<text id=00he1909><title>Keeping the Supplies Rolling</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>Keeping the Supplies Rolling</hdr><body>
<p>It was a tough supply run. Khe Sanh was not a very good radar target, and it got worse as the Marines dug in more and as the surface structures were hammered by enemy artillery. Visibility was bad. Air traffic was heavy, and the incoming flights were controlled by a Marine GCA operator during their final approach to the runway. Two FACs accompanied each transport on its run in, and an escort of fighters orbited around them, ready to suppress any anti-aircraft fire. If there was no cloud or fog cover for the transport, the fighters laid a 3-mile (5-km) long smokescreen to cover the landing.
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<p>Once on the ground, the transports became 'rocket bait' or 'mortar magnets', two of the friendlier nicknames the Marine troops gave the big planes. Enemy artillery pounded the airstrip and the unloading areas. Losses were light. Surface damage to the runway ruined a lot of tires, and some shrapnel holed the planes, but very few were total losses.
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<p>By mid-February, the risk was so great that a command decision was made not to let the valuable Lockheed C-130s land at Khe Sanh any longer. Their greater landing distance meant a much longer taxi run, and a longer time to be a target for enemy artillery and mortar fire. Even the three-minute turnaround time achieved by some crews was too long. So the C-130s made delivery by parachute, or came in low for ground extractions by drag chute or arresting hook.
