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View Full Version : On this day in the Vietnam war July 3rd



bobdina
07-02-2009, 11:34 PM
1968- SON TRA, Vietnam

- A Viet Cong sapper squad attacked this refugee hamlet six miles south of Chu Lai shortly before midnight Friday, killing 88 persons - 73 of them civilians - and wounding at least 103 others.
More than 85 per cent of the hamlet's homes were burned to the ground, leaving 4,000 homeless.
Fifteen of the dead were Regional Defense Force soldiers who were killed in the initial ground attack as an estimated 35 VC broke through the barbed wire perimeter, exploding four satchel charges and setting fire to the tiny grass huts. Two of the attackers were killed.
Nearly all the civilian casualties were caused by the blaze.
"Most of the dead burned in their homes," said 1st Lt. Floyd McLean of Lawton, Calif. McLean commander of B. Co., 1st Bn., 52nd Inf. of the 198th Light Inf. Brigade, was on the scene two hours later with his men.
"All these huts have bunkers where the people hide in case of an attack," he said. "When this one came they went into the bunkers and that's where most of them were found-burned to death."
The ground attack was followed by about five mortar rounds. They all fell beyond the perimeter. The attackers then withdrew quickly.
The enemy squad was apparently part of an estimated VC company that has been spreading terror through this coastal region of Quang Ngai Province. They had been in Son Tra before and vowed to come back and burn the hamlet when the villagers refused to join them.
"They come through here at night and try to recruit these people," said Capt. Dennis M. Eilers, information officer of the 198th. "They don't have much success around here.
"In April they told these people they'd come back and burn the place down."
The closely-grouped huts were swallowed by flames in minutes, fanned by a strong breeze blowing in off the South China Sea.
The fire was out when the American soldiers arrived. A small clearing that divided the hamlet was all that saved it from total destruction.
"When we got here everything was smoldering," McLean said. The lieutenant put his men on a ridge around the perimeter to guard against a repeat attack.
Helicopters were called in from Chu Lai to evacuate the wounded for treatment. Some died in the hospital. The toll mounted through the day.
Smoke rose from the rubble Saturday as survivors wrapped their dead in cloth and prayed over bodies. The families who had been spared rationed out rice to the homeless.

July 3, 1968 - Three American prisoners of war are released by Hanoi.



2D BDE - 25th Div infantrymen beat back an estimated NVA battalion killing 71 following a predawn attack on their night position 11 kms northwest of Saigon.
At 2:50 a.m., NVA soldiers attacked the 2d Bn, 27th Inf Wolfhounds. Charging the barbed wire emplacements, they poured in 82 mm mortars and .50 caliber machine gun and RPG fire.
Fierce fighting, supported by artillery, helicopter gunships and an Air Force AC-47 “Spooky,” continued until 5:30 a.m. when the North Vietnamese withdrew, leaving 71 dead soldiers behind. Three U.S. soldiers were killed and 32 were wounded, mostly minor, in the battle.
One of the positions hardest hit was B Co, where the Tropic Lightning soldiers were hard-pressed keeping their position from being overrun.
Twenty-one year old SGT Willie Jones, who just extended for six months to stay with his unit, won the thanks of his buddies for scrambling from bunker to bunker keeping them supplied with ammunition during the fast-moving battle.
SP4 Yancy Kimberlin fired over 200 rounds from his shotgun at close range. “He took it upon himself to kick every one of them out of our perimeter,” said his platoon leader 1LT Vince Okamoto.
Describing the action, Okamoto of Gardina, Calif., pointed to craters just outside the perimeter saying, “some of them are from our artillery. It was awfully close, but we loved every minute of it.”
“I don’t know how I’m still here,” acting SGT Douglas E. Helm, told M.G. F.K. Mearns, 25th Div Commanding General.
“You’re still here because you were better than they were,” GEN Mearns told him, pointing to the enemy dead outside the perimeter.
Co B 1SG Loring Q. Balowin of Rommey, W. Va., said some of the North Vietnamese were wearing steel helmets and camouflage uniforms. “I could see about 15 of them under the light from the flares,” he recalled. Air Force “Spookys” provided the illumination for the soldiers during the fight.
Later in the morning, NVA soldiers’ bodies were strewn all along the perimeter, mingled with unexploded hand grenades and RPG rounds. Occasional sniper fire cracked over the heads of the 2d Bn, 27th Inf Wolfhounds, as they searched the treeline outside their perimeter.