North and returned to Hill 881 South at 1800. The company lost 7 killed and 35 wounded. While withdrawing, it estimated at least 100 dead North Vietnamese on the face of the hill.62* The Enemy Plan Unfolds
While Company I battled what appeared to be a Communist battalion for Hill 881 North, a rather bizarre and fortuitous event took place at the combat base: the disclosure of the enemy plan for the attack on Khe Sanh. At 1400 on 20 January the 2d Platoon, Company B, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines reported that a North Vietnamese soldier was waving a white flag near its position on the northeastern perimeter of the combat base. The company commander, Captain Kenneth W. Pipes, took a fire team approximately 500 meters outside the lines where the Communist soldier
THE DEFINING YEAR
willingly surrendered. The battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel James B. Wilkinson, questioned the prisoner immediately after his capture and was "impressed by his eagerness to talk."6^
The rallier,** as he turned out to be, was Lieutenant La Thanh Tone, the commanding officer of the l4th Antiaircraft Company, 95C Regiment, 325C Division. He freely provided detailed information on the enemy's dispositions and plan of attack for Khe Sanh, including the fact that the North Vietnamese would attack Hill 861 that very night. Coming as it did on the heels of Company Is encounter with the enemy on nearby Hill 881 North, the information was plausible. Colonel Lownds dispatched an officer courier to 3d Marine Division headquarters with the information. The combat base and the hill positions were as ready as possible under the circumstances. There was nothing left to do but wait.64
*Army Colonel Bruce B. G. Clarke commented that on the 20th as well, the Army advisors at the district headquarters led a small force and patrolled an area to the south of the Khe Shan base, but withdrew to make way for a B-52 strike. Clarke CommenEs.
* *The term "rallier" was applied to North Vietnamese or Viet Cong who availed themselves of the "Chieu Hoi" ("Open Arms") program to defect to the Government of South Vietnam.
