18 ENG BDE was a US Army unit
Primary service involved, US Army
Quang Tri Province, I Corps, South Vietnam
Location, Cam Lo
Description:
15Mar71- Road opened into Laos On QL9-Before it was possible for the
ARVNs to push an armor column into southeastern Laos, more than 25 miles of
QL9 between Cam Lo and the border had to be made passable after three years of
nonuse and heavy aerial bombardment. That job fell to the 59th Engr. Co., 45th
Engr. Gp., 18th Engr. Bde. "We started with 10 dozers on January 29 from
Vandegrift and pushed through clearing the brush off the roadbed," said
Lt. Harry Prince Jr., company commander. Those first three nights, the men
didn't even take time to sleep. They just kept pushing ahead he continued.
"We took a breather after the third day and after three more days of hard
work we got near the border." With huge craters every few feet and a
heavy layer of dust accumulating almost everywhere, QL9 looks as if it could
be used by NASA as a moon testing location. "We stopped only long enough
to push to fill in those craters that made the road impassable," Prince
stated. After opening the road to the Laotian border, the company returned to
Khe Sanh, where half the company started leveling ground for helipads and the
other half went to work cutting a 50-yard swath on either side of QL9 from Khe
Sanh to the border they had just left. After the pads were cut, the entire
company was back on the road. A contented smile on his face, Prince wiped a
layer of dust off his forehead and took a brief survey of his men's work.
"Morale has been real high," Prince said. "These men work from
dawn to dusk and then have to pull maintenance on their machines. They eat
dust all day and have to sleep in it at night under their machines and pull
their own security to boot," he said. "And yet they never
complain." "I don't think I would rather be anywhere else than
working with them out here," he said. "You really learn to respect
them.
The source for this information was 7103AR.AVN supplied by Les Hines
Lt. Prince was KIA the day before this report was made.