Fifty-five miles north of Saigon, at a essential street junction in Phuoc Lengthy Province, 11 American Inexperienced Berets have been settling into what ought to have been a routine advisory mission. Detachment A-342, fifth Special Forces Group, had arrived at Dong Xoai in late Could 1965 to coach native Montagnard tribesmen and South Vietnamese forces.
On June 9, Viet Cong mortar rounds and recoilless rifle fireplace tore by the camp’s defenses. What adopted was a 14-hour battle that may pressure American planners to recalculate their efforts within the nation and push the U.S. into full-scale floor fight.
Two Viet Cong Regiments Assault Below the Cowl of Darkness
America had not but launched full navy operations within the nation. The U.S. supplied very important air help for ARVN forces going through the communists, whereas Special Forces advisors, just like the troops at Dong Xoai, skilled and outfitted them to American requirements.
Just a few days after the People had arrived on the camp, two Viet Cong regiments — the 272nd and 273rd of the ninth Division — had crept to inside 100 meters of the camp with 1,500 to 2,000 fighters. They wrapped their weapons in cloth to muffle sound as they positioned themselves within the darkness.
The 272nd would advance into Dong Xoai village and the Special Forces camp. The 273rd would block any reinforcements making an attempt to succeed in the besieged troops. It was textbook ambush techniques, executed with a stage of sophistication that U.S. leaders had underestimated.
At 11:30 p.m., 60mm mortars and 57mm recoilless rifles slammed into the camp. Within the opening minutes, the VC destroyed the communications tools and medical dispensary.
SF Capt. Invoice Stokes, the camp commander, was working to the command bunker when shrapnel ripped into each legs. Command of the camp immediately fell to 2nd Lt. Charles Q. Williams.
Williams had been an NCO within the 82nd Airborne Division earlier than going to Officer Candidate College and becoming a member of the Inexperienced Berets.
He grabbed a PRC-10 radio and tried to succeed in Stokes within the different compound. Earlier than he may attain Stokes, Williams made a fast choice to arrange the protection, determine the place the primary enemy assault was coming from, and get troops to the south and west partitions.
When he tried to succeed in the district headquarters to determine communications, fierce enemy fireplace drove him again. Shrapnel tore into his proper leg.
VC began to scale the camp partitions. Among the Montagnard guards panicked and began falling again. Williams ran by the gunfire, rallied the retreating fighters, and led them again to their positions. In these frantic minutes, he suffered two extra wounds.
9 Navy Seabees from Technical Help Crew 1104 have been preventing alongside the Inexperienced Berets. They’d arrived solely days earlier than to enhance the fortifications — development work, not fight. Nonetheless, they picked up weapons and joined the combat.
Development Mechanic third Class Marvin Glenn Shields, a 25-year-old former lumberjack from Port Townsend, helped carry the wounded Capt. Stokes to the district headquarters as bullets flew overhead.
Two different Seabees grew to become separated from the remainder of the People. They spent the remainder of the battle evading communist troops, however have been wounded within the course of.
ARVN Reinforcements Fly Into the Kill Zone
Solely hours after the preliminary assault, two UH-1B Huey gunships from the 118th Aviation Firm’s third Flight Platoon flew in from Bien Hoa. Regardless of the pitch darkness, the pilots opened fireplace on VC positions, dumping rockets on the machine gun positions surrounding the camp. Chief Warrant Officer Ralph Orlando would later write that the compound was in shambles and the enemy was attacking in human waves.
However the actual catastrophe was unfolding with the ARVN reinforcements.
Simply because the solar began to rise, helicopters have been shuttling the first Battalion, seventh ARVN Regiment towards touchdown zones close to Dong Xoai. The primary drop level was an open subject close to the Thuan Loi rubber plantation, a few miles north of the camp.
When 14 helicopters approached, the pilots noticed what seemed like civilians within the touchdown zone. They held their fireplace. Seems they have been VC fighters who shortly dove into ready bunkers and unleashed hell because the ARVN troops hit the bottom. It was a slaughter.
The helicopters refueled and tried a distinct touchdown zone — the Thuan Loi airstrip. VC troops once more massacred the ARVN reinforcements as they exited the plane. Blue Tail 1 from the 118th Aviation Firm lifted off after dropping troops and caught a mortar spherical. The chopper rolled over and exploded, killing 4 crewmen and two U.S. Army advisers.
Orlando later famous that of the greater than 500 ARVN troops inserted on the two touchdown zones, about 250 have been unaccounted for.
The ARVN 52nd Ranger Battalion fought by the ready ambush and managed to recapture components of Dong Xoai by the afternoon. However the subsequent day, June 11, when the ARVN seventh Airborne Battalion arrived to seek for survivors close to Thuan Loi, the VC ambushed them once more. By the next morning, few survivors have been discovered and solely 100 or so paratroopers remained fight efficient. The Rangers managed to seek out and rescue the 2 wounded Seabees.
The American-trained South Vietnamese forces have been strolling into repeated traps, getting systematically destroyed by an enemy that that they had underestimated.
The Heroic Actions of Shields and Williams
Again at Dong Xoai, Williams was consolidating what was left. Because the outer perimeter fell, he pulled American personnel from each compounds into the district headquarters constructing. The troops even sheltered a number of civilians within the compound to guard them from the VC.
When somebody acquired a battery-powered radio working, Williams raced to the communications bunker. Grenade fragments caught him within the abdomen and proper arm. His fourth and fifth wounds.
