Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Campaigns -- Vietnam -- Khe Sanh
Another key factor in the defense of Khe Sanh was the manner in which
Lieutenant Colonel Hennelly's FSCC coordinated their air effort with
the artillery so that the two components were complimentary. One prime
example was the Mini-Arc Light which was devised by the Assistant Fire
Support Coordinator, Captain Kenneth O. W. Steen and the TIO, Captain
Baig. As the name implies, this technique was used against an area
target the same as a B-52 strike, only the former could be organized
and employed much quicker. When intelligence reports indicated that NVA
units were in a certain region, the FSCC plotted a 500 by 1,000-meter
block in the center of the suspected area or across a likely route
of march. Two A-6 Intruders, each armed with 28 500-pound bombs,
were called on station for a TPQ and the batteries at Khe Sanh, Camp
Carroll, and the Rockpile were alerted for a fire mission. Thirty
seconds before the two A-6s dropped, the 175mm batteries, concentrating
their fire on one half of the block, salvoed the first of approximately
60 rounds. At the same time the A-6s rippled their load down the
middle of the block, the 1/13 batteries opened up on the second half
with around 200 155mm, 105mm, and 4.2-inch rounds. The trajectory and
flight time of all ordnance were computed so that the bombs and initial
artillery shells hit at the same instant. The saturation of the target
area was such that any enemy soldiers caught in the zone during the
bombardment simply ceased to exist.(158)
During the second week in February, a special Mini-Arc Light was
directed against a major NVA headquarters. Two members of the 26th
Marines S-2, Majors Robert B. Coolidge and Jerry E. Hudson, learned
from their various sources that a force-wide meeting of NVA commanders
and their staffs would occur in an abandoned schoolhouse near the
Laotian border. A beefed-up Mini was prepared to welcome the delegates.
For this strike, the target block was reduced to 500 by 300 meters
around the schoolhouse which would take in, as one of the planners
stated, "the hangers-on and other idlers who usually congregate around
large staffs." Twenty minutes after the meeting was scheduled to start,
the trap was sprung. Two Marine A-6 Intruders and four F-4B Phantoms
unloaded 152 500-pound bombs into the block in concert with the
opening volleys of eight artillery batteries (total of 350 artillery
rounds).(159) The target was obliterated, but whether or not this
unusual ambush netted any NVA brass-hats was never ascertained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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