marines time to dive for cover, though the North Vietnamese have an ominous new gun of unknown make that gives only a one-second warning. The men of Gio Linh have developed acute ears for descending shells, but the alert is usually given first by Hardcore, their pet Vietnamese mongrel dog. When Hardcore starts whining and heading for cover, the entire camp follows...
Marines at the artillery base at Gio Linh, about five miles south of the DMZ, witnessed the first successful deployment of SAM missiles in the area. Looking like a giant tracer bullet against the night sky, one Russian missile soared up, its firetail swishing as it chased a Marine A-4 Skyhawk maneuvering violently to escape. A sudden fireball erupted as the SAM hit its target. The use of SAMs along the DMZ could curtail the now frequent use of B-52 bombers along the much-buffeted buffer zone. The threat of SAMs has kept the less maneuverable eight-engine...
...ARTILLERY OVER THE DMZ. More than half the enemy's tonnage that moved southward during Tet was stacked in depots just north of the Demilitarized Zone. To counter that implicit threat, the U.S. artillery moved its 175-mm. "Long Toms" up to Gio Linh, two miles south of the DMZ, and began firing their 147-pounders at Red stockpiles and antiaircraft batteries as far as 20 miles away. Firing back, the Communists peppered the Long Tom positions with 655 mortar rounds in four attacks. They caused only light damage...