Ken Heins

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Joined the Association:  10/23/00

President and Co-Founder of LZ Russell Association with the Webmaster, Skip Poindexter

Note:

Ken lives in Blue Springs, MO, retired as a truck driver and is currently a gun dealer.

My Story

My Vietnam Theme Song

In April of 1968 I receive my draft notice from the local draft board # 130 Wright Co. Buffalo, MN.  I took the notice to the local marine recruiter in St. Cloud, MN and told him I got drafted.  He took the notice, tore it up, and said, “Not anymore. Sign here, now you’re in the Marine Corp“.  So, I sort of enlisted into the Marine Corp on April 8,1968 on the delayed entry program and was sworn in at the 26th Rifle Co. FMF, building 46, twin cities, Minneapolis, MN.   

I reported to MCRD San Diego CA on May 3,1968 and graduated on July 10,1968.  Reported to Camp Pendleton for I.T.R. on July 11,1968, graduated Aug. 3,1968. I went back to Minnesota on leave then reported back to Camp Pendleton CA for Artillery school on Aug 23,1968, graduated on Sept. 30,1968, and was told I was going to Vietnam.  On Oct. 1, 1968 I reported to staging battalion for further over seas training (Vietnam).  On Oct. 10, 1968 I was promoted to PFC. 

 On Oct. 22, 1968 I departed El Toro MCAS, CA, stopped off in Hawaii but couldn’t leave the airport. We were there for a short period of time and continued on to Kadena AFB, Okinawa arriving Oct. 24,1968. Once there we were told a computer had misplaced 1,500 Marines so they kept us at Camp Hanson for 30 days. We didn’t do very much except report for two roll calls a day, morning and evening (they didn’t want to lose us I guess).  The last two weeks we were there they took us out for jungle training.

 On Nov. 23,1968 we left Okinawa, arrived Da Nang RVN. On the same day, before we landed in Da Nang, they told us the airport was being rocketed, so we were to keep low when debarking and run for the bunkers.  I guess that’s when it really hit me that this was the real thing. I really don’t remember too much of what happened the rest of that day.

The next day Nov. 24 1968 I reported to Quang Tri, to Headquarters for Hotel Battery 3/12, 3rd mar. div.  I was processed and put on mess duty for a week.  I remember that at the end of the chow hall, where you exited, there were two GI cans - one for paper trash & one for food scraps that also contained anything we scraped off the food trays (including cigarette butts, etc.) Then we would load these GI cans on a truck and take the paper trash to a dump and the GI cans, with the food scraps, cigarette butts etc., to the village where we would dump them into a large cow water tank. Then the mama sans would run up with two 5 lb. coffee tins, scoop it out and run home with it. The first time I saw this I asked the guy with me what they did with it, feed it to their pigs? He looked at me real funny and said, “hell no, they take it home to feed their family... THEY EAT IT! I’ve never forgotten that sight & probably never will.

Sometime around the first of December 1968 I was assigned to Fire Support Base Russell, located approximately 1000 meters, or so, south of the DMZ. That is where Hotel Battery had just moved to from LZ CATES. I was initially assigned to Gun 2 when I arrived. 

I had only been up on the hill a few days when we got mortared and Lt. Smith (the CO) got wounded and medivaced, along with another person.  I was pretty new and the guys took full advantage of that by sending all of us new guys after a grid square from FDC and other ridiculous things. I remember that, being that the battery had just moved up on the hill, there were only temporary shelters built, so we had to make do (for sleeping etc.). 

