Replies

CONCLUSIONS

Intelligence firmly believes that Operation Pegasus had caught the NVA totally by surprise, leaving them so badly beaten, that they couldn’t properly bury their dead, having to leave a lot of their wounded behind. It is also believed that what was left of the 304th and 325th NVA Divisions, were in no shape to take their supplies and equipment in their retreat.

"Victory Was Ours" But viewing the bodies of hundreds of NVA killed in action, the devastation and destruction they suffered, and most of all the badly wounded NVA left behind crying out, caused a feeling of sickness deep within, and left us in a very quiet somber mood, knowing that like us, they also had family's back home

The reality of war had settled in, and it was not a time to celebrate our victory.

Route 9, a logistical vital supply route was secured and re-opened, and the NVA units were forced to retreat from the area, heading back North toward the DMZ to re-supply

Final Stats Pegasus “Operation Pegasus”

1,304 NVA confirmed killed
(un-official estimates place NVA KIA's at 3500 - 5000)
21 NVA regulars captured, and provide interrogation teams with vital detailed information on NVA activity in the area of Khe Sanh & I-Corp

U.S. & Allied Casualties

51 US Marines Killed in Action
42 US Army Killed in Action
33 ARVN troops Killed in Action
approx. 370 were wounded in "Operation Pegasus"

Tactical Air Support

5 B52 Arc Light Strikes conducted
1,625 tactical air strikes were flown as follows:
- 650 by Marine pilots
- 463 by Air Force pilots
- 436 by Carrier-Based Task Force 77 US Navy pilots
- 58 by US Army pilots
- 18 by South Vietnamese Air Force pilots

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

Tribute to a Generation - The memorial will be dedicated on Saturday, May 29, 2004.

Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

Iraq Homecoming Tips

~ Thanks to our Veterans still serving, at home and abroad. ~ Freepmail to Ragtime Cowgirl | 2/09/04 | FRiend in the USAF

The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

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Yesterday was a dark day for those fighting in Iraq. 5 Marines dead, and four civilian workers killed, mutilated, and publicly desecrated in the Iraqi city of Falluja in the "Sunni Triangle."

The pictures of that horrid incident are revolting, and most news outlets have refused to print or air them.

One exception is the San Diego Union Tribune, which graced this morning's front page with them--above the fold. This sparked an angry debate on the Rick Roberts show on KFMB this morning.

Rick's position, as well as most of his callers, condemned the UT's display of those images. As conservatives, they felt that the reason for using them was to gin up feelings against the war in Iraq. They are no doubt correct. But I differed in my feelings about those pics and decided to shoot Rick an e-mail during his show explaining why I felt as I do. To my suprise, he read my email, verbatim, during the next segment. After doing so, he said that I had given him a completely different perspective on the matter, and that he might have to rethink his position on the matter. Below is the e-mail I sent him:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Falluja pics
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 08:21:20 -0800
From: [psyop]
Reply-To: ******************
To: rickroberts@kfmb.com

Dear Mr. Roberts,

I'm afraid I have to disagree about the pics. I know the UT put them there to turn opinion against the war, but it is my hope and my belief that it will do the opposite. I have a daughter serving in Iraq right now. And everytime I hear of a bomb going off over there my blood pressure goes up till I find out she is still safe.

After 9/11 the press in this country did its level best to make us forget what happened. They censored the images because they were afraid we couldn't handle it. They were afraid we'd have the proper reaction. They were afraid we'd demand a war on terrorism. On the first anniversary of 9/11 they swept it even further under the rug. They didn't want us lashing out against the Muslims. They helped spread the lie that Islam is a religion of peace, when in fact it is a death cult (I've read the Koran several times and am well versed in middle-eastern history).

Those images on the pages of the UT are important. People here need to see them and get angry. They also need to see the film footage--shown repeatedly around the world, but suppresed here--of the poor victims jumping out of the twin towers and bouncing off the roofs and streets below (not just the occasional still). People are well on their way to forgetting why were at war and what the stakes are.

