DWIGHT W BIRDWELL

In the opening hours of the North Vietnamese Tet Offensive, this Specialist Five led his armoured cavalry detachment in repulsing a fierce communist assault against Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon

- MICHAEL E HASKEW

During the predawn hours of 30 January 1968, the Vietnam War took on a new dimension – and the thin line between life and death became all too real for Specialist Five Dwight W Birdwell. Launching attacks in 13 major cities across

South Vietnam, communist forces including regulars of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and guerrillas of the Viet Cong (VC) shattered the stillness of the ceasefire enacted in observance of Tet, the national holiday marking the Vietnamese lunar new year. The communist offensive spread like wildfire, quickly engulfing 35 major population centres and then more than 100 villages across the countryside. American and South Vietnamese military installations also came under attack.

Within hours of the first violent shock, the fighting reached sprawling Tan Son Nhut Air Base, where three battalions of VC guerrillas struck the western perimeter of the base on the outskirts of Saigon, the South Vietnamese capital. When the alarm was raised at the Cu Chi Base Camp northeast of Saigon, Birdwell and the rest of Troop C, 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division had already heard the explosions of enemy rockets and grenades, as well as the clatter of small-arms fire.

Moving towards the sound of the fighting, the cavalrymen aboard their tanks and armoured personnel carriers (APCs) were guided by the eerie light of flares dropped by helicopters overhead. As they approached the west gate of the air base, the leading elements of the American column, roughly 100 troopers and their tanks and APCs, abruptly came under heavy enemy fire along both sides of the road. Within seconds, they were engaged by an enemy force estimated at tentimes their own strength.