Roy Dean lived about 7 blocks north on the street where I grew up. He joined the Marines the last day of June 1966, the month we graduated from East High School in Kansas City, Missouri. He was trained as a "scout-sniper." He went to Vietnam in October 1967 in Company A, 1st Battalion of the 9th Marines.
“On 23 Jan, the 45 men of First Platoon, A/l/9, under the command of 2/Lt ROACH, together with 20 men of the l/9 Weapons Platoon under the command of 2/Lt LOVELY established an OP position at XD 823 4l6, called 'Hill 64.' At 0445H, NVA forces suddenly unleashed the fury of a mortar attack on the outpost and launched a 3-prong assault on it. By 05l3H, NVA were inside the wire...
"CPL McDANIEL asked for my grenade pouch. As I was handing the pouch to him another grenade landed between us again. This one must of been a frag because it knocked the hell out of me and the CPL. Everything seemed to be in slow motion. CPL McDANIEL’s face seemed to lift off, leaving a bloody mess, and then he fell backwards into the trench.”
--This and other remembrances of the 45 men killed February 1968 at Khe Sahn are online at the website Khe Sahn Veterans, from information compiled by Chaplain Ray W. Stubbe in his book Battalion of Kings.
"...three companies of the NVA 101D Regiment moved into jump-off positions to attack Alpha-1, an outpost just outside the Combat Base held by 66 men of Company A, 1st Platoon, 1/9 Marines. At 04:15 on 8 February under cover of fog and a mortar barrage, the North Vietnamese penetrated the perimeter, overrunning most of the position and pushing the remaining 30 defenders into the southwestern portion of the defenses. For some unknown reason, the NVA troops did not press their advantage and eliminate the pocket instead throwing a steady stream of grenades at the Marines. At 07:40 a relief force from Company A, 2nd Platoon set out from the main base and attacked through the North Vietnamese, pushing them into supporting tank and artillery fire. By 11:00 the battle was over, Company A had lost 24 dead and 27 wounded, while 150 North Vietnamese bodies were found around the position which was then abandoned." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khe_Sanh
The NVA wanted accress to Route 9, which ran east from the north-south Ho Chi Minh trail just across the Laotian border. Their Tet offensive was in preparation, and they planned to use Route 9 to transport troops to the coast, and south on connecting highways. The Marine base at Khe Sahn, overlooking the Demilitarized Zone and Route 9, blocked the way.
The NVA easily captured Khe Sahn village on 22 January 1968, cutting off the US Special Forces and ARVN base at Lang Vei. On 23 January they captured Ban Houei Sane, a 700-man Royal Laotian Army post about a mile west across the border from Lang Vei. The NVA threw 2000 men and (their first use of) armor against Ban Houei Sane, overwhelming its garrison in hours.
Lang Vei was effectively surrounded, and the major U.S. base at Khe Sahn under siege, when the NVA launched their Tet offensive on 30 January. Lang Vei was overrun on the night of 6-7 February 1968. Roy Dean was killed February 8th.
President Johnson was worried that Khe Sahn would be "another Dien Bien Phu," (the besieged post whose capture marked the defeat of the French in Vietnam), and ordered Khe Sahn held at all costs. The base was the western anchor of the American defence-line that paralleled the Demilitarized Zone, and directly faced North Vietnam's border. General Westmoreland even briefly considered using tactical nuclear weapons against the NVA besieging Khe Sahn. He believed the rest of his life that the Tet offensive was a diversionary maneuver, and Khe Sahn the real NVA target.
An Army operation broke the siege of Khe Sahn in April, but the decision was made to evacuate the post in June. The NVA claimed victory. There was continued fighting in the area afterwards, but the base was not occupied again until January 1971, when it was used as an American support-base for ARVN troops who unsuccessfully attacked west down Route 9 into Laos. Khe Sahn base was again abandoned in April 1971.
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