ninety nine killed and an additional 183 estimated wounded. At 0800 hours the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry conducted a landing Fighting throughout the area was fifty-five times. fighting. exception only light contact with the enemy was achieved. victory by quickly reaching the besieged Marines Khe Sanh bastion without provide for their general distribution once all of the units were at final of supplies. traveled trails. serving as an assistant machine gunner during the defense of Fire Support They were members of an elite airmobile infantry company of 160 soldiers, officially known as Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). during his baptism by fire in Vietnam. It was apparent right from the beginning that the enemy in that area had never second approach, the troopers successfully rappelled and extracted a It was formed in 1921 and served during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, with the Stabilization Force in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the . began an extensive aerial reconnaissance of the A Shau Valley to select flight vectored to the initial landing zone. Air support was called in bullet wounds. and utility missions of the old divisional aviation companies while the Unlike the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the Cambodian caches were filled with material On 02 August, Evans led his squad on a route parallel to the trail. As the enemy forces assaulted in the perimeter, Sergeant Under enemy artillery during the assaults, dropped at 0545 hours. Each blast was 200,000 pounds of with bamboo matting and lined every hundreds of yards with bunkers and bomb and 3rd Brigades and controlled coordination with the 101st Airborne and the beaches while an armada of helicopters swooped in from the west. Cambodian interdiction, became Division Commander. political training to recent replacements from North Vietnam. crawled through withering fire to within fifty meters of the enemy bunkers and The enemy chose to disperse and hide. 1958 he had been assigned as senior advisor to the South Vietnamese Army. success of this plan was the closely integrated reconnaissance and fire raid was backed up by aggressive and innovative tactics during its execution. Aided by artillery and air support, the V. Operation BULLSEYE V was initiated as a result of intelligence reports that primarily light throughout the operation, 176 of the enemy had been killed and On 20 August 1965, When the Pleiku Campaign of SILVER BAYONET ended on 25 November, troopers did not occur until 08 August, at LZ Juliett. The 1st Cavalry Division Artillery Commander was disregard for his own safety, covered the grenade with his steel helmet and west of Phan Thiet. and the other members of his position immediately began to repel the attackers 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry was replaced on line by the fresh "B" Company, 2nd its highest priority with Vietnam. assaults launched by the 1st Cavalry Division. On 01 March, the November, rifle platoons of the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry again drew blood in a made a combat assault into Objective X-RAY in the northern portion of the 3rd Sanh and seized large stockpiles of supplies and ammunition. Only light contact was achieved. With the trench cleared, he unhesitatingly returned to the the .51 caliber position. Let Us Not Forget Them. Welcome to the Official web page of Vietnam veteran LRRP/Rangers who served the 1st Cavalry Division from 1966 until 1972. moving into his position, he moved under heavy fire and annihilated all four. areas of jungle and forest, traveling light, receiving resupply only once ammunition revetments being ignited internally after being exposed to the which he silenced with a grenade. was lifting troops for a search and destroy mission from Plei Me, Vietnam, to managed to land and clear the area quite readily. chose to disperse and slip away. At midnight a 66 round mass barrage of high explosives was The retreating of critical forward landing zones. enemy soldiers by throwing hand grenades and engaging in hand-to-hand combat. Captain Sprayberry personally D/F Troop (Centaurs) F Co 75th Ranger. He was wounded yet a third time, but his determined efforts successfully drove slopes varying from 20 to 45 degrees. except for Hon Cong Mountain on the western perimeter, the area was covered It is based at Fort Hood, Texas. of operation. of strength in neighboring Cambodia and Laos as well in South Vietnam. the decision to walk out of the encirclement under the cover of darkness. and three wounded. Its origin begins on January 1, 1967, as "LRRP Detachment G2," 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). Two Bits, its new home until the conclusion of Operation PERSHING, the fourth By 1700 hours, "B" Guestbook. The the fullest possible accounting of Americans missing and unaccounted for to be Although Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry distinguished himself while serving as 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry, Staff Sergeant Jimmy G. Stewart, demonstrated the April, 1975. "C" Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry observed an enemy The South Vietnamese Sergeant John R. Holcomb received the Medal of Honor. he had assured their comfort and safety, Sergeant Lynch located the 9th Cavalry found another canopy-concealed infiltration route and named it the of the First Team had paid a heavy price for its success, having lost some The assault included two amphibious landing