Khe Sanh Veterans Association Inc.
Red Clay
Newsletter of the Veterans
who served at Khe Sanh Combat Base,
Hill 950, Hill 881, Hill 861, Hill 861-A, Hill 558
Lang-Vei and Surrounding Area
Issue 48 Winter 2001
A Sprinkling of your Poetry
Home
In This Issue
Notes from Editor and Board Incoming
Short Rounds
Memoirs In Memoriam
Email
Reunion
2001 Chicago
Look Homeward
Look homeward my beloved son
Across the misty sea
Out past the blue horizon
Beyond this galaxy;
Out Past the fading sunset
Beyond the moon of gold
Look homeward my beloved son
No one your dreams can hold.
Look homeward my beloved son
Up o'er the rolling swells
On, past the muddy rivers
High, o'er the jungle hells;
Up o'er the raging monsoons
Beyond the rattle of the gun
Forget hunger, thirst and misery
Sweet victory you've won.
Look homeward my beloved son
Above life's rugged sea
Hark! A gentle Voice is speaking
Yes, the Master calls for thee
"Come out My blessed loved one,
depart earth's dismal scenes;
Come quickly, I have need of thee
In my 26th Marines."
In Memory of my son, Stanley
© Paul R. Pettit, 1968
The Test
Trails of sorrow down "Charlle's Ridge," our trek
and endless grind
This mission a trial in sacrilege, our blood we leave behind...
They say that this war is needed, to chastise the devil's hand
Still our efforts impeded, the children just don't understand...
Their nightly raids reflect the pillage, a torture of innocent
folk
Graves left in place of a village, consumed in fire and smoke...
We crossed the "Perfume Rivers' and fought in the doors
of "Hue"
With promises that they'd deliver, a victory on judgment day...
On Christmas there was no, pity, they challenged at "Khe
Sanh"
From the ocean to "Dodge City,'' the battle carried on...
Our legends created on "Hamburger Hill," our valor
we did display
Where everyone fought till all was still, on our gravestones it will say...
We fought for freedom, honor and truth; we gave this country
our best
We sacrificed by giving our youth, "in history we stood the test...'
By Domonic Humenik
Fox Co. 2/26
Khe Sanh 1968 Tet
As my youth was spent in a war, as a young Marine, I found myself in a place called, "Khe Sanh." With every dawn, came in the fog, and the smell of death,
No news from home today, does the world care? As I looked into the eyes of many, I learned the meaning of the "Thousand Yard Stare."
"The endless glare."
Everyday, lives thrown away, where the prevailing thought was,
just to survive another day, waiting for death's arrival.
An endless walk through "Hell's Kitchen," day by day as death rained down. Where our spirits were shocked into reality, every time we saw life leave a man's face, to come home to be disgraced, as a lamb to the slaughter.
I found myself at the WALL,
They're for the entire world to see,
asking myself, "Why them and not me?"
The names reminded me of how life was at hand,
to die in a foreign land,
Where life was given, and suddenly taken away,
and this is where I learned how to pray,
I realized that there are many among us, who refuse to see, that freedom has a price, lives thrown away, like the throw of the dice,
Through it all, they stood tall, where the true hero is measured,
Didn't come home at all,
and ended up on the WALL,
At times we felt so far away, trying to survive another day,
For out of our hearts we cried, out, America have you forgotten? For who prays for peace more, than the one who fights the war. To come home and be swallowed up in the streets, and trying to make ends meet,
As I looked upon this WALL, I remembered what one great General once said, " Old soldiers never dle, they just fade away. '
Written by
Jerome B. Howell
L/CPL "A" Co. 3rd Shore Party BN.
3rd Mar Div.
[email protected]
(Khe Sanh: February 1968 to two weeks before the base was abandoned.)
