TET 1968 - 50 Years Ago
What do you remember?
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The most important holiday and public festival in Vietnam is called "Tet". It is the beginning of the Lunar New Year (Tet means "festival" in Vietnamese). On 31 January 1968 the North Vietnamese and VC launched a massive attack on over 100 major cities. This surprise attack of over 50 enemy Battalions was called the "Tet Offensive".
The Tet Offensive for the Centaurs began on 29 January 1968, two days before the official Tet start date of 31 January. We called it the Battle of the Hobo Woods. (The History Channel made a movie of it). There were many battles in the infamous Hobo Woods, but this was the most devastating for the Centaurs.... The Tet battles continued for months.
29 Jan 2018
Pat Eastes: The battle in the Hobo kicked off our entrance into Tet 68. Hard to believe that a half century has passed, as a lot of that day is pretty well etched into my memory. Glad that we are all still above ground.
John Kelly: Amen, brothers.
Rick Williams: Agree!! And the above ground part is something we can all be thankful for.
Mike Siegel: For some reason, I either wasn't involved that day, or I just can't remember. But the next day was something totally different! That day is etched in my mind forever. We were all more than a little lucky. My best to all of you.
Bruce Powell: I was on 30 day extension leave in Oregon and returned into the middle of that mess. What an experience to see the big city of Bien Hoa looking like a war zone! They couldn't get me to Cu Chi and didn't even know if Cu Chi was still there! I went to a field tower and contacted a Centaur gunship on our frequency. I remember that Bill Cirincione was flying pilot. That was how I met him. He said that this was the last flyable Centaur gunship and it had 20 holes in it. One of the guys said this was my reward for extending.
30 Jan 2018: