"Yet, there were times during those years when I could close my eyes and see the insolent, young faces of my buddies, the fine red dust of Khe Sanh etching their every pore. The ease, humor and courage with which they endured such relentless peril would sometimes seem to me like a dream. In those moments, it did not matter how I felt about the war, the nation that wished to forget, or myself. It mattered only that I was proud to have stood with them and defended a little patch of ground."
Michael Archer
A Patch of Ground

“An outstanding account; takes an old Marine back to his youth. Mike Archer captures the essence of the young Marine in Viet Nam; tough, lonely, living miserably and dangerously, yet committed to his mission and especially his fellow Marine. This is a must read for anyone interested in knowing (or remembering) what it was really like at Khe Sanh in late 1967 and early 1968.”
Ray Smith, Major General, USMC (Ret)
Company Commander at Khe Sanh

       A Patch of Ground
                              Khe Sanh Remembered


A poignant, often humorous, recollection of the siege of Khe Sanh – a pivotal turning point in the American war in Vietnam. Under constant bombardment from the enemy, Michael Archer and his cadre of young Marines – Orr, Pig, Old Woman and Savage, just to name a few – managed to survive and, in the process, learn about manhood, sacrifice and the darkest recesses of fear and loneliness.

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A memoir by Michael Archer

A poignant, often humorous, recollection of the siege of Khe Sanh – a pivotal turning point in the American war in Vietnam. Under constant bombardment from the enemy, Michael Archer and his cadre of young Marines – Orr, Pig, Old Woman and Savage, just to name a few – managed to survive and, in the process, learn about manhood, sacrifice and the darkest recesses of fear and loneliness.

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