"Incoming!"

Like most Marine units in Vietnam, 1st AmTrac Battalion received their share of incoming mortar, rocket and artillery fire while operating in the field. Because of the close proximity of North Vietnam to their base at the mouth of the Cua Viet River, the Marines of the 1st AmTrac Battalion also received their share of incoming inside their base.

When the North Vietnamese fired their artillery, you could hear the guns go off. The sound was a very faint pop sound, so faint that if you were not tuned into it, you might wonder if you really heard it at all. Depending upon the weather which would affect the speed of sound, the pops were followed four to ten seconds later by exploding shells. The whistling sound that is made by incoming artillery shells is only heard when the round goes over your head. The whistle sounds that last two or three seconds, like the ones on old war movies are artillery shells you don't worry about too much, those shells would land hundreds of feet from you. The shells that would get you were the ones that whistled only for a fraction of a second before hitting the ground, but in that fraction of a second your mind would hear the whistle very clearly, measure the length of the sound, calculate how close to you it would land, and give you time to think about it. When the incoming shells didn't go over you, the sound of the explosion was quite different, if the explosion was close, it sounded like a loud "WHAM" like someone hitting a sheet of corrugated steel with something heavy. The sound became less "wham like" and more sharp, like a heavy "CRACK" the further the explosion was from you. If the shells landed close to you, you heard a "THUD" as the shell impacted the ground. This was closely followed by the sudden outward movement of air and the sound wave of the explosion which followed it. Immediately following the sound wave you would hear strange little noises overhead as the pieces of shrapnel tumbled and flew through the air. These are sounds that you never forget.

The list below highlights the incoming that the Cua Viet Port Facility (Camp Kistler) received during the two years that 1st AmTrac Battalion made their home here. In some cases, there are more then one entry for the same date, these represent separate attacks.

The casualties and damage would have been a lot greater had it not been for the sand at Cua Viet. The sand which got into everything including your cloths, your food, your bed and your rifle, also allowed the artillery rounds to go a little further into the ground before exploding.