Glenn Earl Prentice
At Khe Sanh: November 2 - November 20, 1967; December 7, 1967 - May 15, 1968
Sergeant, Marines, Charlie Battery 1/13, India Company 3/26
There are just too many experiences to write about. It lasted 77 days. Each day was a lifetime. Some days were better than others.
I can tell about the base, but the maps tell the story. There was a single runway (metal) used mainly by C-130 airplanes at first. Then it closed because of the losses -- three 105s and one 155. There was a drop zone outside the wire -- a dirty, red clay, rat infested place of death.
What stands out are the deaths and horrors we suffered:
- The fall of Long Vie.
- The Russian tanks.
- When we turned away 20,000 Bru and Laos people that were mostly killed after we turned them away.
- The lost patrol the we were not allowed to save!
- Westmoreland's lack of vision and planning (worst ever war-time general)!
- Action. A firefight that only a few of us made it out of on January 20, 1968. Hand-to-hand combat, mortars, rockets, artillery -- you name it, we were in it!
- The final day was uneventful.
The Army pissed me off. They never saved us. It was just PR for Westmoreland. Stupid mistake. We should have stayed there and kicked the NVA out. Attacked the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
After the war, Glenn Earl Prentice went to college, where he received a degree in Business and Water Tech. Currently, he lives in Corona, California, where he is the city's Water Utilities Director. He has been back to Khe Sanh three times to stand on Hill 881. Of the 300 men on Hill 881 during the siege of Khe Sanh, he was one of 19 who escaped without being wounded or killed.
