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Breaking the Siege at Khe Sanh
Posted on: 2010-08-30 17:23:20 A young 1st Air Cav lieutenant signaled the end to one of the war's most storied battles with a blast of "Charge" on a captured bugle By Joseph E. Abodeely @ HistoryNet.com "Joegy," I recall my grandpa saying after he'd had a few beers, "Your two best friends are your rifle and your horse. And if you got just a little bit of water left in your canteen, give it to your horse first." Grandpa was a sergeant in the 1st Cavalry in 1917 and he was deployed along the Arizona border during Brigadier General John Pershing's Mexican Punitive Expedition against the revolutionary Pancho Villa. He knew the value of the horse and rifle to the cavalry soldier. Fifty years after my Grandpa learned the lessons of mobility from atop his horse, I found myself an infantry lieutenant with the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), the "1st Air Cav," in Vietnam. It was a new concept for the Army, swift deployment of light infantry troops, their artillery fire support, supplies and equipment—primarily by helicopter. We had mobility and firepower that the other Army units simply did not have. Read on... |