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00:00You
00:30We
00:33Went around the corner
00:35all hell broke loose
00:38Grenades everywhere booby traps you were fighting for your life
00:47Communists completely controlled the city the odds were phenomenal against
01:00You
01:08You're fighting for the guy next to you, and he's fighting for you. That's the only thing you were fighting for
01:18There were Marines with with bullet holes with burns with broken bones that refused medevac
01:27It was just amazing I mean
01:30They would get hit medevac back to McVie compound
01:34They would crawl out the window and come back to a platoon to keep fighting
01:45It wasn't apple pie it wasn't any noble cause of freedom from Vietnam
01:53What it was it drove us
01:55was the love of
01:57Your brother Marine, and if you would leave them there would be tremendous guilt
02:27You
02:57I
03:15Got to Vietnam and signed alpha company first battalion first Marines
03:20Then on 30 January
03:231968 we got sent to Fubai
03:26Half of the company did not make it because of
03:31Insufficient helicopters to fly so we had a company of approximately 150 Marines, which was at half-strength
03:40Fubai was supposed to be a little rest and relaxation
03:45Most of us at alpha company had not eaten a hot meal in four or five months
03:51We had not taken showers
03:55I
04:12Served with first soon golf company second tag fifth Marines
04:16They had pulled us back to
04:19Fubai
04:20which was a real luxury for us, you know, that's where they had hot showers and a mess all real food and
04:27That was kind of a nice break
04:30Or at least we thought
04:35In late January the Americans and the South Vietnamese were aware of unusual movements by the NVA
04:42But
04:46Nothing had indicated that underfoot was one of the greatest strategic surprises in all of military history
04:58The enemy strikes and sweeps through the whole country in a single stroke
05:03They infiltrate tens of thousands of North Vietnamese regulars and Viet Cong guerrillas
05:08They strike the big cities
05:11Saigon
05:13Danang
05:14They strike every provincial capital every key Hamlet most vitally they strike way
05:28Way is more than the beautiful cultural center of nation
05:32It is the heart of South Vietnam's logistical and transportation center critical to the American war effort
05:39It is a key objective of the enemy to be taken and held while they re-educate the population to inspire a people's revolution
05:49But for all its towering strategic value
05:52There was hardly any u.s. Military in the city except for a handful of advisors at the Mac V compound
05:59regional headquarters for military assistance command Vietnam
06:09Sometime in the middle of the night our company commander woke us up and told us to saddle up
06:15That the Mac V compound in Way City needed our help
06:20And we'd be back by noon
06:30Now being salty Marines I had wet socks, so I just put my combat boots on with no socks
06:35I had wet socks, so I just put my combat boots on with no socks took one bandolier of ammo, and we load it up on trucks
06:47When we started out the way city, I really
06:50Was thinking wow this is gonna be cool. You know the old imperial capital and
06:55Citadel from a couple thousand years before and that one particular day the Lunar New Year
07:01We were thinking you know bad guys were supposed to stand down and of course didn't think anything about it
07:07you know a nice truck ride go to Way City and do a little sightseeing and wow this is great and
07:13It just keeps getting better
07:31These
07:36Were terribly confusing days for the for the Americans and for the Marines
07:41Reports from all over of North Vietnamese everywhere disasters and rumors
07:46They didn't know that this was a major offensive that there were everywhere in the country there were North Vietnamese and Viet Cong
07:54running rampant
07:56Striking so many targets
07:58Communications line the network just blew out almost with all these emergency reports help us. We're being overrun. We need supporting arms
08:05We need reinforcements help us
08:08So way yes, they're in way, but we didn't know how bad and what was there?
