Troops made an opposed airmobile assault into a small clearing near the abandoned village of Suoi Tre in central War Zone C, Republic of Viet Nam. Their mission was to establish a Fire Support Base at that location to support further offensive operations. The Fire Support Base was code-named “Gold”. Unbeknownst to them, this area was a major staging area for the 274 VC Regiment. At dawn, two days later, the 450 defenders of Gold were attacked by an estimated 2,500 VC soldiers. This is one soldier’s story:
March 19, 1967, our Battalion minus ‘C Company’ deployed from Dau Tieng by fixed-wing air transport to a staging area near Soui Da Vietnam, this was the beginning of Operation Junction City II in preparation for our units to assault into Landing Zone Gold. We were not alerted to the possibility of it being a “Hot LZ” or that enemy resistance was expected. The flight time to the LZ was short, I was on the 5th Chopper sitting on the floor with my feet on the skids, in a flight of 10 aircraft, and as we approached the LZ it was obviously a very “Hot” landing. The Chopper to my front was hit and exploded mid landing about 25 feet in the air, the blast and concussion blew me out of the chopper some 10-15 feet up. I hit the ground hard, my rucksack over my head and helmet blown off, rifle in the dirt and hit my head on something hard.
The enemy snipers were firing from the nearby tree line, leaving no time to gather myself or assess my injuries or pain, fear and adrenalin raging, confusion and reaction firing my weapon into the tree line suppressing any enemy fire if that were possible. The flights of choppers continued coming in, three of the downed choppers were burning, bodies and parts from the explosion were everywhere. The morning wore on and the enemy action reduced and ended, but the day was far from over. I was detailed to take my weapons platoon and assist in picking up our dead and gather the body part of those in the choppers blown up. I was stunned and still somewhat dazed, from the hard fall, sore knee, stiff neck, and a crease in my skull still there today 52 plus years later. The bodies were difficult to gather, one was a soldier torn in half, the skin of the upper torso yellowed like a neoprene rubber, the lower half still with his pants and boots on sickened me. My first real introduction to the horrors of war.
The next few hours the euphoria of the unit was overwhelming, The day is a blur, not sure if the Generals were there before or after we collected the bodies and parts of the enemy. The newspaper article said there were 423 bodies, but that was in the first few hours, as the mass grave that was dug had over 647 bodies and parts in it, looking like a scene from newsreels of the WWII Holocaust. My inner humanity suffered a huge tear in the fabric of what I have always believed, “Thou Shall Not Kill” to me even a small animal being killed was offensive, and here I am looking into a hole in the ground with 647 bodies that we killed. Yes, the reality is nearly certain that if we had not killed those enemy soldiers in front of that 105, that most of the remaining 380 of our unit may have died. Even so, that does not reduce the feelings of guilt that I feel.
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It would be interesting to see what information about this area that the Radio Research units in the area had, where the VC units and their forward elements and so on were located. There should have been RD’s (radio designators) for them. I’m imagining a big map on a quonset wall with red and blue labels. 372nd RRC supported 25th ID.
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I forgot to say that I was an interpreter/translator with 330th RRC in Pleiku and Nha Trang, ’69-71.
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Very graphic description of the art of war, and the meeting of your former enemy🇺🇸
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Very well written. Very sad that all these life’s on both sides were lost. And of course those injured have lived with that day for 52 years now. War is HELL and anyone that experience’s IT can never forget the impact. God Bless our Military.
David 25th ID 1/27th Wolfhounds 69-70
Iron Triangle
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Thank you for sharing your experiences. I am always interested in stories from fellow veterans of Vietnam.
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Very good article and pictures, I was there, in that battle. 4th Division, 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry. Boat original trained at zFt Lewis, Washington.
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Lost my brother in that battle, He was with A.Co 3/22 4th inf. I was the one who accompanied michael doolittle to visit that battlefield. Very emotional journey for both michael and myself. I finally was able to go stand on that battlefield where I lost my brother
we put a nice big wreath there near the pagoda monument with banner saying “Never Forgotten”
still after all these years and standing there you can still vision the carnage that took place🙁
such a tragedy. Welcome Home Hero’s
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I heard years after the battlefield was flooded into a lake?
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What I am wondering about is how come intel did not provide better information. If it was such a hot LZ, the deployment of troops should have been called off!! A great and well written article for all that information. How come gunships were not called in for support or F-4s, etc. Napalm the tree line and those slants would be leaving the country.
