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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-05173 to 363-05185.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-05173 to 363-05185
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Title
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Second article on developments along the DMZ
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Description
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Original title: "tactics", Keever's title: "Marines do Helicopter Hopscotching along DMZ's Hilltops", Article draft about the use of helicopters to assist patrols along the DMZ, for the Christian Science Monitor
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AI Usage Disclosure
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Draft transcripts were automatically generated via Google Document AI and are currently under review. Please report significant errors to Archives & Special Collections at archives@unl.edu.
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Transcript
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2020 506
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tooties 2 (nosmans/doope)
(This is the second of a two-part series on developments along the
domilitarizod sone, Victor. As Speculation Reigns of
American bombing Halt
Halt
just not of the
AN
WITH THE U. S. THIRD MARINE DIVISION, ALONG THE DEMILITARIZED ZONE,
VIETNAM, OCTOBER 16-Marine units operating around the former
combat base of Khe Sanh have developed unique and highly mobile
tactics helicopter hopscotching along the mountain hilltops.
For roughly thirty miles along the Demilitarized Zone-from the
beginning of the northern hill-lands westward towards the Laotian border-
the Marines have dotted the tops of razor-back ridgelines and isolated
peake with a checkerboard of artillery bases, helicopter landing zones
the sise of three pingpong tables and bunkered patrol bases, that look
like igloos of green sandbags usted yi silhouetting against the jungle.
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More than 135 landing zones-some only large enough to land one
holiot holicopter at a time--and morethan 15 fire support bases for artillery
and infantry units have been hacked off
off the
out of the ridgelines and
on top of mountain peaks. The torrain is cleared either by chain saws 02
EUEN RAND
air-dropped domolitions, and occasionally over bomb orators are used.
Not all these hilltop bases are utilized at one many are vacated by ground
troops as they are helicoptered from one hilltop to another. When the
Marines leave, they donude the sandbags from the tops of the bunkers-0
that American aircraft can keep the positions under observations.
Thus,
far, the Communists have not boob boobytrapped or occupied any of the
Marine-created positions.
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AS
Sono strategie positions are manned constantly--but with a rotation
of union Merino units. Some bases wore held by the linrines se observation
10 look-outs even during the ninge of Khe Sanh. One of those bases is
atop 11 950, whore minefiled minefields laid by the French, the Communists
Americans engulf the Marines into an area the size of a football fiolds
and the
11 950 in considered strategio because it over-sees the northwest
MMUNIST
passage for infiltration in from Leon into South Vietnam.
Monkey-like animals harrass the mer Marines on Bill 950 by throwing
baseball-aised rocks at thom the Marinoo call them "rook-ape opes." A
wooden platform half the size of a tennis court serves as the helipads song
of the bigger helicoptere can land only on their rear wheels, while letting
the passengers out the rear gate, as the nose and front wheels of the
holicopter layed powered skyward.
One helicopter carrying a
Marine brigadier general has already crash-landed a at the mini-pad and the
officer was returned to the United States for medical care.
The 150-some landing zones and fire support bases have, all boen given names,
te former Marine Corps commandants,
several afbe-named after
several after girls, geveral after birds,
such as Robin and Hoito Halt and
Mallard. One is also named Winchester, which caused the Navy chaplain to
erect a simple altar amidst the jungled trees near the base and exolein,
"Ah, what could be bt bettor. Winchester Cathedral ".
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WHICH A
The small hilltops clearings, enable the Marines to employ a sort of
shotgun, or splatter-pe type of mobility, as distinct from the ground
mobility the Marines 2 failed to achieve at Khe Sanh before it was besieged
by larger Communist formations.
"Since the Khe Sanh siege was lifted," one sonior Marino officer
explained, "the Marines have a doubled tie their holiooptor-lift
capabilities up hore. The U. 3. Army's 1st of the 5th Mechanized Brigade
has taken over responsibilities along the DEZ near the seacoast. The Marines
have large, heavy ground maneuver elements that can defeat the onomyoshop
even when he's in the moutains and in the jungle, even though he can move
£zia-sanatueri in on do us from his @ sanctuarion in laoc or North Vietnam.
