Ground Pounder

In early February of 1968, at the beginning of the Tet Offensive, Private First Class Gregory V. Short arrived in Vietnam as an eighteen-year-old U.S. Marine beginning his tour of duty as an 81mm mortarman at Con Thien near the DMZ. Soon thereafter Short left his mortar crew and became an 81mm’s Forward Observer working with the U.S. Army’s 1st Air Cavalry Division and other units to relieve the siege at Khe Sanh by reopening Route 9. By September Short was transferred to the 1st Battalion 9th M