Butler County soldier traveled Road to Khe-Sahn during Vietnam War
For most people, the 1960s represented a tumultuous time in the United State’s history, marked by civil unrest and a cultural revolution. However, for the young men of that generation, the decade had less to do with the riots on college campuses and more to do with the jungles of Vietnam.
Those who volunteered or were drafted spent their days defending the nation against the spread of communism halfway around the world in Southeast Asia. Among them was Staff Sgt. Robert Zang, a Butler County native who joined the Marines in August 1959.
In January 1968, the Vietnamese were about to celebrate their Lunar New Year festival known as “Tet.” Instead, the Viet Cong collaborated with the North Vietnamese Army to launch a nationwide insurgency designed to surprise the south and bring a swift end to the war. That action became know as the Tet Offensive.
Nearly 100,000 enemy troops simultaneously attacked over 100 cities and provincial capitals. Places like Hue, the A Shau Valley, and Khe-Sahn became part of the American vocabulary for all the wrong reasons.
On April 21, 1968, Zang, who was born in Butler and raised in Karns City, found himself in the thick of the battle, first at the ancient city of Hue where the North Vietnamese Army slaughtered civilian men, women, and children, and then to Route 9 through Ca Lu, an outpost in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, which was the only supply route for the soldiers besieged at Khe-Sahn.
Zang was assigned to “Mike” company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines who called the USS Valley Forge, an amphibious assault ship that carried helicopters and Marines, home.
His unit was designated as a troubleshooting outfit which the brass called in to provide support for American troops when things got too hot or out of control. Zang said he inherited command of his understrength platoon when his lieutenant was killed and a replacement was not available.
As part of the Tet Offensive, the North Vietnamese Army attempted to disrupt American re-supply operations by destroying and occupying various bridges along Route 9. Despite overwhelming odds against some 35,000 enemy surrounding the hills of Khe-Sahn, the 9th Marines were ordered to clear the road and secure the area; however, the NVA had other plans.
On Bridge 28, “Golf” company of the 9th Marines was caught in a massive four-way ambush. As the firefight raged, Zang said he and his unit were called in and arrived in time to witness the massacre from afar.
“The platoon leaders were called up by the captain as we observed Golf 29 getting slaughtered and we couldn’t do anything about it,” Zang said.
The situation, he remembered, was quite impossible. The use of American artillery was out of the question because the fighting was too close to mark the lines and separate the allies from the enemy. Normally, U.S. air support would be an option but the NVA had strategically positioned men to take down incoming aircraft.
All that Mike company could do was standby until the next morning when troops would be helicoptered out to Hill 512 behind the enemy and prepare for a sweeping assault. That meant digging in for the night, Zang said.
As his troops worked on their fox holes, Zang noticed what looked like a parade of lights moving up the hill toward their location. He then immediately reported what he saw to his captain who responded by sending several platoon leaders down range to verify what was happening.
Much to Zang’s surprise and disbelief, he said the scouts indicated it was only fireflies buzzing about the jungle. Having his doubts, Zang recalled telling his platoon to dig in and stay alert throughout the night.
As morning approached the captain ordered his platoon commanders to get their men out of their holes, stand-by, and be ready to move out. Zang said he followed his instincts and told his men to remain in their foxholes until he ordered them out. He suspected the lights a few hours before were not some indigenous insects, but rather a determined enemy set to ambush Mike company. He was right.
“I began walking up the hill and did not get 20 feet before hundreds of automatic machine gun fire and RPG rounds started landing all around me so I quickly dove into a nearby foxhole to avoid getting hit.”
Zang still recalls the moment realizing if he had followed his captain’s orders, many of his men would have been killed or wounded. As it turns out, none of them received a scratch, he said.
The three platoons of Mike company started to move down the hill to the location where Golf 29 was ambushed near Bridge 28. As they began the trek, several of the American troops fell prey to well-disguised enemy mines (or Claymores planted by friendlies).
One Marine lost both arms and both legs in a flash of light. Zang recalled talking to him trying to distraction the young Marine from his pain, but shortly thereafter the man succumbed to his wounds.
After surveying the area, Mike company laid down mortars and called in Cobra gunships to clear the hill with heavy fire so the choppers could ferry them to the hill above their objective.
Later that day, Zang’s company was helicoptered out to the wrong hill which resulted in more walking and another nervous night in the bush, he said. The next morning it was time to take their objective as all three Mike company platoons took up positions to advance down the hill to Bridge 28.
Even though Zang’s 3rd platoon was the smallest of the company at 28 men, he was ordered to move out as part of a three-prong attack towards Route 9. On the way day down, his platoon came upon a 1,000-pound bomb that was dropped and failed to detonate. Zang ordered his troops to avoid the ordnance and move around it.
As his unit spread out to move past the bomb, Zang recalled, “We began to take sniper fire all around us.”
The men of 3rd platoon hit back hard with a heavy dose of machine gun fire of their own and M79 grenade launchers. In fact, the rate of fire from their machine gun was so high, they melted a number of barrels that had to be replaced during the firefight, he said.
One Marine took out an enemy machine gun bunker but was hit three times before he died. Zang briefly lost communication with the company commander but took charge in the moment to eliminate more bunkers he observed at the tree line. Zang said he fired 10 Light anti-tank weapon (M72 LAWS) rockets which found their mark and destroyed the enemy positions.
By this time, 3rd platoon was running low on ammunition and had suffered five dead and two wounded. They were short of ammo and were desperate for a re-supply run from the air.
Darkness had come and the chopper pilots needed some way of identifying their landing zone. Zang improvised with three heat tabs set in a triangle to provide a well-lit landing zone. It worked. The Marines received their ammo and were able to evacuate their dead and wounded.
To provide security for the choppers, Zang sent out patrols to identify where the enemy was and what they were doing. They found the NVA had returned to their bunkers, taunting the Marines throughout the night hoping to force an attack.
Zang gave strict orders to pull back, dig in, and not to fire their weapons; instead, if the enemy was spotted, his troops were to use grenades to conceal their position.
The next morning, Zang and 3rd platoon advanced on the enemy’s position where they found many of them dead from the grenade assault just hours before. They also located a few Marines from Golf 29 who had survived the original ambush at Bridge 28.
Zang clearly remembers three things: how glad the beleaguered soldiers were to see him and his men; the overwhelming carnage; and the shocking savagery of the North Vietnamese.
After searching for intelligence and burying the dead, Mike company once again dug in and called for napalm air strikes to finish off any enemy combatants and bunker complexes.
“The Phantoms came in and dropped napalm 250 yards in front of us,” he said.
Zang and his unit proceeded to Bridge 29 bringing his operation to an end.
The mission was complete and Route 9 was back in American hands, open for business for the 9th Marines.
Zang served with the Marines for 10 years and the Army for 11 years. He was awarded 20 medals, including two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star.
He returned after his first deployment in Vietnam in 1968. He joined the Army in 1969 and redeployed to Vietnam with the 101st Airborne. He returned home in January 1972 and served as a recruiter through 1980.
The Karns City High School alumnus was married to Hiroko for 56 years; she died in 2022. They are the parents of Janet Krepps, Patricia Pearson, Tresia Zang and Robert Zang Jr.
After retiring from the military, Zang worked at the Veterans Affairs in Butler for 11 years as a police officer.
Stephen DiLeo is a freelance journalist who honors America’s veterans by telling their stories.