08:13So as the first rifle company from Phu Bai
08:17Came up the road to way
08:19They still don't understand the range and depth of the North Vietnamese defenses
08:26And they were waiting for us. It was a death trap
08:56And
08:58We
09:00And
09:25We got to the MACV compound there was a lull in the in the fighting
09:30They repelled. I don't know how many attacks. They had barely survived the surge their walls had been breached and
09:38I could remember there was a wall and
09:41They started cheering us as we came in
09:44because they had been through hell and
09:47They thought that we were there to save the day and you know little did we know the numerical
09:54numbers of NVA there
09:57After making it the MACV
10:00Short while later the captain gave the order for us to advance across the perfume River Bridge
10:06Which is considerably long
10:09Looked even longer after they started shooting
10:26When I got to the river I just across the river I saw a big NVA flag
10:31And I saw hundreds of NVA which now quantity and content we had seen the enemy, but this was
10:39Something like we've never seen before hundreds of them, and they had
10:44the best equipment because before the the
10:47Attack on way city they had broken into an Arvin armory
10:51Which had all-american weapons and bullets and they had stolen all that so they were well armed
11:01Our company's role was to fire support across the river for Gulf Company to cross
11:14When Gulf Company started to go across I thought
11:18It's such a narrow field of fire a narrow killing zone and as they went across
11:25machine guns opened up NVA machine guns
11:28rockets mortars
11:33And we were taking fire the whole time going across here
11:36There's occasionally a few little sting in the legs where the concrete was getting kicked up from the round
11:47The
11:52Gulf Company had little cover and concealment so that they went across there was a hundred and fifty
11:58Marines from Gulf Company approximately that went across that bridge
12:10Fifty were dead or wounded
12:18I
12:19remember the gunny and I
12:21Going off into the bridge and dragging these guys back the dead and wounded. I mean they were just chewed up
12:47And
12:56What we didn't know is on the first day of way city
13:00There was nine battalions of NVA
13:03nine
13:05Numerically that put us at that point at a few hundred to one odds
13:11And these were not Viet Cong these were trained NVA troops with
13:18weapons and training and the ability and
13:22This was their battle to end this war
13:28Most of us thought we'd never get out
13:41You
13:54The opening shock and confusion of the Tet Offensive now sweeping across all of South Vietnam
14:00Has sent a few hundred Marines into a deathtrap
14:02The
14:04Few Viet Cong guerrillas they expected to find while we're leaving the MACV compound and way turn out to be more than
14:1110,000 NVA regulars
14:14We have two rifle companies at best
14:18300
14:19We are losing men left and right
14:22There's great confusion
14:25They still don't know that they're facing 10,000 North Vietnamese regulars waiting for
14:33I
14:37Remember the gunny
14:38Gunny, Kenley is a marine legend
14:41He didn't talk much and he came by on his rounds and I'm looking out
14:47And I said gunny, how's it look?
14:50And the gun he said it don't look good legato
14:53With
15:00The outbreak of Tet and the seizure of way
15:04The Marines were located at Fubai a crossroads airfield
15:09This was a home of the headquarters of task force x-ray
15:13under the command of Brigadier General Foster look you
15:17The reports he had were way were conflicting and confusing
15:22General Hugh
15:23responded to these urgent
15:26calls for reinforcements
15:28By sending Fox company up in helicopters to the outskirts of way and putting them into the fray
15:38We were given the impression that we were to go into way city
15:42Report to one one they were having a little bit of difficulty there and we'd probably be back in a couple of days
15:51I commend the country. I'd been there about two weeks
15:56Lieutenant come over and said break the platoon down the helicopter teams. I said, where are we going? He said I don't know
16:21I
16:51I run down the street, and we had all these big buildings,
16:54and the guys are all looking around, too.
16:56They don't know where the hell we're at.
16:59We'd just come out of the rice paddies.
17:11We went around the corner, started down the street,
17:16and all hell broke loose.
17:22They were just zapping us as fast as we'd run around the damn corner.
17:30They were in elevated positions in the building, shooting down on us.
17:39They'd get hit from the neck up, bam, back down.
17:42We couldn't move.
17:45Everybody was just sitting there.
17:47They didn't know what the hell they'd been in.
17:49They were just sitting there looking, looking.
