Marines reunite in Mitchell

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Ken Reinesch, 63, has no doubt that 43 years will fall away when he and fellow Marines from the 3rd Platoon Bravo Company meet today in Mitchell.

It was 1967 in Khe Sanh, Vietnam, when Reinesch, then an 18-year-old Marine rifleman, last saw many of his friends.

About 12 members of the original platoon from the 1st Battalion 26th Marines will meet in Mitchell at the Mitchell American Legion Post No. 107 this weekend for their first reunion.

Today and Saturday, the Marines and their spouses will share meals, play some golf and enjoy a dance at the Legion.

It will be a private party and a time to remember.

Reinesch had no doubts back then that his friends would lay down their lives for him, and he continues to hold that belief even today. In a time of war, danger and isolation, he said, they were family.

If 1967 was the “Summer of Love,” it wasn’t apparent at Khe Sanh air base, an isolated outpost near the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam. It was tropically hot and humid in the summer and wet during the winter monsoon season.

Reinesch, who served as point man for his platoon, remembers the area for being heavily overgrown and dangerous. It was his job to keep an eye out for booby traps, bombs and possible ambushes.

“We had a reputation for being fearless, for not being afraid to take on the tough jobs,” he said. The platoon’s nickname was “The Third Herd.”

The platoon took its “can-do” attitude from platoon commanding officer Lt. Guy Pete.

“If it was something that could have been done in the Marine Corps, he did it,” Reinesch said. “He was tough, unafraid and well-respected.”

Pete, a Naval Academy graduate, then a 25-year-old second lieutenant, was the “old man,” though he was only three to five years older than most of his men. He was the Third Herd’s commanding officer from January to October 1967. In 1984, he retired from Marine Corps active duty as a lieu- tenant colonel.

Pete, 67, from Red Lion, Pa., will attend this weekend.

“I still refer to them as kids,” he said. “They were youngsters back then, and I guess I still don’t think of them as the old men we are now.”

Historically, he said, the 1st Battalion 26th Marines was the same unit that went ashore on Iwo Jima during World War II. It was deactivated after that war and reactivated in 1966 for Vietnam.

The Third Herd was part of the American buildup of troops in the Khe Sanh area. Gen. William Westmoreland hoped to wage a war of attrition against the North Vietnamese Army (NVA).

It was a strategy that Marine brass never endorsed, because they saw no strategic value in Khe Sanh, Pete said.

Several Marine battalions had been bloodied in earlier fights, prior to his platoon’s arrival.

His platoon was involved in the fighting that led up to the historic Battle of Khe Sanh, which raged from January to April 1968.

The besieged Marines lost 720 men in that campaign but, according to one estimate, the North Vietnamese suffered losses nearly six times that number.

“By the time we got to Khe Sanh in May 1967, things had quieted down,” Pete said.

That soon changed.

“June 7, 1967, was one of the worst battles we were in,” Reinesch recalled. “I remember it because it was only a day after the anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944.”

That was the day that Lt. Pete and his 40 Marines had to fight their way up a hill to rescue two platoons that were overrun by NVA troops.

It was a desperate situation, recalled Reinesch, and it called for desperate measures.

“Pete was calling the shots, and he called in an airstrike to help us out. It came in so close that we had 2,000-pound bombs dropping within 150 feet of our lines,” he said. “It was probably one of the worst days I remember.”

Pete said his platoon lost Lance Cpl. Bob Enderby, of Danville, Ill., but overall, 18 Marines and corpsmen were killed in the fighting and about 28 were wounded.

His Marines will also take time this weekend to remember PFC Charley Kibel, of Penrose, Colo., who died in an earlier engagement.

Pulling rank was rare, Reinesch said. His outfit’s command structure was understood.

“Our job was to keep ourselves, and each other, alive. I consider these men the best friends anyone could ever have,” Reinesch said. “They were dependable. I’m surprised it took us so long to get together, but I’m glad it happened.”

Lt. Col. Pete said his group was a close platoon that shared an intense experience.

“That’s what this reunion is all about,” he said. “It’s about a bond no one else can share.”

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