2/2/2012 12:02 PM
On this day in history 44 years ago Operation Hue City was initated in the response to the Tet Offensive that began January 30, 1968. Hue City was basically defended by the ARVN (Army of Republic of Vietnam) which at best was a very poorly trained national guard unit. Over 5000 civilians, nearly 700 US military and an estimated count of 2,500 to 8000 NVA and VC were killed. This battle, which consisted of mostly house to house fighting lasted 30 days before Allied forces regained the city. Of the civilian casualties less than a 1000 were killed as colateral damage from the battle.......the remainder were executed by the NVA and VC for being sympathizers to the south.
I received an email from a former jarhead early this morning asking me if I remembered what we were doing on this day 44 years ago. I hadn't made the connection to February 2 until reading his email and I suddenly did a time machine trip backwards remembering a couple of scared crapless 18 yo kids. Wow time goes by so quickly.