February-March 1969) 101st Airborne Div. The Marines encountered few fire fights but many mines. The 3d Battalion was followed in short order by the 2d Battalion and the 5th Marines regimental headquarters from Baldy. One U.S. soldierwho had fought in nine of the 10 assaults on Hamburger Hillwas quoted as saying, Ive lost a lot of buddies up there. By noon on May 15, 1969, elements of the 101st Airborne were in combat west of Tam Ky; B Troop 2/17 Cav was operating pink teams to verify the briefing they had received from Americal personnel. On the American side, troop withdrawals had changed not only the size but also the makeup of III Marine Amphibious Force. He is one hell of a fighting man.". Preparations for the Marines' share of the third increment of U. S. withdrawal also began in January. [1] Fifteen Ranger companies were formed from reconnaissance units in Europe and Vietnam with lineage to Merrill's Marauders (5307th Composite Unit). Later intelligence indicated that the 38th Regiment had been numbed by the unexpected ferocity of the attack by fire and bewildered by the failure of the expected infantry assault to materialize. . The objective for the year was to bring all populated areas of the five provinces under Government of Vietnam (GVN) control and to raise the security level of the population to 90%. Meanwhile, sappers had tried unsuccessfully to get to the command posts of the 1st Marine Division and 26th Marine regiment on the reverse slope of Hill 327, hoping apparently to disrupt command and control while their heavier columns debouched from the hills to the west and crossed the valley drained by the Tuy Loan river. After taking Quang Tri province the enemy paused to regroup. The year had begun with 79,844 Marines, 3,378 Navy, and 59,403 Army in III MAF. First contact with the fresh regiment was on 9 April northwest of Cam Lo. Other Marines came over the north and east walls. By October, Colonel Lawrence J. Stein's MAG-13 was left at Chu Lai with no operating squadrons. Marine strength in Vietnam peaked in September 1968 at over 85,500 Marines, more than had served ashore at either Iwo Jima or Okinawa. His SAMs the big surface-to-air missileswere moved south, close to the DMZ, from where they could cover much of Quang Tri province. Colonel Kelley's 1st Marines on 11 January began an operation called Upshur Stream, the 1st and 3d Battalions moving up into the Charlie Ridge area to look for the elusive rocketeers of the 575th NVA Artillery Battalion. Combining some of the aspects of Pickens Forest and Catawba Falls, a composite 105-mm. With strength he overwhelmed the new and green 3d ARVN Division, and the old, familiar combat basesKhe Sanh, Camp Carroll, Con Thien, Gio Linhbegan to fall, one by one. The CH-47 Chinook did not have the capability of lifting 155-mm. Enclosed is the annual supplement to the unit history for the 1st Battalion, 502d Airborne Infantry, during calendar year 1968. The northern fork is Route 536. Departure of the Shore Party Battalion and the Amphibian Tractor Battalion underscored how far the Division had moved from its original amphibious configuration and mission. Colonel Clark V. Judge, commanding the 5th Marines, recommended an attack with his regiment against the 38th. From the Cau Do river south to Baldy and as far west as Thuong Due was almost an uninterrupted lake. From the big field at Da Nang, mAG-11 operated an F-4 squadron, two squadrons of A-6As, and VMCJ-1 with its mixed complement of long-legged reconnaissance aircraft. Also present in the northern five provinces, but somewhat overshadowed by the overwhelming U.S. presence, was the Army of Vietnam's I Corps, com manded by Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Lam, and including the 1st Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) Division in Quang Tri and Thua Thien provinces, the 51st ARVN Regiment in Quang Nam province, and the 2d ARVN Division in Quang Tin and Quang Ngai provinces. TERRY SIMMONS, VIETNAM - 101st Airborne, 1968, 1969. Since 1965, the Seventh Fleet had conducted 62 Special Landing Force operations against the Vietnamese coast. We just got cut to pieces by extremely accurate machine gun fire.. 22 The Quang Tri and Da Nang ASRTs stood down on 8 May but the ASRT at FSB Birmingham remained operational until 30 May to support ARVN and U. S. Army units in Lam Son 720 being run in A Shau valley. On 28 February the books had been closed on the long-term area operations, Kentucky and Scotland IIKentucky being in the vicinity of Con Thien and Scotland II in the vicinity of Khe Sanh. Don Tegtmeier was in the 101st Airborne as a loader on a 105 mm gun. By 24 January, Battalion Landing Team 2/26 had been squeezed out of the tightening perimeter and reembarked in its Seventh Fleet amphibious shipping. Brigade 258 was now moved into the My Chanh line west of Brigade 369s positions. By 28 June, the South Vietnamese forces north of Hue were ready to begin their counteroffensive. In three tours in-country since October 1965, the squadron had flown 30,083 sorties and dropped 583,345 tons of ordnance. On 15 January, Colonel Sparks and Lieutenant Colonel Ermil L. Whisman, who commanded Sparks' direct support artillery battalion, 1st Battalion, 12th Marines, were killed southwest of An Hoa when their helicopter was brought down by enemy ground fire. Raymond Davis, now a four-star general and Assistant Commandant, was visiting and had lunch with Company F south of the Song Cau Do, close to where the 9th Marines had first crossed the river in July 1965. Also, as the year began, the enemy was busy filling up Base Area 611 in Da Krong valley in Quang Tris southwest corner. 