The Siege of Khe Sahn, the Tet Offensive and the Pueblo Incident all occurred within days of each other and led to the call up roughly 25,ooo National Guardsmen, Army and Air. 7000 of which would be sent to Vietnam, until it was decided not to expand the war into a Greater Asian Conflict. So in that context the Seige of Khe Sahn can be seen as essentially the opening salvos of an attempt to remove America from East Asia.

What is really interesting about the Khe Sanh Campaign is that it was the first operation that General Westmoreland had direct air control over. Prior to that Pacific Command out of Hawaii dictated all air operations, not the most effective use of support. Westmoreland and Abrahms both tried to remove Hawaii from the chain of command and never fully succeeded.

The question arises, is it still there?

Can it be dug up and returned to the United States?

This is something that should be looked in to.

1st, 2nd and 6th Marine Tank Battalions were used as the supporting armor. Unlike Iwo Jima they were never combined or under a central control. On Okinawa one of the main tactics was to use tanks as ambulances. The vehicle would drive on top of the wounded infantry and open the escape hatches and pull them in to prevent further wounds.

When the 1st Marine Divison was completely surrounded, the same time Eighth Army smashed to a halt, divison commander O.P. Smith had to think fast. He was determined to have the division leave as whole and not in an unorganized retreat.

Smith used 1st Tank Battalion and the Army regimental tank companies to cover the rear. This meant 1st tank battalion was the last unit out. This was classic use of armor as cavalry would have been used in the 19th century and proved highly effective.

At first hailed as liberators, within months they were treated as invaders. Captain Miller, B Company commander was patrolling Mogadishu when a crowd appeared to prevent his tanks movement. When he started to signal the crowd to move someone threw a piece of concrete and broke his jaw.

The platoons left in May 1993.

The 22 Marine Amphibious Unit was enroute to Lebanon when it was diverted to make the landing. One platoon of 2nd Tank Battalion made its first offensive operations since the Dominican Republic in 1964 and this would be the first non defensive use of the M60A1 tank in combat.

This was an interesting part of Marine Corps history in that when Marines would be captured during the Korean War the communists would use the former Marine Barracks houseboys from China to interrogate them as they would have known the same people.

In 1944 America was to the point where it was time to get its holdings back, and Guam would be the first. This campaign was conducted by the Third Marine Division and the Army’s 77th Division.

Third Tank Battalion would lead the way through the fighting and bring Guam back into America’s control in its second campaign as the only USMC tank battalion involved.

Third Marine Division was assigned this task of taking the jungle island by itself in 1943, after the initial fighting it was replaced by the Army’s Americal Division and the all African American 93rd Division.