Utilizing the radio, Williams directed airstrikes in opposition to VC positions that have been closing in on the constructing.
By daybreak on June 10, the Viet Cong had moved a .30-caliber machine gun right into a schoolhouse south of the district headquarters. The gun hammered the American place. Williams wanted it destroyed.
He grabbed the final heavy weapon out there — a 3.5-inch rocket launcher. “I want a volunteer,” he stated.
Shields stepped ahead. He’d already been wounded 3 times and had by no means fired a 3.5-inch rocket launcher earlier than. He continued anyway.
The 2 males moved rigorously throughout open floor towards the schoolhouse. Williams shouldered the launcher. Shields loaded the rocket and stepped away from the back-blast space. The sight was defective, however Williams despatched the rocket downrange. At 150 meters, he hit the machine gun nest.
They turned to move again, however a second machine gun opened up. Williams took rounds in the fitting arm and leg. Two bullets shattered Shields’ proper leg. Williams could not carry him. He dragged Shields to cowl, then crawled again to get assist. A number of different People pulled Shields again to the constructing.
At midday, SF radio operator Workers Sgt. Harold Crowe despatched a message that captured simply how dire issues had gotten: “I am utilizing my final battery for the radio, and there’s no extra ammunition. We’re all wounded, among the extra critical are holding grenades with the security pins already pulled. The VC are attacking in human waves. The final wave has been defeated, however we predict the following wave now.”
On the 118th Aviation headquarters in Bien Hoa, Maj. Harvey Stewart stood up and stated, “I am getting in.”
Round 1 p.m., Stewart and 5 pilots flew three Hueys by heavy fireplace and landed. They loaded the People and a number of other Vietnamese fighters and acquired out. Stewart would obtain the Distinguished Service Cross for the rescue.
Shields was loaded onto one of many rescue helicopters. Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class James Keenan was with him. Shields was “joking and reducing as much as the tip,” Keenan later recalled. “When he lastly went underneath, it was very quiet, nothing dramatic. He simply went to sleep. The very last thing he did was to thank everybody who helped him.”
Shields died en path to medical care.
173rd Airborne Brigade Deploys as America Enters the Floor Warfare
Following the evacuation from the compound, the VC withdrew, having suffered horrendous casualties. Because the Allied troops consolidated their positions, the VC nonetheless maintained a number of defensive positions within the space. Gen. William Westmoreland didn’t need these communist troops to stay within the space.
He ordered the ARVN forces within the area to rearm and transfer again out to crush them. He was unaware, or unwilling to simply accept, that the ARVN have been decimated, depleted, and never able to any additional motion.
Upon reassessing the state of affairs and the casualties of U.S. and ARVN forces, Westmoreland lastly decided that may outline the nation over the following decade. South Vietnamese forces could not maintain with out direct American fight help.
On June 13, fearing the VC would grow to be entrenched in Phuoc Lengthy Province, Westmoreland deployed 738 males from the first Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade to a staging space at Phuoc Vinh.
This was the primary main dedication of U.S. floor fight troops within the battle. The 173rd had been staged on Okinawa as a speedy response pressure — now they have been being fed right into a conflict that may eat them for the following six years.
By the point the paratroopers arrived, the Viet Cong had melted again into the jungle. American paratroopers started working into the identical ambushes and struggling the identical setbacks the ARVN had solely days prior. American forces have been now not advising, they have been preventing.
Three Special Forces troopers and two Seabees have been killed among the many 20 People on the camp. Of the 15 survivors, 14 have been wounded. Eight helicopter crewmen have been useless, as have been 5 U.S. Army advisers. About 43 Montagnards and South Vietnamese troops have been killed on the camp. Greater than 400 extra ARVN troopers have been killed within the preventing close by.
The Viet Cong left solely 134 our bodies within the camp space, although they seemingly carried off many extra.
Two Medals of Honor from One Battle
Williams obtained the Medal of Honor from President Lyndon Johnson on June 28, 1966. Within the East Room of the White Home, Johnson informed the assembled crowd: “Lieutenant Williams and a really small band of People and Vietnamese fought for 14 lengthy hours in opposition to an enemy that outnumbered them greater than 5 to at least one. Throughout these lengthy hours, Lieutenant Williams was wounded 5 occasions.”
Shields grew to become the primary and solely Navy Seabee to obtain the Medal of Honor. His widow, Joan, and daughter, Barbara, accepted it in August 1966 within the Oval Workplace.
Williams retired as a significant and died in 1982 at age 49. He’s buried at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery.
Dong Xoai had uncovered a daunting lesson that American leaders would once more face years later. The ARVN have been incapable of going through the communists. They walked into ambushes repeatedly. Their management points stemmed from a promotion system primarily based on political connections somewhat than fight expertise. Whereas particular person ARVN troops fought valiantly, they have been led by less-than-stellar officers.
America’s advisory technique wasn’t working. Now, U.S. troops would pay the value, solely to be withdrawn in 1973 because the ARVN once more did not face the NVA and VC.
Inside months, American fight power in Vietnam would surge from 75,000 to just about 200,000. That November, troopers from the first Cavalry Division would face the North Vietnamese Army for the primary time at Ia Drang.
Regardless of the chances stacked in opposition to them and the failures of ARVN leaders, 11 Inexperienced Berets and 9 Seabees had fought like hell and confirmed what particular person People may do.
Story Continues