1,879 Vietnam War 1969 Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images EDITORIAL vietnam war soldiers 1,879 Vietnam War 1969 Premium High Res Photos Browse 1,879 vietnam war 1969 photos and images available, or search for vietnam war soldiers to find more great photos and pictures. Along with Imperial Lake, all ground and air combat ended for the 3d MAB on 7 May. It included a ground element (essentially a regimental combat team built around Colonel Kelleys 1st Marines, a fixed wing group (Colonel Pommerenks MAG-11), a helicopter group (Colonel Streets MAG-16), and the remainder of Brigadier General James R. Jones Force Logistic Command. The 4th Marines would not be far behind. VMA(AW)-224 with its Grumman A-6A Intruders was on board the USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) at Yankee Station, but most of its missions were being flown to Laos and North Vietnam. NVA artillery hammering away at the bulls eyes of the ARVN fire support bases was difficult to locate and never silenced. The Marine rifleman, patrolling the paddy dikes south of Da Nang and stepping high to avoid tripwires, probably never heard of the shift from TAORs to TAOIs, but he was soon aware that he no longer was ranging quite so far afield and he was conscious that there were more ARVN patrolling the "villes and out in the bush. The remaining tanks and the 105-mm. MAG-13 at Chu Lai had VMA-311 and three F-4B squadronsVMFA-115, VMFA-122, and VMFA-314. This meant drawing in a little tighter towards Da Nang, The 1st Marines turned over their old CP on Hill 55 (which had been a Marine regimental command post since being occupied by the 9th Marines in the spring of 1966) to the 51st ARVN Regiment and moved to the CP vacated by the 26th Marines close to the Division headquarters. HMM-364 redeployed to Santa Ana with its CH-468 on 11 March. On 7 September, BLT 1/26, lifted by HMM-265, landed south of Hoi An on Barrier island in what would be the last Special Landing Force operation of the war. There had been a sharp action on 17 June near Gio Linh in which the 3d Battalion had killed 193 enemy at a cost of 18 Marines dead, 26 wounded and evacuated. Tube life was originally 300 rounds; this has now been improved to 1,200 rounds as compared to the M53s tube life of 700 rounds. The 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, obligingly covered the Arizona for the absentee 5th Marines, and, on 12 August, ran into two battalions of the resurgent 90th NVA Regiment and a battalion of the 368B Rocket Regiment. During the year, the CAPS had made nearly 150,000 short-range patrols, three-quarters of them at night, and together with their PF and RF counterparts had killed 1,938 enemy, taken 425 prisoners, and captured 932 weapons. In terms of maneuver battalions involved and the complexity of the scheme of maneuver and fire support, it was probably the most significant 1st Marine Division operation in 1969. Scheduled to leave were the 9th Marines, along with proportional shares of combat support and service troops, and a slice of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing. Imperial Lake would keep the Que Sons neutralized for the remainder of the 1st Marine Divisions stay in Vietnam. It features Sgt. None were received in January 1971, 21 in February, and 36 in March (the rise probably being the inevitable result of the thinning of American forces in the Rocker Belt). Some departures were already irreversible. Marine A-6s, because of their all-weather capability, were a great favorite of the Seventh Air Force for targeting against "moversNVA trucks on their way south along the Ho Chi Minh road complex in Laos. In Vietnam, from 1 January 1961 through 9 December 1972, enemy action had caused the death of 1 2,936 Marines28.4% of the 45,915 U. S. killed or dead as the result of enemy action. Virtually all of the 1st Marine Division's efforts, other than Imperial Lake and deep reconnaissance, were dedicated to the support of Lam's operation which began on 22 September. 