17:51The guys started getting their ammo, putting it in their magazines,
17:54checking their rifles, because then they realized this is it.
18:01When your brain is in jungle mode,
18:04and all of a sudden you find yourself in the middle of a city being fired at,
18:08it was a totally different war.
18:10None of our lieutenants had had real training in urban warfare.
18:14Our troops had not really had training in urban warfare.
18:20You'd run across the street, and you'd look around,
18:23and the guys that were on your flanks, they're laying out in the street.
18:26And pretty soon, you know, you just think,
18:29damn, how many people is it going to take to get this place secured?
18:33The next one could be you.
18:36How many people is it going to take to get this place secured?
18:40The next one could be me.
18:42We are taking a lot of fire.
18:44Bring some backup, now!
18:48Back, back, back!
18:58We're taking a lot of fire.
19:00Get down!
19:07Somebody got a corpsman over here!
19:21Go, go, go!
19:25Move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move!
19:28Go!
19:32Hold the gun! Hold the carry!
19:34Good, sir! Get in, get in!
19:48I'd been in country two weeks,
19:50and I wind up in one of the biggest battles of war, in Way City.
19:54And I get in there, I don't know what's happening,
19:57but I knew what we were supposed to do.
20:00The younger guys, the biggest problem they had was they had made friends.
20:04And when your friend gets killed, part of you gets killed.
20:08When I went through boot camp, they taught you,
20:11you don't make friends, only acquaintances.
20:13Then when they get killed, you're not going to lose any part of you.
20:17I wanted to take care of them.
20:19They were young, they were like my sons.
20:22But you just can't do it.
20:24You lose part of yourself every time you lose one of them.
20:28And you've only got so many parts.
20:33It affected me for a long time.
20:35As a matter of fact, there's one young kid, I still see his face.
20:39Salazar.
20:41I sent flowers to his grave every year in Texas.
20:45And he just, he looked like he was smiling all the time.
20:50When somebody gets killed, it just always stayed in my mind.
21:04The small brotherhood of only a few hundred Marines
21:07face an overwhelming enemy, 10,000 strong.
21:12But already they are adapting to the gruesome realities of urban combat.
21:17In the hours to come, their unparalleled heroism
21:21and relentless courage would inspire daring new tactics
21:25and incredible feats of human perseverance
21:28as they fight to save their brothers
21:30in savage and barbaric battles against the odds.
21:47The American Pronunciation Guide Presents
21:50How to Pronounce Savage Attack In Play
21:539-10 testing 1-5 to 2-5.
21:57This is 5-3rd, it is too foggy for air traffic.
22:003-2-3, out of the street, LZ, stacking and solid.
22:11Ambushed and under savage attack in play
22:14by a dug-in enemy outnumbering the small Marine Brotherhood 101,
22:18they find the odds stacked against them in all directions.
22:26Marines are trained to fight as an air-ground team.
22:29But that was not available, any of it,
22:32on the first days in the Battle for Hawaii.
22:35The weather was bad, no aircraft could really fly safely.
22:40Even worse for the Marines is a smothering order
22:44not to damage the historic old city.
22:47The Marines are forbidden by rules of engagement
22:50to use napalm, naval gunfire, artillery, or mortars,
22:55the prime tools of urban combat.
23:00In those first days, they were going pretty much
23:03just with their own individual weapons
23:07against heavily defended, well-armed pockets
23:11of North Vietnamese who were just waiting for them.
23:20The enemy had defended in strong points.
23:23So every several blocks, there would be a strong point.
23:28So you got the upper floors, you got snipers.
23:32And down that street, there was a machine gun.
23:37And that machine gun had flanking fire directly down the street.
23:48Just intense fire.
23:54It was like the typical scene in one of these World War II movies,
23:58concrete ships flying everywhere.
24:07As we certainly learned on that first day,
24:10trying to go down both sides of the street
24:12and finding that totally ineffective,
24:15we had to adapt quickly,
24:17and that was sort of a natural thing for these Marines.
24:23Americans adapt.
