John Beard ©Stars and StripesSouth Vietnam, April 18, 1970: Empty 105mm shell containers litter the ground at the Dak Seang Special Forces camp during a break in the Communist siege that began April 1. Stars and Stripes' John Beard and AP's Hugh Van Es were the first correspondents to get through to the beleaguered camp, and Beard reported that "spirits run high" among the hundreds of Montagnard civilians, South Vietnamese soldiers and U.S. Special Forces troops. "The amount of incoming rockets, mortars and recoilless rifle fire is down from an earlier rate of 100 to 150 a day to around 25 per day, although the Red gunners seem much more selective of targets," said Beard, noting that "almost all above-ground installations have been destroyed."

RELATED MATERIAL: A 1970 Stars and Stripes story about life at Dak Seang.