6 The U.S. AID-supported National Police, often disdainfully dismissed As the white mice," had in fact by this time developed a significant constabulary capability. Division artillery, with 174 tubes in January 1969, fired 178,200 rounds (and a total of 2,017,700 rounds for the year) as compared to 35,400 rounds from 74 tubes in January 1971 (and a total of 1,333,000 rounds for 1970). The Marine Corps had begun the war with the UH-34 as it standard medium helicopter and the tough old birds had logged nearly a million combat sorties. On 7 September, the 1st Ranger Group was moved into Brigade 147's positions, freeing 147 to attack Quang Tri from the northeast. As September began, Brigade 258 was on the Divisions left front, Brigade 147 on the right; the brigades separated by the Vinh Dinh river. Wounded in action total 88,589, of whom 51,389 required hospitalization33.5% of the 153,256 U. S. WIAs hospitalized. Prime targets for the Sea Cobras were the lighters being used to ferry cargo ashore from the ships anchored outside the minefields. Throughout February, Marine-provided lift continued at a level of from two to eight CH-53S. The Divisions dispositions were roughly a series of concentric circles. Not as spectacularly successful as Dewey Canyon, it nevertheless cost the enemy a considerable price in men, weapons, and rice. By 4 May, all of Quang Tri province was lost. With few exceptions, all close air support missions were being controlled by airborne forward air controllers. On 15 February, the 3d Battalion, 5th Marines, stood down, coming out of the Que Sons and moving its rear from FSB Ross to Hill 34, south of Da Nang, which was to be used as a staging area for the infantry battalions as they got ready to leave country. The 3d ARVN Division, including Brigade 147 which had gone up to relieve Brigade 258, now occupied a rough line along the Cua Viet river and it held until 27 April when it broke under a fresh NVA attack. General Lam (who had operated along Route 9 in Laos as a junior officer under the French) moved his command post up to Dong Ha initially and then west to Khe Sanh. The pull-back, which now began, also required Marine heavy helo lift to get out guns and other heavy equipment. (Actual III MAF strength on 31 December 1970 was 24,715 Marines plus 1,010 Navy men.) Nam Sense Surviving Vietnam With 101st Airborne D Pdf . Both the F-4s and the A-4s were also used for interdiction missions in Laos, particularly against the choke points offered by the passes at Mu Gia, Ban Karai, and Ban Raving. Meanwhile, on 13 January 1969, Battalion Landing Teams 2/26 and 3/26 had landed by helo and landing aircraft in the Van Tuong area on the northern face of Batangan peninsula, 12 miles south of Chu Lai. Between 0702 and 0928 on 31 August, attack aircraft of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing delivered 77 tons of ordnance, mostly 1,000-pound bombs and napalm, into the Que Sons in 27 sorties. By the first of the year, Increment VI seemed firm: RLT-5 with corresponding slices of aviation and logistic support would go home. The CAP program was down to three companies with 18 platoons and all were to be deactivated by 7 May. This left the Marines with the 1st Engineer Battalion organic to the 1st Marine Division and Company A, 7th Engineers, in general support of III MAF. There was also the 2d Combined Action Group (all that remained of the Combined Action Program) and the 1st Military Police Battalion (airfield security plus armed forces police and war dog duties formerly performed by 3d Military Police Battalion which had gone home in Increment IV). Hoang Dieu 101 ended 19 January. A typical daily "package provided Lam Son 719 was four CH-53S escorted by four AH-1G Cobras or newly- arrived AH-1J Sea Cobras. 7 For the evolution of the Combined Action Program see "Marine Corps Operations in Vietnam, 1965-1966," Naval Review, 1968, pp. The A Shau Valley of northern South Vietnam was a key infiltration route for North Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, operating from Baldy, had joined a Regional Force company in still another sweep of Barrier island. The 1st Marine Aircraft Wing was to provide a heavy-lift capability by way of its CH-53S, and, through Seventh Air Force, would be tasked for tactical air support. The North Vietnamese re-occupied Hamburger Hill a month later. For the time, three squadrons would continue to be based at Phu Bai, but responsibility for operating the airfields at Dong Ha, Quang Tri, and Phu Bai had been passed to the Army. See also "Marine Corps Operations in Vietnam, 1968," Naval Review, 1970. pp. VMFA-115, the last Marine F-4 squadron in-country, flew its last mission on 22 February and then stood down preparatory to moving to Iwakuni. Soon some of the largest caches of the war were being uncovered. It is estimated that nearly half a million Marines served in Vietnam itself. When perched on top of a mountain, these FSBs were easy to defend, seldom tying up more than a platoon of infantry. You can navigate days by using left and right arrows. Like Bold Mariner, Daring Rebel was an amphibious application of the County Fair concept9 and it proved once again the effectiveness of large-scale cordon-and-search operations in disrupting Viet Cong control. One in the A Shau Valley early May 1969, which follows elements of the 101 Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade during the ten-day battle of Hill 937 (Hamburger Hill). Actually, over 50% of 7th Regiments CUPP Marines, as individuals, stayed in place, simply being transferred from the 7th Marines to the 5th Marines. This time there was to be a reduction of 12,900 Marines by 15 April 1970. Route 535 goes south