LZ Grant was an isolated outpost of the U.S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division, acting as a tactical control point and logistical supply area for the maneuver elements of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry. Located one kilometer from the Cambodian border in Tay Ninh Province, RVN, it was near a trail down which the North Vietnamese Army funneled supplies and personnel to fight in South Vietnam.

Nui Ba Den is the famous mountain in Tay Ninh province (III Corps), and is seen for miles around. The Americans had a base on top which was later overrun during a battle of their own.

At 03:30 on 23 February 1969, a force from the VC 1st Battalion, 95th Regiment attacked Grant. The attack was repulsed, with the VC losing sixteen killed and two captured.

Then, at half past midnight on March 8, 1969, the North Vietnamese Army struck LZ Grant, announcing the battle when a 122mm rocket with a delay fuse arched across the sky and slammed into the sandbagged command bunker. The big projectile sliced through three layers of sandbags and detonated inside. The battalion operations officer was outside the bunker checking on the readiness of the base defense when the rocket hit. He raced back and found it demolished. Looking through the smoke and dust, he could see LTC Peter L. Gorvad dead in his chair at the map board.

Five Americans from D Company, 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, comprised a listening post on the east side of the LZ beyond the second or third row of wire. Situated in a large depression in the ground, ten to twelve feet in diameter, they held their position when the onslaught began. Just before daylight, they decided to try to make it back to the LZ. They got halfway back when they ran into NVA soldiers. Outnumbered, PFC Charles D. Snyder and PFC Larry E. Evans were hit with very heavy fire and killed. The other three made a mad dash to the LZ, running in a crouched position, and made it.

At the entrance of the LZ, enemy Bangalore torpedoes blew a hole in the gate as B-40 rockets screamed in from hidden spots, and mortar fire rained down on the landing zone. The NVA launched a human wave assault, sending masses of soldiers through the ruptured gate. Another D Company member, 1LT Grant H. Henjyoji, leaped out of his bunker with an M16 rifle to confront the enemy. He was killed almost immediately.

The rifle company that defended the camp fought so well that most of the Claymore mines ringing the camp were not needed or fired. Air strikes and Spooky gunships peppered the NVA as they charged, and the camp’s defenders lowered their artillery pieces and fired point-blank into the on-rushing enemy.

At least six enemy soldiers made it through two rings of concertina barbwire to die less than thirty feet from the guns of the Cavalry troopers. None made it through the final defense. At 6:15 AM, the enemy withdrew. U.S. losses were fourteen killed in action and thirty-one others wounded. PAVN losses were 157 killed, two captured, and twenty-three individual and ten crew-served weapons captured.

LZ Grant in 1970

The lost Americans included Gorvad, Snyder, Evans, and Henjyoji; also CPT John P. Emrath, 1LT Peter L. Tripp, CPT William R. Black, SGT Walter B. Hoxworth, CPL Vincent F. Guerrero, SP4 John R. Hornsby, SP4 Thomas J. Roach, PFC Glenn R. Stair, Akron, PFC Roy D. Wimmer, and SP4 Gordon C. Murray.

Two days later, at 01:45 on 11 March, a PAVN/VC force assaulted Grant again, supported by mortar and rocket fire, before breaking contact at 03:30. The 2/12th Cavalry lost fifteen killed, while the enemy forces sustained sixty-two killed and two captured.

Click on the link below to read the actual “After Action Report,” which goes into extensive detail:

https://cipher100.net/NonImagePDF/LZGrant.pdf

[Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, virtualwall.org, and “GIs Hurl Back Charge by N. Viet Battalion.” Pacific Stars & Stripes, March 10, 1969; “Gentle Warrior.” The Oregonian, May 28, 2000; and information provided by Bob Jones at 12thcav.us]

Here’s a short eleven-minute video showing those bases overrun by enemy soldiers during the long war. Most were unknown to this website administrator, but I am familiar with the later attacks. Nevertheless, those who fought there will never forget.

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