I remember one particular day it was cold and rainy and extremely muddy.  It was my time for phone watch (someone had to be on watch from each gun all the time.  I’m not sure how long the watch lasted, but I think it was about 4 hrs.)  Anyway, I found the guy who I was to relieve in the gun ammo bunker cooking himself a hot cup of coffee on a little kerosene burner.  He asked me if I wanted to use it to make myself a cup.  I said, “sure“. So here I am sitting in this little ammo bunker about 4’ X 6’ and probably not more than 4 or 5 feet tall with probably 50 rounds of 105mm HE, and a tarp pulled over the entrance cooking my coffee.  I’m wet and cold, and someone whips open the tarp and starts yelling at me (the CO or XO or whatever his title was) about where I’m at and didn’t I know I could blow the place up. He then informed me to pack up my gear and go down to gun 6.  I don’t remember the exact wording but he said something to the effect of having me as far away from him as possible if I was going to do stupid shit like that again. He also relieved the corporal who was Section Chief of gun 2 of his duties and made him his personal radioman in the CO hooch. (The Cpl. later thanked me because of the easy duties he now had.) 

I reported to gun 6 and was put in charge of the M-60 machine gun.  All I remember of these duties was the fact that I had to clean the darn thing all the time and, to tell you the truth, I don’t remember if I ever got to fire it or not.  My main duty on gun 6 was to help in firing the gun.  Most of the time I remember being on the gun site (gunners position). 

One particular day I was bore sighting the gun and the Gunny came down and asked what I thought I was doing.  I told him I was bore sighting the gun.  He said something to the effect that I wasn’t doing it correctly.  My answer to that was I don’t know how they did it in the old Corp but since I had just graduated from artillery school I knew exactly that I was doing it correctly.  Everybody around kind of cringed and backed away.  To this day I don’t know if the Gunny was just testing me or what, but he just walked away and never said another word. 

I don’t remember too much of what went on in Dec. and Jan. except fire missions, ammo re-supply and working parties to build ammo bunkers, hooch’s, etc., etc. I don’t remember who the section chief was on “gun 6”, but the A-chief was Lcpl. Donald Lewis.  One of the other guys on the gun was Tom Weidell (also from Minnesota) and there were probably at least 4 more guys whose names I don’t remember at this time.  Another guy, Joe Fuchs, from Minnesota, was on “gun 5”. 

I remember, during one of the operations in the DMZ, we were told that there would be massive B52 strikes (arc light) that night.  I told everyone down on the gun to wake me up if I wasn’t awake.  I grabbed a poncho liner and my rubber whore and slept on top of the ammo bunker.  I never woke up until the next morning and was madder than hell because nobody woke me up and I had slept through it!  The ones that did get to see it said it was awesome.  The noise and the vibrations were tremendous and, like I said, I slept right through it all. 

I stayed on gun 6 until February 25, 1969.  From the time I arrived on LZ Russell, until February 24, 1969, we had been mortared by enemy troops numerous times and the battery had taken a few wounded personnel because of this enemy fire, but no substantial damage was ever done.  I remember we used to stand on top of the bunkers and watch the NVA feed the mortar tubes, watch the rounds as they arched and fell half to three-quarters of the way from them to us.  Usually not even hitting the wire at the perimeter.  I remember late one night listening to Hanoi Hanna talk about how the NVA was going to overrun and take over our position and guns.  We all thought that was neat as hell (we were now all famous; even Hanoi Hanna knew who we were.) 

To the best of my recollection, on February 24, 1969 at approximately 2330 hours we got a fire mission to fire support for Gulf Battery, on LZ Neville, who had NVA in the wire.  We fired until approximately 0300 on February 25, 1969 and got a temporary end of mission.  At that time some of the guys went back to their bunkers to rest.  I don’t know when, but at around this time someone had a radio playing.  I don’t know if it was live or a tape, but the song, Crimson and Clover, by Tommy James and the Shondells, was playing.  This is the last song I remember before the shit hit the fan.  To this day when I hear this song I always wonder if I will get to hear the end of it. (To here it, click HERE)

I was either on phone watch or restocking the ammo bunker on Gun 6 when we started getting mortared (approximately 0330, or 0400).  At first I thought the grunts were shooting off their 81 mortars.  (The NVA had their tubes set up so close to the hill that you could see the flash when the mortars came out of the tube) and were either shooting in the wire or we were getting short rounds.  The rounds started hitting between the gun pits and the wire on the east side of the hill somewhere between guns 4 and 6.  There was a lot of confusion for the first few minutes.  Some people were running around yelling “short rounds“; others were yelling “incoming“.   It took a while for the word to finally come down that we were being mortared by the NVA. 

