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Dave Berry | all galleries >> Galleries >> Vietnam War '67 - '68 > Tet Offensive '68 - the 122mm rocket
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Tet Offensive '68 - the 122mm rocket

They were a little over 6' tall, more than 1/3 of it explosive charge. If you heard them overhead they were no threat. If they came close you heard a screaming rocket engine just before the explosion. Not enough time to do anything except die a little inside. In our basecamp full of rubber trees, a tree-burst 100 yds. away could kill you. This was the most effective psychological weapon that the VC/NVA used against us. They were seldom used before Tet, but there seemed to be an inexhaustible supply during the Tet Offensive. It brought the war home to American basecamps. Lai Khe and other basecamps which were mostly surrounded by jungle were especially vulnerable, because the enemy could get close to launch and it was difficult to detect launch sites.


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James Smith 24-Jul-2023 21:45
Jan31 1968 0230 standing at the piss tube in od green boxers and unpaved boots. Heard the 122's, to far to go to bunker hit the dirt right there. After the rockets and mortars sprinted to hooch to get dressed and armed discovered 122 had hit the hooch to the right of my bunk. Guy to the right Kia to the left wounded my locker shredded. Thanked the lord and my small bladder that night.
michael emerson 01-Mar-2021 19:08
unique location that asp1, could hear and see rockets overhead, destination danang air base
Rocky Rockwell 06-Aug-2018 02:18
I got to Saigon Jan. 1968, Tet was over, my ass. We got rocketed every day for 5 days. We got mortared so often in Vinh Long in the delta I almost got used to them, but I am terrified of rockets.
KGWatson 13-Sep-2017 01:08
I was at Lai Khe when the rockets began. My office ,the JA bunch, built a bunker in which they slept. I couldn't do that so I slept kin a 10 man tent by myself. In fact, I never went in any bunker. On Easter morning 1968 early on the rockets started coming in .It was too late to go anywhere so I rolled in der the bed. Our tent had ammo boxes filled with dirt around the outside, maybe 2 1/2 ft high. Well, my thought was that it might take a direct hit to get me as I shook under the bed. I was lucky; later I went to my office and a piece of shrapnel was on papers on my desk, having burned thru them. Strange events.
Joe Carrizales 12-Feb-2017 06:43
I shall never forget the concussion from those 122's. Knock your ass right to the ground. In 1970, our first duty of pulling security for grunts coming out of the field, Canto, South Vietnam, we were rocketed and mortared during the night and the next day. The trouble with this kind of situation was whether I preferred mortars over rockets, crazy how you begin to reason the danger. Naturally I would have preferred neither!
Ben Maestas 07-Jan-2017 21:13
One of this bitches killed my buddy Allan Persiake on Sept 7th at
Lai Khe. KIA as a result of a direct hit. I remember it well. I was in his hooch 30 seconds before it happened
Dave Berry02-Feb-2016 06:00
Yeah, it sucked a lot.
Carter Creek01-Feb-2016 03:29
All I can say is "Damn" I would hate to be under them as incoming. v
Long Bach Nguyen01-Feb-2016 02:56
Wow that is a large rocket and would have cause major destruction.
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