"The Marines are convinced the only way to keep them from threatening
other points in the populated areas z of Quang Tri province is to move liarines
out who and whonover we can find the enomy. We concentration on finding the
enemy from out-clear-out landing zones and then we put Marines in the
middle of the one
dy this arce.
We have cleared and now maintain landing zones all over
If a battein-battalion runs out of t'enomy and
sonating ia nore productive elsowhere, the Marines are moved. We move these
battaliono around holtor-skelter.
We try to pull book the Marine troops for
rest for one or two days out of every eight or nine days--but the main thing
for us & is to keep after the onomy."
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Other tactical features in this ridgeline-leapfrogging operation include:
1.
The integration of artillery and infantry units in the same
frontline location. As one officer explained, "This is the first time and
infantry and artillery have been tog so close together in one fire support
base since the American Civil War, when the artillery accompanied the
infantry to the battlefield. We have found that we can not maintain
forward infantry possibl positions without the artillery and we can't leave
the artillery alone without infantry protection from sapporsa Communist
TROUN
sappers and main-forec units. So,
But,
we have put them together on one hilltop.
noither the tax infantry nor the artillery units can go anywhere from
us here without the helicopters--which is the key to the operation."
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2. In the three-dimensional jungled torrain, the Marines now
are heli-dropped on the hilltops and bogin patrolling downwards into the
valloys. xim This is a rather significant change from the past, up
NCE
time of the lifting of the Khe Sanh siege in April. From the beginning of
the DMZ operation in 1966 mid-1966, the Marines st holi-bo drops were
captives of suitable landing zones mostly in the valleys--and, then the
often
troopers wore often forced to marching uphill against sometimes against
Communist dug-in positions.
The difference between marching from the hilltops downwards instead
of the valleys up the jagged hillsides and to the peaks is saving the Marines
incredible amount of time and energy. One i Marino battalion commandor
an
pointed out one of his company positions only a half mile away on the
map but a tangled, steep ridgeline away. He said it took his company
24 45 minutes to walk down the hill-but eight hours to wik walk back up it.
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Dm 2.
Those mobile tactics have enabled the Marines to regain the tactical
initiative on the western flank of the DIA. One othor helpful factor for
thom is that the Marine line companies are now at their greatest strongth
to date in the war; even many Marine companies were understrength as the
Marines landed in Vietnam in 1965; now the companies are up to strength,
informed sources report, up to a 150 to 180 mon per company because
only 700 V The reason has boon that only 700 Vef Vietnam-veterans i of
the 27th Marinos were withdrawal in September, and the rest of the
rogimont was assigned to Marine units along the Z.
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tactics 8 (normass/deepe)
Further east, on the seaside flank of the DIZ, the introduction of
the U. S. Army 5th Mochanized Brigade has also enhanced Allied mobility,
there, thus freeing Marines and Vietnamese troops from thoir bunkerod
outposts and barfod barb-wired installations such as at Con Thien.
Initial reports indicate that the 5th Mechanized Brigade, which replaced the
27ty th Marinos, is having trouble with Communist land mines and ambushes.
Some fear the monsoon rains in the sand-duno and shaggy brush environment will
further hemper the tanks and other tracked vehicles in the brigado. Already
operation to join up with Marines in the rolling "poidmont" hills into
one
he DMZ has boon cancelled, informed sources report, because the Army's armor
could not cope with the terrain.
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Like the Communists,
the Marines are faced with the two inmodiate
problems the monsoons and malaria. Malaria is considered far worse a
problem for the Communists than it is for the Marines; Many con Communist
prisoners talk of hoavy losses to their units because of fevers. But, it
is serious for the Marines too. Casualties from the "fever of unicown
unknown origin"--which turn out to be malaria 80 per cent of the time-are
WAR.
equal to combat casualties during quiet days of the wagesbym At times,
the fevers run so high that Marines are given emergency helicopter evacuation
off the frontlines for treatments there have been several fatalitiess
Allied military personnel in the two northern provinces are taking daily
supplemental anti-malaria pills, which has resulted in a 50 per cent drop
in the casualty rates and lessened the seriousness of the disease.
