Michael Archer - A Patch of Ground: Khe Sanh Remembered

KHE SANH REMEMBERED

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Michael Archer

A Patch of Ground: Khe Sanh Remembered

2004, 2005 by Michael Archer
Published by Hellgate Press

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems without written permission of the publishers.

Hellgate Press
P.O. Box 3531
Ashland, OR 97520
info@hellgatepress.com e-mail

Editor: Harley Patrick
Assistant editor: Jan O. Olsson
Book design and composition: Constance C. Dickinson
Cover design: Chris Mol: In Cahoots Design
Cover photograph: David Douglas Duncan

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Archer, Michael, 1948
A patch of ground: Khe Sanh remembered / Michael Archer. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-55571-643-1
1. Khe Sanh, Battle of, Vietnam, 1968. 2. Vietnamese Conflict,
19611975Personal narratives, American. 3. Archer, Michael, 1948 . I.
Title: Khe Sanh remembered. II. Title.
DS557.8.K5A73 2005
959.704'342dc22

2004027558

Printed and bound in the United States of America
Third edition 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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What People are Saying about A Patch of Ground

A Patch of Ground: Khe Sanh Remembered is the best first-hand account of the battle.

VIETNAM Magazine

I receive many books to review, but few are as well done and interesting as this memoir. A Patch of Ground is a great contribution to Marine Corps literature and one which will be of increasing value as years pass and future generations of Marines ask the question, What was it really like at Khe Sanh?

Edwin Howard Simmons, Brigadier General, USMC (Ret.), Director Emeritus of Marine Corps History and Museums and author of the books The United States Marines and Marines in Vietnam

An intelligent, courageous, sensitive book about an historic battle in a controversial war. Mike Archer reflects on the joy, the sorrow, the fear, and the wonder that was Khe Sanh. And Archer remembers it as it was, rather than the way he might have wanted to remember it. This book is well researched and rich in historical context. It truly is first-rate.

Kenneth J. Campbell, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Political Science & IR, Director, International Relations Program, University of Delaware

This book is one of the most powerful and authentic first person narratives to come out of Vietnam. It powerfully captures a vital piece of history, yet is also a very valuable contribution to anyone who would study the behavior of men in war.

Dave Grossman, Lieutenant Colonel, USA (Ret.), scholar, lecturer and author of the books On Combat and On Killing

I read A Patch of Ground, enjoyed it, admired its honesty and directness. Michael Archer just tells us how he experienced it, feeling no need to play down or build up the drama. Very real. You can feel what a decent, straight- forward person the author is.

Steven Okazaki, filmmaker, winner of the Peabody Award and the Academy Award in 1990 for the documentary short subject Days of Waiting: The Life and Times of Estelle Ishigo

I have read many books about Vietnam, including numerous memoirs from servicemen, and written a book on Vietnamese women (on the other side). But I have not read anything that captured the immediacy of the conflict like A Patch of Ground.

Sandra C. Taylor, Ph.D., Professor of History, University of Utah and author of Vietnamese Women at War

Archers first-hand account, fleshed out with historical background, adds a significant voice to the history of the siege of Khe Sanh.

The VVA VETERAN

To Steve Orr, who went to a poker game and a war broke out.

We go to gain a little patch of ground
That hath in it no profit but the name.

Hamlet, Act IV, Scene iv

North and South Vietnam and the surrounding area

Michael Archer

I knew I would someday write about Khe Sanh from the first moment I stepped onto its puddled airstrip one drizzling December afternoon in 1967. My senses were crackling with excitement. Colors, smells, sounds, even a brisk gust of wind on my face, seemed more distinct and vibrant than any I had previously known. Soon, I would write letters home each day, filled with the particulars and peculiarities of the place and its inhabitants.

Three years later, as I sat down to write this story, I found myself agitated and unfocused after completing just the first few pages. The events were still too recent, some too painful, and all devoid of any perspective beyond my beleaguered consciousness. Therefore, I packed up all the notes, letters, logs, and other reference materials I had collected from my time at Khe Sanh, put them in a cardboard box, and stored them away at the back of a closet.

Seven years ago I opened the box and found among the contents a long-forgotten audio tape sent by a buddy of mine. While he was making the recording that day at Khe Sanh, I happened to be standing nearby with two other Marines. Suddenly, enemy shells began marching along the trench line toward us. We quickly dove through the hatch of an underground bunker, just as the last round exploded exactly where we had been standing. It was a close call, but by no means an unusual occurrence during those times. In his haste for cover, my buddy neglected to turn off his recorder, and for the next few moments the only audible sounds on the tape are the rattling of rifle slings and the scraping of boots and helmets against the hard earth as we struggled to untangle from one another. After a quick self-examination for shrapnel wounds, we all burst into a fit of uproarious laughter interspersed with mocking arguments about who had been the first to hear the incoming, what size projectiles they must have been, and who moved so slowly they might as well go get measured for their body bag right then and there. Three minutes later we were outside in the trench once again, as if nothing had happened. It was not that we were unappreciative of the danger or testing our bravado like some new guy. Rather, we were intensely familiar with the incessant danger, having survived thousands of incoming artillery and mortar shells during the previous two months of the siege.

As those voices reached me across the years, I could not help but marvel at the composure and audacity of these young men who just seconds before had escaped certain death. I heard my own voice among them, but it was no longer me. Now older, and much more cautious, I have lived the life they were yet to knowin the case of many, the life they would never get a chance to know. Now, I fully comprehend the preciousness of what we had risked, something I did not recognize at Khe Sanh or even later when I first set out to write about it.

The manner in which an individual faces mortal danger is the ultimate test of strength. And the men who fought at Khe Sanh and its outposts in 1968, began each new day calmly accepting, with enormous justification, that it could also be their last. Yet, somehow they found within themselves the courage to face that day and to endure. This is the story of a few of them. Everything in this book happened and, to the best of my recollection, happened in the way I describe, although I have changed some names to protect the privacy of individuals and their families.