24:25We improvise.
24:28The most ferocious fighting machine the world has ever seen
24:33is a 19-year-old pissed-off Marine.
24:38Because you'll take that kid from Detroit or Mississippi,
24:42and you'll train him in Marine Corps boot camp,
24:45and you'll put him in a situation that's foreign to him,
24:49and he will adapt and improvise
24:52and become that situation and deal with it.
24:59SIREN BLARES
25:11Ernie Cheatham got there with the battalion headquarters.
25:14The decision was made, the only way to do this
25:17is to, in fact, go frontly, house by house.
25:22Sergeant, get that C&E on!
25:28Colonel Cheatham, what's the objective,
25:31and what are your men about to do?
25:33Well, I've got two companies here
25:35that are just about to clear the next two blocks up.
25:41What kind of fighting is it going to be?
25:43It's house to house and from room to room.
25:49The rules of engagement were fairly stringent.
25:53We were not to use any indirect fire weapons.
25:57Interpreted by us to be artillery.
26:00But when Lieutenant Colonel Cheatham arrived in the 3rd,
26:04the emphasis on these rules of engagement dissipated,
26:08and our directions from him was,
26:11if you even suspect there's enemy in the building,
26:14blow the building down.
26:16EXPLOSION
26:21We were blowing holes through the wall then with the .35s,
26:24and it would take a hole out, you could drive a tank through it.
26:31What we would do is blast holes through each wall,
26:34and we'd go through that wall and clear that courtyard.
26:38Blast a hole through the next wall,
26:40and we just worked our way down the street that way.
26:44Those young Marines, one idea after another,
26:47they were always aggressive, they were always innovative,
26:51and that's what makes the Marine Corps go around.
26:59We learned that when you take a building,
27:02you've got to go in the building, you've got to take every room,
27:05and you've got to secure every room.
27:07Then you move on to the next building, you do the same thing.
27:11I guess they just didn't realize they were fighting the United States Marines,
27:14and we were going to get that damn building.
27:17It didn't make a damn if we had to blow it all up, blow them up,
27:20the people beside them, but we were getting that building,
27:23and that's what we did, we took it building by building, room by room,
27:27and the guys, they were just wonderful.
27:30They just fought their butts off.
27:50We were trying to advance.
27:53The NVA was dug in.
27:56They were firing B-40 rockets, RPGs,
27:59and we couldn't move.
28:02We had to move.
28:05We had to move.
28:08We had to move.
28:11We had to move.
28:14We had to move.
28:17They were firing B-40 rockets, RPGs, and we couldn't move.
28:21We were pinned down again, and we were losing a lot of Marines.
28:25The operations officer from our battalion was hit pretty bad,
28:30and the Marines were crying out, and even though Major Murphy was hit bad,
28:34he was shouting encouragement to the other Marines,
28:38and he eventually asked for a pen and paper,
28:42and he wrote a note to his wife.
28:46And then he signaled for Father Lyons.
28:50Father Lyons had been hit in the leg,
28:53and men lifted up Father Lyons to Major Murphy,
28:57and he gave him last rites,
29:00and the last thing Major Murphy said,
29:02may God help my Marines.
29:05♪♪
29:15♪♪
29:26Hey!
29:28♪♪
29:35♪♪
29:40The one thing that I'll never forget,
29:44the Marines, most of us were wounded.
29:47Now, normally, if a Marine is wounded,
29:50shrapnel, you break your leg, whatever,
29:53you'd go to the rear, and you'd get fixed up,
29:55and it was sort of a nice two-, three-day R&R.
29:58You'd get stitched up or tetanus shot, and you'd come back.
30:03There were Marines with bullet holes, with shrapnel in them,
30:07with eardrums busted, with burns, with broken bones
30:13that refused medevac.
30:16In fact, many times, Marines were wounded,
30:19and they were so afraid that they wouldn't be able to go back,
30:22that they faked going back for medical treatment.
30:26Guys were walking using their weapons as crutches.