The UT photos should stir up some righteous fury. I believe it will be in favor of prosecuting this war with greater vigor, even though the UT hopes it will go the other way.

Sincerely,
[psyop]
Escondido, CA

Never Forget!

DUTY AT KHE SANH

Vietnam was America’s longest war. One of the most bitterly fought battles during that war was the siege of Khe Sanh. Toward the end of 1966, numerous large scale North Vietnamese units began consolidating around the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North from South Vietnam. The Commander of US forces in Vietnam, General William C. Westmoreland, ordered Marine units northward – into a string of fire support bases just south of the DMZ. One of those bases was Khe Sanh.

All during 1967, Marines continued moving in to reinforce the tiny outpost. By January 1968 more than 6,000 Allied troops were on hand – dug in, ready to fight. But US intelligence reports indicated that some 15-20,000 North Vietnamese Army (NVA) regulars had them surrounded, virtually cut off from the outside world. The siege had begun.

At approximately 0530 hours on 21 January 1968, Communist gunners began hitting the camp with hundreds of rounds of rockets, mortars and artillery fire. One of the incoming rounds scored a direct hit on the camp’s main ordnance dump – destroying nearly 1,500 tons of ordnance in a few minutes. The Marines immediately requested an emergency resupply of ammunition. But the only way in was by airdrop.

Members of the 109th Quartermaster Company (Aerial Delivery) began around-the-clock operations. Quartermaster riggers loaded C-123s and delivered more than 130 tons of supplies during the next 36 hours – even flying and unloading at night by the light of Marine artillery flares. The operation became even more perilous as NVA antiaircraft guns opened fire. Between January and April 1968, when the siege was finally broken, Quartermaster riggers delivered nearly 12,500 tons of supplies, without which the Marines could never have survived.

There were many Quartermaster heroes during that tense period, as the country looked on. One such hero was Specialist Fourth Class Charles Charles L. Baney, a 20-year-old parachute rigger, whose C-130 crashed, killing him and all others on board during a low altitude supply drop at Khe Sahn. Spec 4 Baney’s overwhelming sense of DUTY, and eagerness to help those trapped on the ground below, places him in the finest tradition of Quartermaster soldiers supporting soldiers.

Airpower at Khe Sanh

The North Vietnamese thought it was Dien Bien Phu all over again. They thought wrong.

By Walter J. Boyne

Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap and other North Vietnamese military leaders dreamed of doing to America at Khe Sanh what they had done years before to France at Dien Bien Phu. There, in 1954, Communist troops had cut off a sizeable French force, put it under siege, forced it to surrender, and shattered France's colonial power. Hanoi hoped to do the same at Khe Sanh.

US leaders, particularly Gen. William C. Westmoreland, anticipated Giap's desire to re-enact his triumph and decided that any such attempt by the North Vietnamese could be turned into a massive US victory by the use of overwhelming airpower.

When the French Communist candidate took the podium of the Democrat National Convention in Boston in 2004, he carried with him the Peoples Revolutionary Hero Medal pinned to his underwear--exactly where Vo Nguyen Giap had placed it in Paris in 1971.

Article continued at link above. Gratuitous editorial addendum not copyrighted, not available in all areas, void where prohibited, slightly angrier west of the rockies.

The Boeing Sea Knight & Chinook

The sponsons and the nose-up attitude of the CH-46 on the ground gave the appearance of a frog ready to hop, and so the Marines nicknamed the type the "Frog". Although there was initial suspicion of the type as Marines were accustomed to Sikorsky helicopters, the Frog quickly proved itself in Vietnam after its introduction into the theater in March 1966, though the CH-46 fleet was grounded for a time in 1967 when a few of them were lost in accidents. The Frogs acquitted themselves well, particularly during the siege of Khe Sanh in early 1968.

174th Assault Helicopter Company