I am retired, I worked for Ford Motor co. as a Motor Mechanic for 41 1/2 years. Now I enjoy Camping with my wife. My hobby is Metal detecting and I have been detecting for over 25 years.
My latest hunt was at a Civil War site in Culpeper Va. I found 27 3 ringers and five Eagle buttons. It was Awesome to walk where our Ancestors walked over 145 years ago.
Best Regards to all you vets.
Dennis Morrison
Bluffton, Ohio
595 Sig. Co. Di An Vietnam March '68-'Nov. '69
Description This campaign was from 30 January to 1 April 1968. On 29 January 1968 the Allies began the Tet-lunar new year expecting the usual 36-hour peaceful holiday truce. Because of the threat of a large-scale attack and communist buildup around Khe Sanh, the cease fire order was issued in all areas over which the Allies were responsible with the exception of the I CTZ, south of the Demilitarized Zone.
Determined enemy assaults began in the northern and Central provinces before daylight on 30 January and in Saigon and the Mekong Delta regions that night. Some 84,000 VC and North Vietnamese attacked or fired upon 36 of 44 provincial capitals, 5 of 6 autonomous cities, 64 of 242 district capitals and 50 hamlets. In addition, the enemy raided a number of military installations including almost every airfield. The actual fighting lasted three days; however Saigon and Hue were under more intense and sustained attack.
The attack in Saigon began with a sapper assault against the U.S. Embassy. Other assaults were directed against the Presidential Palace, the compound of the Vietnamese Joint General Staff, and nearby Ton San Nhut air base.
At Hue, eight enemy battalions infiltrated the city and fought the three U.S. Marine Corps, three U.S. Army and eleven South Vietnamese battalions defending it. The fight to expel the enemy lasted a month. American and South Vietnamese units lost over 500 killed, while VC and North Vietnamese battle deaths may have been somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000.
Heavy fighting also occurred in two remote regions: around the Special Forces camp at Dak To in the central highlands and around the U.S. Marines Corps base at Khe Sanh. In both areas, the allies defeated attempts to dislodge them. Finally, with the arrival of more U.S. Army troops under the new XXIV Corps headquarters to reinforce the marines in the northern province, Khe Sanh was abandoned.
Tet proved a major military defeat for the communists. It had failed to spawn either an uprising or appreciable support among the South Vietnamese. On the other hand, the U.S. public became discouraged and support for the war was seriously eroded. U.S. strength in South Vietnam totaled more than 500,000 by early 1968. In addition, there were 61,000 other allied troops and 600,000 South Vietnamese.
The Tet Offensive also dealt a visibly severe setback to the pacification program, as a result of the intense fighting needed to root out VC elements that clung to fortified positions inside the towns. For example, in the densely populated delta there had been approximately 14,000 refugees in January; after Tet some 170,000 were homeless. The requirement to assist these persons seriously inhibited national recovery efforts.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
January / 1968
To Month/Year
April / 1968
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories I had just got in country and was assigned to the 595 Signal co. 36th Signal Battalion 1st Signal Brigade and we were in Di An. We were asleep in our tents, when I heard something and yelled Incoming. I had never heard mortar rounds coming in before,but I knew what it was for some reason. We headed for the bunkers, ran inside of them and immediately ran back out, the rats were bigger than we were. We sat on the bunkers and watched the mortars hit our air base in camp. That was the start of TET at our camp, just north of Saigon.
We supported the Big Red One, so we had a lot of action all the time in our camp. Some of it good and some not so good. Some of my buddies never returned back to the USA.