30:30And the thing is, it wasn't, at that point, apple pie.
30:34It wasn't any noble cause of freedom for Vietnam.
30:38What it was that drove us was the love of your brother Marine,
30:43and if you would leave them, there would be tremendous guilt.
30:46♪♪
30:51As the Marines adapt and innovate
30:53to overcome the carnage of block-by-block urban combat,
30:57they face a sobering fact.
30:59There are thousands more of the enemy than of them.
31:03For the NVA, such facts of attrition are critical.
31:08It is only a matter of time before they bleed
31:11the diminishing Marines into nonexistence.
31:15But the Marines know something they don't,
31:18and it is no small fact.
31:21Marines don't give a damn about statistics, only winning.
31:27Hue is about to become one of the deadliest battles
31:30of the entire Vietnam War.
31:33Come on, let's go!
31:35♪♪
31:49-♪♪
31:54-♪♪
31:59-♪♪
32:04-♪♪
32:09There was also a saying in Vietnam when I got there.
32:12You know, I was 19, and these guys that were 19
32:16had been there one month longer than me,
32:18were like God.
32:20They had wisdom.
32:23And they used to say,
32:25you can kill me,
32:28but you can't eat me.
32:31And I didn't know what that meant.
32:34What I figured out what it meant is you're in Vietnam,
32:37and you're humping 50, 60 pounds of gear and ammo,
32:43and you have 110-degree weather.
32:47♪♪
32:50We slept out in the monsoons,
32:54and you got leeches, you got dysentery.
32:58And it comes a point where if killing me
33:02is the worst thing you can do,
33:04that's not good enough anymore.
33:07If that's your best shot to kill me,
33:09I'm not afraid to die.
33:11And at Hue City, that feeling, you know, again,
33:14with everybody being wounded,
33:16okay, go ahead, you know.
33:18You can kill me, but you can't eat me.
33:21♪♪
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33:40♪♪
33:45♪♪
33:51You always had that fear that this would be
33:56the last time you would go into a building
33:58because you thought, wow, I'm going in here.
34:02What am I going to hit, or who's going to be in there?
34:08Battle was just intense everywhere around you.
34:12♪♪
34:16There was no such thing as danger close.
34:19The difference about urban conflict is
34:21you're 35 meters from your enemy.
34:24You're looking at him, and he's looking at you.
34:27Move, move, move, move!
34:30When you accomplish your mission,
34:32you had that big sigh of, boy, I made it through this one.
34:36But there was also the thought of,
34:39well, where are we going next, and now what do we have to do?
34:44♪♪
34:48I mean, we were moving blocks.
34:50We were occupying buildings that the enemy used to occupy.
34:55This was war as we understood it.
34:58♪♪
35:01Don't fucking call him again!
35:04♪♪
35:12One of the things when you fight in an urban area
35:16is because of the din, unbelievable total noise,
35:21the fact that you physically are going over,
35:24you know, you're going through rubble,
35:26you really get very physically, physically tired.
35:30It's a tough and difficult fight.
35:33♪♪
35:35We used so many hand grenades
35:37that they started issuing hand grenades from World War II.
35:40That's all they had left.
35:42We just ran out of hand grenades.
35:44We had blown up every room in there that we could.
35:47♪♪
35:52♪♪
35:59♪♪
36:04♪♪
36:10On the 14th of February,
36:12the Marines accomplish the impossible.
36:15They recapture the southern half of Hue,
36:17below the Perfume River,
36:19from the grasp of an enemy 100 times their size.
36:25But it has left only a few hundred
36:27exhausted and walking wounded Marines,
36:30and the battle is far from over.
36:32♪♪
36:35Across the river lies the northern half of the city,
36:39a complex maze of fortress-like structures
36:42held by an estimated 8,000 dug-in NVA,
36:46a modern-day Thermopylae.
36:50It was there that the Greek warriors stood side-by-side
36:53against an overwhelming Persian enemy.