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One can not but conse the profound irony of the now Marine operations
along the DIZ, and the Army operations in the province just south of it,
in comparison with previous periods of the war. When the Marines landed
A
in the populated coastal lowlands in 1965, they sought to fight the
counter-insurgency was land to secure the local population. Toy
pooh-poohed the Army's hootic heliborne search-and-destroy operations
into the remote, jungled and spare sparesely populated areas. The Marines
resisted operating along the IIZ in search elusive North Vietnamese units
until directly ordered by General William C. Westmoreland in 19 mid-1966.
Now, the two services up here have changed roles with neither the Marines
nor the Army scoming to realizing it. Now, in Thua Thion province, the
Army's two elito, airmobile divisions-the 101st and 1st Cavalry-are
in the lowlands and the Army commanders are as enthusiastic about weeding
out the Communist "infrastructure" and protocting the local population as
the Marines were in 1965. And, the Marine commanders along the DMZ
to Pen han
are now enthusiastic about) operations) that they had once criticized the
Army for launching.
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While the Marines have regained the tactical offensive along the DMZ,
the Communiste continue to hold the strategic initiative. The DIZ DUZ
has consistently boon one of two places where the Allies have been on
the strategic defensive, the second place being the long defense line
of the U. S. Army 5 4th Infantry Division stretching from le fanning out
from Pleiku and facing the Cambodian-Laotian borders. The political
rules of engagement under which the Allied commandors have been ordered
the
to fight havo prohibited from crossing the Bon Hai rivor into North
Vietnam and into Loos and Cambodia, where the Communists ooter skitter
to seek refuge while retraining and regrouping.
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the
following
This strategic initiative gives the Communists those advantages, which
could cause the tactical situation to flipflop significantly wt with or
without a cessation of the bombing over North Vietnam,
a top
widely populated on in Saigon:
currently
1. The proximity of North Vit Vietnam gives the Communists their
shortest supply routes for war materials and their fastest replacement
capability.
"I'll tell you how fast the Communists can replace their castiatie
casualties along the DMZ," one Marine officer explained. "We completely
battered the 320th Division this summer, they broke it broke contact,
exfiltrated from South Vietname Then the 320th was re-introduced with the
same cadro but frosh troops and res re-established contact. All of this
happened in 11 days--and to the best of my knowledge that is a record. "
2. The second advantage is that from North Vietnam the Communists
can employ their tube artillery with more intensity and effectiveness than
at any other place from any other place into the South. Their ammunition
supply lines are shot shorter, which gives them leeway for heavier bombardments,
and they face fewer problems in moving their artillery into their invisible
positions inside the sites of mountains.
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It is not only the intensity of ar Communist artillery fire in the past,
but also th its accuracy on fixed Marine installion installations which
causes concern among the Marines. During the summer months, Communist
artillery fired into the Marines' hugo logistical base of Dong Ha three
The first round of each barrage hit a prime target. Once,
round hit a Marines amjani ammunition dumps the second barrage,
round hit a fuel supply points oné the third barrage,
another ammunition dump.
timese
the first
the first
the first round hit
Merine commanders recall here that the siege of Khe Sanh began,
SHEGS
not with
an intense Communist artillery barrage, but with an embarrassingly accurate
one the first routs hit the Marines ammunition dump, which send "hot rounds
cooking off" around the Marines for 12 hours.
Likewise, one of the first
rounds in mid-lay against the U. S. Army 1st Air Cavelry ignited the R
Depot
American ammunition dp-hich in turn destroyed and damaged more them
1 roughly 100 helicopters.
Marine ccomenders and troops "just feel"
the Communist artillory is
being positioned still being positioned in North Vietnam and Laos to
"Sep" at their "sitting-duck instetiion installations."/No one is
predicting when.it:
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Date
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1968, Oct. 16
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Subject
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Military helicopters; Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Aerial operations, United States; United States. Marine Corps
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Location
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Demilitarized Zone, Vietnam
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Coordinates
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16.6193, 106.7305
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B10, F39
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Format
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dispatches
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Collection Number
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MS 363
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Collection Title
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Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
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Creator
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Copyright Information
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These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
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Publisher
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Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
