he drove a duster, the m-42-a like that commanded by bruce geiger at the base. they have to reopen route 9 to get there. he had been in fierce ambushes along the way. >> you see all these marines who were trying to get through blown off the same type of truck in front of you laying on the road and every time they get up to run, they step on an anti-personnel mine and send them flying in the aiis and their arms and legs would be gone. and it would build and build and then -- excuse me. you get emotional when you think about it. >> "operation pegasus" was a massive how of forre. >> they came with more equipment than the whole 3rd marine -pdivision had. it was amazing the amount of military supplies, personnel and helicopters they had. >> they massed well to the east of khe sahn. meanwhile, conditions around the base remain stark. >> i took that shower on the last week of november '67 and the next time i ever saw bar of soap or washed any part of my body was the end of april in '68. >> we get from three to four hours a day. working 18 to 20 hours a day. >> it's a s

. >> first lieutenant bruce geiger of new jersey a 23-year-old army platoon leader attached to the 26thines. he had the heaviest armor at the base. >> we had dysers, cannons mounted on a light tank chassis. it was a walker bulldog tank and in addition we had two quad 50s, four 50-caliber machine guns. >> dug in surrounding the base the largest and best equipped force ever mustered by the enemy. >> above ground you were a target. >> incoming is constant and sometimes 1,000 rounds or more rained down on the base. >> incoming would happen and people would flop down for a few seconds and then just get up. >> if you've seen the tv show "m.a.s.h." and radar on the loud speaker announcing the movie for tonight, we had that system seto up. >> this system was used to save lives. >> typically, the rounds were coming from a place called corock. and the marine gets on the horn and start sending arty, arty, arty corock. and everybody went into a first hole they could find. >> my troops used the tease me all the time. they used to kid me about being uniform always dirty. red clay all over the front o