36:57Their creed of brotherhood could easily transcend
37:00the thousands of years to the Marines at way.
37:05Rise up, warriors.
37:07Take your stand at one another's sides.
37:11Our feet set wide and rooted like oaks in the ground.
37:17Learn to love death's ink-black shadow
37:20as much as you love the light of dawn.
37:24Here is courage, mankind's finest possession.
37:30Here is the noblest prize that a young man can endeavor to win.
37:35♪♪
37:38No warrior ever embodied this ethos more
37:41than the Marines at way.
37:44♪♪
37:49♪♪
37:54♪♪
37:59♪♪
38:04♪♪
38:09♪♪
38:15With weeks of murderous fighting
38:17to clear the southern position of way now behind them,
38:20the Marines launch an even tougher battle
38:22across the Perfume River
38:24to clear the northern half of the city.
38:27Over 8,000 entrenched NVA are waiting.
38:31♪♪
38:36With the main bridge over the Perfume River blown,
38:39the Marines load on to Navy LCUs,
38:42large, open-decked landing craft,
38:45for a three-mile downstream flanking attack.
38:50The exposed passage would become a deadly gauntlet
38:54as NVA machine gunners and mortar crews
38:57prepare to unleash hell on the oncoming troops.
39:01♪♪
39:06♪♪
39:11Get down! Incoming!
39:14Heavy fire!
39:16♪♪
39:21♪♪
39:26♪♪
39:31♪♪
39:36After fighting the first half of the battle
39:39with crucially needed air and naval gunfire support withheld,
39:43the political handcuffs come off entirely.
39:46♪♪
39:51Cruisers and destroyers of the 7th Fleet
39:53opened fire on targets a dozen miles away.
39:57♪♪
40:00Marine fighter bombers sweep in low,
40:03laying in napalm and high explosives.
40:06♪♪
40:11♪♪
40:16♪♪
40:21♪♪
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41:06♪♪
41:08Hue City would be declared secure on the 2nd of March, 1968.
41:14The once beautiful and cultural center of Vietnam
41:17lay in ruins.
41:20Over 3,500 of its citizens were dead,
41:24murdered in cold blood by the N.V.A.
41:27and buried in mass graves.
41:30Another 116,000 citizens were now homeless refugees.
41:36The great uprising the N.V.A. had hoped for
41:40that would help push America out of Vietnam
41:43never materialized.
41:45♪♪
41:48Do I believe we won Tet of 68?
41:51Darn right we did.
41:53We would win tactically.
41:55But psychologically, the war-weary United States
41:59and its public was just not there for it anymore.
42:03So Tet, in my mind, became the Gettysburg
42:08of our own civil war.
42:10It was a turning point.
42:13In the end, it would take 31 days
42:18and cost the Allies 4,400 combat casualties.
42:23But for those Marines and soldiers
42:26who had clawed their way through building after building
42:30against impossible odds,
42:32the victory was nothing short of a miracle.
42:37♪♪
42:43When it's all said and done,
42:45I don't believe we could have done it any better.
42:47I think we did a fine job.
42:49I think we accomplished the mission that we set out to do.
42:52Took a lot longer than we thought it was going to,
42:55but I think the end result was a job well done.
43:02They really weren't kids anymore.
43:04They grew into men right there.
43:07They really grew up,
43:09and I was proud of every damn one of them.
43:12♪♪
43:16Some of the Marines I served with,
43:18Jimmy Sullivan, Pat Fraley, Herman Watkins,
43:22Eddie Neese, though 19,
43:25ran consistently into enemy fire,
43:28ran consistently exposing themselves
43:30while saving other Marines.
43:33♪♪
43:37I really saw probably some of the bravest men
43:40that I'd ever see in my life.
43:43And I would do it again tomorrow
43:46with the same group of guys.
43:50You know, they say of Iwo Jima,
43:54uncommon valor was a common virtue.
43:57That's what I saw in Wei.
44:01The inspiration of just how they looked after each other.
44:07♪♪
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44:56♪♪