Saturday, May 6, 1972
...And 6 Land In Viet - From Somewhere
DA NANG, Vietnam --Six American M48 heavy tanks arrived here Thursday and were turned over to a South Vietnamese armored unit that will resist an expected Communist thrust at Hue.The tanks were flown into the U.S. military base here by three massive C5A transports-the first, according to an Air Force spokesman, to land at the base. He declined to state where the tanks and planes had come from or where they might have stopped over.The noses of the transport planes yawned open and the tanks trundled drown on ramps, presenting a bizarre and ponderous sight as they rolled across the flight line amidst huge, C130 transport planes. Navy and Marine jets flashed aloft a short distance away.An Army spokesman said all six tanks were turned over to the ARVN 20th Tank Reg. He said they will be deployed north of Hue and thrown into the impending fight to save the old imperial capital.The spokesman added that South Vietnamese officers are gathering up the broken remnants of the 3rd ARVN Div., which fled Quang Tri when that city fell to invading North Vietnamese forces over the weekend. They will be used, the spokesman said, to muscle a defense line with the 1st ARVN Div. There has so far been little contact and no significant action north of Hue, he said."...And 6 Land in Viet - From Somewhere", by S&S Vietnam Bureau, published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Saturday, May6, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.