and joins Route 534. On 9 May, while Daring Rebel was rampaging on Barrier island, the 5th Marines, now commanded by William J. Zaro, intercepted a large enemy force attempting to cross the "Arizona territory. This familiar area was not only a much-traveled route for the enemy as he debouched from the mountains but also the site of rice and com "markets from which he drew his sustenance. MAG-12's headquarters, commanded by Colonel James R. Weaver, and VMA-211 with its A-4Es went to Iwakuni. For the three days fighting, the 5th Marines claimed a body count of 233; Colonel Zaro was certain in his own mind that enemy casualties were much higher. The years goal of having 90% of the population secure was reached in October and the percentage was up to an estimated 94% at the end of the year. In this particular action the enemy seemed headed for Hill 67, a 7th Marines combat base across the river. and 155-mm. ), Things had remained relatively quiet along the DMZ for the first three months of 1969. At sea, by the end of the first week in April, the 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade under Brigadier General Edward J. Miller, four battalion landing teams and two composite helicopter squadrons embarked in Seventh Fleet amphibious shipping, had taken station. A provisional Korean Marine battalion landing team then landed on the north edge of the island and swept south against the combined U. S.-Korean blocking position which had faced about. Some 1,500 enemy were thought to be in the objective area, members mostly of the 38th NVA Regiment, the 577th Rocket Battalion, and the 490th Sapper Battalion. But what of the 3d Marine Amphibious Brigade? The 1st Battalion, 11th Marines, in its more than five years in-country had shot over 2.5 million rounds. Taken together, these articles, and General Simmons' seriesincluding this concluding article, which discusses the systematic withdrawal of Marine air and ground forcesprovide a valuable record of Marine Corps operations in Vietnam. The floods probably hurt the enemy in Quang Nam more than they did the government. As 1972 neared its end and as Dr. Kissinger and Le Duc Tho continued their meetings in Paris, at least a state of equilibrium if not victory had been reached in South Vietnam: An Loc and Kontum had survived, the threat to Hue had been pushed back, and Quang Tri, the only provincial capital to fall to the North Vietnamese, had been recaptured. It had been somewhat denuded, as described earlier, of its amphibious capability but had been beefed-up with extra engineers, artillery, and motor transport. Its first commander, Major General William C. Lee, observed that "the 101st"has no history, but has a Rendezvous with Destiny." Time and time again, the 101st has kept that rendezvous and in so doing, acquired a proud history. The Vietnamese and Korean combined count was 27,440. (There was a standing offer that any Marine finding a rocket got a mini-R&R to Hong Kong or Bangkok.) The 7th Marines had its command post on Hill 55, well south of Da Nang, and its operations fanned out from there. The second article in the series appeared in Naval Review 1969 and covered the events of 1967, a year which saw Marines fighting in all five provinces of I Corps Tactical Zone and III MAF grown to the equivalent of a field army with the 1st and 3d Marine Divisions, and the U. S. Armys Americal Division, supported by 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, under its operational control. 21 The 1st Marine Division was officially welcomed home by President Nixon on 30 April in nationally televised ceremonies. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Fourteen more were simply "missing"12.0% of the 117 Americans thus accounted for. Marine fixed wing aircraft meanwhile were flying 509 sorties and dropping 1,183 tons of ordnance in February in support of Lam Son 719, followed in March by 436 sorties and 1,447 tons of ordnance. President Richard Nixon began withdrawing Soldiers from Vietnam, under the radar, beginning in 1969. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. Nava/ Review 1970, pp. . For the Laos incursion, he had the 1st ARVN Division, the 1st Armored Brigade, his Rangers, and sizable formations of Airborne troop and Vietnamese Marines. 19 Debates as to the success or failure of the Laos Incursion and its consequences, military and political, lie outside the purview of this article. Ultimate casualties for Lam Son 719 were reported, as of 9 April, as being 13,636 enemy killed, 5,066 individual and 1,934 crew-served weapons taken; 1,483 ARVN killed, 5,420 wounded, and 691 missing. Hoang Dieu 103 began 3 February and ended 10 March. Of the 403 members of the Division killed in 1970, 283 had died in the first six months of the year. Colonel Robert H. Barrows 9th Marines were to be completely dependent upon helicopters for logistic support, a particularly disquieting prospect in view of the always uncertain flying weather. The scheme was to form a box around the suspected base area with an FSB roughly at each corner of the quadrangle.
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