I ran to the M60 machine gun position for which I was in charge.  At this time the mortars were coming in quite heavily and people were yelling to get into the bunkers.  When I reached the M60 position two mortars hit real close to me and shrapnel went whizzing around me.  I could still hear people screaming to get into the bunkers, so I turned around and ran to our bunker, which was already occupied by three other guys.  About the same time I arrived in the bunker we could hear NVA soldiers screaming and yelling (they were attacking under their own mortar fire!)  Believing we didn’t have any rifles in the bunker with us we felt helpless (I knew mine was inside the ammo bunker).  

About this time one of the guys decided to get out of the bunker so he ran out the door.  He no more than got out the door and the NVA blew the door right off of the side of the bunker.  What I believe to be an NVA officer was standing on top of our bunker, because he could be heard very clearly shouting what seemed to be orders.  I remember numerous loud explosions and powder flashes from exploding munitions at the doorway.  I climbed under one of the bunks for more protection from satchel charges, or fragmentation grenades, or whatever they were throwing in on us.  That’s the last thing I remember.  I was knocked unconscious because of the explosions. 

I do not remember anything until the CO, or XO, or whatever his title was that morning, was shouting inside the bunker and asking if anyone was in there.  I yelled back and climbed out only to find that the front wall had been completely blown out and one side was completely gone.  The roof was caved down and I just had a crawl space to get out.  It was already daylight by this time. 

The degree of damage to the bottom three gun positions was catastrophic.  Two of the guns were damaged and had to be removed from the hill.  Most of the bunkers were completely demolished.  I remember going up to the top of the LZ in a daze and helping get wounded and dead on to the helicopters.  L/cpl Lewis who was the A chief on Gun 6 (the one I was assigned to) was lying on the LZ with massive wounds and screaming in pain.  I was helping the corpsman and others with him, when Lewis died.  He had been in the bunker below where the M60 was (that I was trying to get to).  Maybe if I could have stayed with the M60 and tried to hold off the attack long enough to get him out of that bunker he might still have been alive or, on the other hand, I may have been as dead as he.  Out of approximately 60 men that were in Hotel Battery we had 8 KIA and approximately 25-30 wounded.  As I remember there were only about 12 of us left to operate the three upper guns. 

At this time I was reassigned to Gun 3.  I’m not sure how many guys there were left in our fire directional control center and our command.  I have documentation that there was approximately 200 NVA from the 27th NVA Regimen that overran us.  At some time around 0415 all communications with LZ Russell were lost and the order was given to fire direct fire on our position because of fear that our guns would be used against the Rockpile and Vandergriff Combat Base (other Marine Corp installations.)  From unclassified combat action reports, I have discovered there were approximately 714 high explosive rounds from four different battery’s (105mm and 155mm Howitzers and 8-inch guns) fired in support of LZ Russell in the early morning hours of February 25, 1969.  Most of the bunkers on the lower part of the hill (Gun positions 4, 5 and 6) were destroyed including the Fire Directional Control bunker on the top of the hill.  It is my belief that some of these bunkers were hit by friendly fire, because of the extensive damage they sustained.  The rest of the day we mostly had helicopters bringing in troops, reinforcement personnel for the Battery, for the grunt units and ammunition for us and the mortar companies.   At 2000 hours on February 25, 1969 we again had incoming mortar rounds and movement on the lines and another 92 rounds were fired in our direct support. 

After February 25, 1969 we began the long process of rebuilding the hill by building more personnel bunkers, new larger main ammo bunkers, rebuilding all the gun pits, new FDC, etc.  During the spring and summer of 1969 we were called upon to fire support for grunt units on operations near the DMZ and LZ Russell.  Our Battery (6 guns) were firing 1,000 rounds per day for three months straight.  During this time most of us were exhausted beyond belief.  Not only were we staying up all hours of the night firing these rounds, but also restocking the ammo bunkers during the day along with trying to rebuild the position from when we were overrun. 

More to follow