Table Of Content
B H
LOOD IN THE ILLS
B C W S
OOKS BY HARLES . ASSER
N
ONFICTION:
The Walking Dead (w/ Craig Roberts)
One Shot, One Kill (w/ Craig Roberts)
Homicide!
Shoot to Kill
Always a Warrior
In Cold Blood: Oklahoma’s Most Notorious Murders
Last American Heroes (w/ Michael Sasser)
Smoke Jumpers
First SEAL (w/ Roy Boehm)
At Large
Fire Cops (w/ Michael Sasser)
Doc: Platoon Medic (w/ Daniel E. Evans)
Arctic Homestead (w/ Norma Cobb)
Taking Fire (w/ Ron Alexander)
Raider
Encyclopedia of Navy SEALs
Magic Steps to Writing Success
Hill 488 (w/ Ray Hildreth)
Crosshairs on the Kill Zone (w/ Craig Roberts)
Going Bonkers: The Wacky World of Cultural Madness
Patton’s Panthers
The Shoebox: Letters for the Seasons
God in the Foxhole
Devoted to Fishing: Devotionals for Fishermen
None Left Behind
Predator (w/ Matt Martin)
The Sniper Anthology
Back in the Fight (w/ Joe Kapacziewski)
Two Fronts, One War
The Night Fighter (w/ Navy Captain William Hamilton)
Blood in the Hills (w/ Bob Maras)
F
ICTION:
No Gentle Streets
The 100th Kill
Operation No Man’s Land (as Mike Martell)
Liberty City
Detachment Delta: Punitive Strike
Detachment Delta: Operation Iron Weed
Detachment Delta: Operation Deep Steel
Detachment Delta: Operation Aces Wild
Detachment Delta: Operation Cold Dawn
Dark Planet
OSS Commando: Final Option
OSS Commando: Hitler’s A-Bomb
No Longer Lost
War Chaser
The Return
A Thousand Years of Darkness
Sanctuary
The Foreworld Saga: Bloodaxe
Shadow Mountain
Six: Blood Brothers
Six: End Game
B H
LOOD IN THE ILLS
The Story of Khe Sanh, the Most Savage Fight of the Vietnam
War
R M C W S
OBERT ARAS AND HARLES . ASSER
An imprint of Globe Pequot
Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK
Copyright © 2017 by Robert Maras and Charles W. Sasser
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means,
including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer
who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
ISBN 978-1-4930-1975-5 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4930-1976-2 (e-book)
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
To all my Marine Corps brothers who died on those Khe Sanh Hills in 1967.
I will never forget you, brothers.
B M
— OB ARAS
And to every Vietnam veteran who fought through his own hills.
C W S
— HARLES . ASSER
Contents
Contents
Authors’ Note
Preface
C Combat Landing
HAPTER 1:
C The Graveyard
HAPTER 2:
C Khe Sanh
HAPTER 3:
C Saddle Up
HAPTER 4:
C The “Big Picture”
HAPTER 5:
C Take No Prisoners
HAPTER 6:
C Good Morning, Vietnam
HAPTER 7:
C A Walk in the Sun
HAPTER 8:
C Kill Zone
HAPTER 9:
C Rescue
HAPTER 10:
C The Cherry Pie
HAPTER 11:
C Dear John
HAPTER 12:
C Ambush
HAPTER 13:
C A Good War
HAPTER 14:
C The French Lady
HAPTER 15:
C Wounded
HAPTER 16:
C Get on the Chopper
HAPTER 17:
C The Green Parrot
HAPTER 18:
C The Watch Continued Running
HAPTER 19:
C The Pond
HAPTER 20:
C A Night of Imposters
HAPTER 21:
C Premonition
HAPTER 22:
C Dog Biscuits
HAPTER 23:
C The FNG
HAPTER 24:
C The POWs
HAPTER 25:
C Pencil Dicks
HAPTER 26:
C America’s Living Rooms
HAPTER 27:
C The Fall of 881S
HAPTER 28:
C Show Time
HAPTER 29:
C Move! Move!
HAPTER 30:
C Timber-r-r-r!
HAPTER 31:
C Dig In, Marines
HAPTER 32:
C Knock That Shit Off!
HAPTER 33:
C Purple Haze
HAPTER 34:
C Kilgore’s Starlite
HAPTER 35:
C The Few, the Proud . . .
HAPTER 36:
C Sleep Like the Dead
HAPTER 37:
C Mushy Dianne
HAPTER 38:
C The Ridge Finger
HAPTER 39:
C Body Count
HAPTER 40:
C The Silver Dragon
HAPTER 41:
C Skinny Dipping
HAPTER 42:
C Picnic
HAPTER 43:
C Along the DMZ
HAPTER 44:
C Anything for R&R
HAPTER 45:
C The Siege
HAPTER 46:
Afterword
About the Authors
Authors’ Note
Time has passed since the “Hill Fights” of Khe Sanh fought in South Vietnam during April
and May 1967. And time, as in this personal narrative of Marine PFC Bob Maras, has a
tendency to erode memory in some areas and selectively enhance it in others. People
may see the same action from different perspectives. Where errors or conflict in
recollection occur, the authors accept full responsibility and ask to be forgiven.
Actual names are used throughout except in those instances where names could not be
recalled or where public identification serves no useful purpose. Some dialogue and
scenes have by necessity been re-created using the raw material of one Marine’s
memory. We have attempted to match personalities with the activities and action while
maintaining factual content. The recounting of some events and time sequences may not
correspond precisely with the memories of all individuals involved.
The authors apologize to anyone who may have been omitted, neglected, or slighted in
the preparation of this book. While some interpretational mistakes are bound to have
occurred, we are confident that the content of this book is true to the reality, spirit, and
incredible courage of the brave US Marines who fought and died during the Hill Fights in
the Republic of South Vietnam during that terrifying spring of 1967.
I (Bob Maras) wish to thank my father, George, for instilling in me common sense. It
helped me to stay alive.
I should also like to thank Mike and Sharon Lewis of Farmington, New Mexico, who
provided me the peace of their vacation home for three weeks in November 2015 to help
put together this book.
Most of all, I thank my co-author, Charles W. Sasser, for making me talk about my
nightmares. You and Dr. Hoffmann were right; it did help.
The authors are indebted to the following authors and works for helping to provide a
historical perspective to this narrative: The Hill Fights: The First Battle of Khe Sanh, by
Edward F. Murphy; Last Stand at Khe Sanh, by Gregg Jones; The Battle of Khe Sanh, by
Captain Moyers S. Shore II; War Without Heroes, by David Douglas Duncan; The Vietnam
War Almanac, by Colonel Harry G. Summers Jr.; and NAM: The Vietnam Experience 1965–
75, by Tim Page and John Pimlott.
