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View Full Version : On this day in the Vietnam war July 5th



bobdina
07-05-2009, 12:28 AM
1963: South Vietnamese officers plot coup
1966 Heavy fighting near Con Thien kills nearly 1,300 North Vietnamese troops
1966- A veteran of three wars, Sergeant First Class Kanelio Pele, and a soldier of 14 months, PFC Philippe E. Saunier, were awarded the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Gold Star and Vietnamese Medal of Honor during Heroes Day activities at the Vietnamese II Corps Headquarters recently.
A native of American Samoa, Sgt. Pele distinguished himself by single-handedly killing two members of an enemy machine gun crew and forcing the other two North Vietnamese Army soldiers to flee.
Under heavy enemy fire, he carried the machine gun and ammunition, weighing nearly 200 pounds, back to the company area.
Upon reaching his unit area, he realized a wounded man was still at the ambush site. He moved across several hundred yards of open terrain, found the soldier and carried him back to the company position, again receiving enemy fire.
PFC Saunier, of Delcambre, La., was also honored for his action during the fierce battle at landing zone 10 Alpha.
Saunier was a member of an 81mm mortar crew when Company B, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry, came under heavy mortar fire and intense ground fire.
He remained at his position and continued to rain mortar rounds on the enemy.
1966- Four of the five men in the patrol were wounded; the fifth a machine-gunner, was making the Viet Cong wish they had never started the ambush in the first place. But this was no time to wish it hadn’t started. The bullets were coming in fast and furious; the enemy had the jump on them.
It all started when the first platoon of Company B, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry, was conducting a search-and*-destroy operation just outside Cu Chi.
In the early morning hours, they set up their command post (CP) about 2,000 yards from the base camp perimeter.
Two squads of the platoon were to sweep a pre-designated area, while the balance of the platoon was to remain at the CP as a reactionary force. One of the squads split into two, five-man fire teams, and the groups set out.
The first half of the sweep saw only light contact, but yielded one enemy casualty. The team proceeded further. Two suspects were spotted and captured. Returning to the CP the seven-man unit passed within ten yards of a VC-infested trench and spider hole network.
As in any well-planned ambush, the Viet Cong waited until the last possible moment before they opened fire. This tactic proved difficult for the 4/9th but was much harder on the V.C.
Rather than accept defeat, the Americans, many of them wounded, aggressively charged the surprised VC.
The radio telephone operator, although wounded, managed to radio that the team had been hit. That was enough for the rest of the squad. They knew their comrades position and lost no time coming to their aid. The fighting continued.
In the end, nine V.C. lay dead.
1968: Thieu vows to wipe out corruption