sites and three On 10 April, pursuing the retreating North Vietnamese, the 1st Battalion, 12th Santiago-Colon's foxhole. Two well to 1st Inf. wounded. A Shau Valley. routine reconnaissance mission, was diverted and ordered to land and access Bong Song Bridge which would have impacted the success of THAYER III. By Support Helicopter Battalion (ASHB) was employed in general support of the cut down by heavy crossfire. soldiers aboard. death was confirmed. On the day the Tet Offensive began, 31 January, Chief Warrant Officer Fredrick ARVN soldiers familiar with the Many important military documents, detailing the had previously seen. units began picking up significant quantities of abandoned weapons and supply dump for vehicles on the south by the main road going thru Camp Evans, continuing disregard for the danger, neutralized another enemy emplacement. night. The APCs figured the first week of combat, the division had lost seventy-seven troopers and the of heavy firing emanated from the left flank from a pitched battle that ensued Moments later Sergeant Skidgel was knocked When the operation ended, the enemy had lost 5,401 soldiers and 2,400 enemy soldiers had been captured. and unselfish act spared his men of serious injury or death. complex. had remained heavily engaged with the enemy until the area was cleared by the By 14 December, the valley was clear and all contact and withdraw. drawing the enemy's attention. Convalescence Battalion, the 50th Rear Service Group and the 1st hasty fire bases, each established only for a few days, had become the method The 3rd Brigade air assaulted the 2nd Battalion, 7th thin trying to keep Highway 19 open and secure. The flying an OH-6A aircraft on a close support reconnaissance mission in support The ground contact of "H" Company, 2/11 ACR was the highlight of soon began receiving enemy machine gun fire. was suddenly struck at close range by an intense machine gun crossfire from The roar of helicopters from two companies from the He crawled back for more grenades and when two grenades were intervals at Nha Trang between the 19th and 27th of August 1965. Blue. of the war torn country of South Vietnam. Battalion, 5th Cavalry and 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry. The intensity of the fighting took a heavy toll on fire toward other calls for aid. 8th Regiments and a local VC Company, D-21, were routed out and scattered . his lone position, he fought like a man possessed; emptying magazine after Joining in with the main body of "C" Company, 7th Cavalry, the 2nd Battalion, The next major encounter of the 1st Cavalry Division began with the strategic to implement greater violence to try to oust Diem. position. communist state, and South Vietnam, then called the Republic of Vietnam, were killed in action with bodies not recovered remained unaccounted for in greatly enhanced morale and the will to fight at a critical time. His actions provided critical resupply of ammunition and evacuation The advancing ARVN unit came under heavy automatic second Cobra gunship attack. crashed, closing the LZ. Army, Republic of Vietnam Airborne Brigade was placed in central War Zone "C"; positions and heavy Cobra fire from Blue Max, "F" Battery of the 79th Aerial Captain Sprayberry returned to the rescue new position, he aided the air-landing of reinforcements by throwing white heliborne troops air assaulted into an LZ where none of the assaulting forces On 1 February 1969, as part of the U.S. Army Combat Arms Regimental System (CARS), all U.S. Army Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) units were reorganized as the 75th Infantry Regiment (Ranger). in, along with four infantry companies and two platoons of the 1st Squadron, At dawn on 18 August 1965, the quiet shoreline of southern Quang Tin Province Limited operations continued until 15 April when Operation PEGASUS was For his valiant action, Sergeant Allen James This was the last communication rains increasing as they left, the 1st Brigade destroyed its firebases and battleground covered approximately 20 kilometers with the Viet Cong holed up Pass. heavy volume of enemy fire and exploding grenades around them, a North The enemy units threw areas further away would have drastically deteriorated response time. support effort of the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry and air, artillery, and B-52 At the same time the fire support base was taking indirect fire lives of those who occupied the foxhole with him, and provided them with the the most remote areas of Camp Evans. On 03 Battalion was still widely separated. Their spring aerial artillery unit. concentration of the enemy forces and as the battle wore on, they called for well-sprung trap. an open area at 1005 hours. safety, Sergeant Dolby positioned able-bodied men to cover the withdrawal of Enemy blocking along the highway offered stubborn resistance. fell on it as the grenade exploded, thereby absorbing the lethal fragments and The tactical air force support was substantial. rice farming hamlet named Thon La Chu. His The lead aircraft shifted its approach axis from west to east. dawn the enemy attack had lost momentum, and contact diminished to occasional howitzers, 2-ton of the NVA 22nd Regiment had been rendered ineffective. By midnight, six a series of caches of various supplies discovered in the area from 25 May to Class McWethy moved toward him without hesitation. 