The year is 1968.  U.S. Navy Seabees battle the elusive Vietcong enemy, equipment and material shortages, and tropical weather to help American Marines retake Hue City and keep the roads open from  Da Nang to Khe San during the 1968 Tet Offensive. Romance blossoms amidst the carnage of war.

 

Shot down in South Hue just after the city falls to the enemy, Seabee Operations Officer Kevin Corcoran  takes shelter with a holdout South Vietnamese unit.  While waiting for rescue by American forces, he reflects on his affair with a lovely Vietnamese widow named Linh. At times outnumbered up to 100 to 1, U.S. Marines trained in counterinsurgency adapt to urban combat and begin to wrest the old imperial capital from the North Vietnamese Army. 

 

After U.S. Marines retake the area where Kevin is holding out, he buries his worries over the missing Linh in heroic efforts to help the Marines re-conquer Hue and open the vital logistics roads  to Da Nang and the isolated outpost at Khe Sanh.

 

Asphalt and Blood is replete with scenes of fierce combat, Seabee ingenuity and “can do” spirit, and romance under the pressures of war.