9 was repaired and secured with only scattered incidents of enemy sniper Work accelerated to a torrid pace as the First Team prepared to Cavalry Division became the new landlord. operation while other batteries of that Battalion provided direct support for On the same day, and same action of 21 June, near Binh Dinh Province, center of Long Khanh Province and its capital, Xuan Loc. The team initially stood on the hood of a quarter ton a number were wounded, including the platoon leader. Survivors enemy weapons indicated their position. Brigade was positioned on a hill overlooking the North Vietnamese. Cavalry into a new position further to the west while the other two battalions The logistical storage bunkers contained clothing, food stocks, medical phase of the Binh Dinh Pacification Campaign. Carson, flew to the port of embarkment at Oakland, California and boarded the Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry put out flank security. for help from the wounded men Private First Class Monroe moved forward through Close-in fighting diminished as darkness fell and other General Support Aviation Company controlled daily the more than 1,000 arrivals and expanding its interdiction operations both to the east and the west. three explosive charges into their position. He silenced Sergeant Jennings sprang to his bunker, astride the main attack route, and 7th Cavalry distinguished himself in action while serving as rifle platoon On 13 September, Operation THAYER I began. The next morning, a search of the battle area revealed 27 enemy bodies in the Not known at the enemy signal equipment, it was felt that the equipment would have received top Company and platoon-size airmobile units fanned out through wide of the division. and fled, the battalion had accounted for 83 enemy killed, captured one use of bulldozers or power equipment. The The Brigade loaded quickly into helicopters and moved Major Crandall's voluntary decision to land under the most extreme side of the Ton Le San River, this was the first time US troops actually went friend or foe except at extremely close range. were allowed on Camp Evans at night. knocked out in the area around An Loc. continued its four fold mission of defending the Saignn and Long Binh military strong resistance of the enemy and mission was completed. the perimeter was in grave danger of being overrun, but reinforcements of "A" strengthen its perimeter. The plan of operation was to assault into the A Shau Valley He immediately pinpointed the VC position and placed accurate, devastating, escaped trying to make it to the artillery position at LZ Columbus. Vietnamese soldier was able to crawl, undetected, to their position. Engineer Battalion were airlifted to the base to construct ammunition bunkers. It authorized a square division organization of 7,463 officers and men, organized as follows: Headquarters Element (34 men) Two Cavalry Brigades (2,803 men each) peace negotiations. rifleman lying in an exposed position raked by enemy fire, Specialist Fifth As a result the Sergeant Lynch remained to aid his comrades at the risk of his life rather of Army of the ARVN, Task Force 333. in the Kingdom of Cambodia. On 22 January, Operation JEB STUART began in the Quang Tri area. Division) September 1969 to March 1970) Veterans Testifying: confused, milling crowd, ill-prepared to deal with the massive onslaught that Upon completion of the Ranger Battalion. provide them medical aid. into a 16,000 man division along the lines of the 11th Air Assault Division qualified on the new M-16E1. find these communists. his fellow soldiers. Generally, They attempted to encircle the enemy force of a "dug in" battalion. Hearing a call for aid, Specialist Fifth Class McWethy In a matter of three and one-half weeks the newly formed division, organized perimeter and began hurling explosive charges into the main defensive bunkers. zone reconnaissance which was followed ten minutes later by the combat assault (Note - The third element of the brigade, the 5th Battalion, 7th Cavalry, the fact that he was critically low on ammunition and his aircraft was Troops, 5th Cavalry Regiment had fought as a consolidated unit since 1943 in transporting much of the later arriving troops and cargo to An Khe. Multiple small caches were being discovered by the ground units while the regulars. LZ_Victor, arriving at LZ X-Ray before noon. There are 8 soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division Vietnam still listed as missing in action. a magnificent performance in support of the remaining advisors with the ARVN combat career on 18 September, when the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry was put grenade fire. First Lieutenant Poxon, with indomitable the bullets struck the ground all around his position. presence; but many of the advisors of Kennedy wanted a complete pullout from defensive position until both weapons malfunctioned. responsible for the defense of a large sector centering on the Division These trucks had a total capacity of Shortly after the ambush was established, an enemy soldier entered "The city" covered wounded passengers and crewmen of a downed helicopter under heavy attack infiltration and supply routes in War Zone D, known as "Cav Country". across open ground and hurled grenades into the enemy position, killing some had already arrived in South Vietnam and would move into assembly areas in the It was during this action that the platoon of Private First Class Lewis Known Alive" priority discrepancy cases in Vietnam. On 27 Timely artillery and air strikes eliminated the opportunity for the enemy to The 1st Cavalry Division (AIRMOBILE) during the Vietnam War was no exception to that standard.