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Hey Neal, good questions. As I remember there were gunships above us most of the night. We also had Hueys bringing in additional small arms and 105 ammo. I helped unload the ammo. The tree line was napalmed early in the morning hours, just before dawn I think. It’s been a long time ago so the memories are somewhat fuzzy.
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That’s behind my comment (the first one up above). There was an instance when a translation that I did about an planned attack on an ARVN base didn’t get to them because an American major thought something would be compromised. All they had to do strip the source of the info and say “A reliable source has told us that . . . .” and given the intel to them. Two nights later on AFVN’s news we heard that the base had been hit and almost sixty ARVN’s were killed. The next morning we learned about the major. Several of us were irate.
Radio Research units kept track of enemy radios. We’d alert those that should know about sudden or dramatic moves. Infantry divisions had radio research companies assigned to them. My company, 330th RRC, supported II Corps. 4th Division had 374th RRC and 25th had 372nd. Maybe someone can find out what the deal was on the eve of this battle.
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Great article, hadn’t thought about this for some time. I was in HHB 2/77 motor pool and was there when this happened.
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Mr. Doolittle, I know it was hard for you to write this and to express your feelings. Thank you for sharing with us. And thank you for maintaining your humanity, which is perhaps the hardest thing of all for us to do.
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The story touched me deeply. The courage they showed is be on anything I experienced. You guys rocked ! Was in the Delta/Mobile Riverine Force.
I seen one man body that was blown in half after a mining it has stuck with me way too long.
Your story is nothing short of miracles and true grit.
THANK YOU!!
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Impressive story and your feelings of shock, terror and the futility of war are certainly understandable – even to this day. Those flechette rounds really do some serious damage. They clearly saved your life. They were even available for the M79 grenade launcher. We used them a couple of times in ambushes if Claymores failed to do the job. Hell of a weapon. Interesting how the brass all showed up after it was all over – to do what? See the carnage? Give out medals? Celebrate victory? This was a massacre of human life and representative of what so many of us experienced. Welcome home my brother.
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It was very interesting, we were in numerous battles but I don’t think any were as savage as what you have described.
I was on a tank in I Corp..
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Thanks for sharing this battle. I must admit the events seem just like yesterday. I applaud you for your return to the battlefield, such courage.
I can feel the moral injury that you experienced. I’ve flown with the 25th out of Dau Tieng and on Nui Ba Din. Welcome Home !
240th ASLT.Hel.Co 67-68 Bearcat RVN
Clear-Right !
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Very well written article. My unit was: Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor (attached to the 25th Infantry Division). I also returned to Vietnam about 8 years ago. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) selected 10 Purple Heart recipients for an ALL-Expense trip back to Vietnam and I was one of the lucky ones. Our tour guide Mr. Phai took everyone of us as close as he could get us to where we had been wounded during our tour in Vietnam. We started up in Khe Sanh and traveled all the way to the Tay Ninh and Iron Triangle area.
We took the cable tramway up Nui Ba Den that ends up at the Buddhist Temple. Coming down, we could see Tay Ninh, Rubber Plantations, towards the Iron Triangle, towards Soui Tre, and also Cambodia. I asked our tour guide Mr. Phai if we could visit Soui Tre and he said, “Yes”. It seemed haunting and so quiet as we walked around the battlefield. From there we visited Cu Chi and the tunnel complexes. My unit Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion , 34th Armor was also in a big battle on 1 March 1967 (We lost 4 of our Tanker Brothers there) just outside of Dau Tieng very close to the Michelin Rubber Plantation.
Yes, it will be 54 years ago very soon, but it is RECORDED in my mind FOREVER!
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Excellent description of the battle. I escorted the remains of SP/4 Paul J. McGowan from California to Chicago. He was one of the soldiers killed March 19, 1967 in the initial helicopter insertion. I place an ‘In Memoriam’ in his memory every year in The Chicago Sun Times newspaper. God Bless all those soldiers killed.
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Thanks for taking care of SP/4 McGowan. I escorted another soldier’s remains, SP/5 or Sgt Thompson, after my service in Viet Nam. Strange that I remember his name but not his rank. I’m thinking that the escorts were matched up with the same rank solder, but not sure about that. I was stationed at Fort Knox at the time. It’s a very humbling experience. I always thought that it could have been me in the coffin.
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Thank you for this story as it brought back many memories. I was there and assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, Battery A, 7th Artillery, a 105mm Howitzer Battery during Operation Junction City. On April 9, 1967, I was seriously wounded when my piece misfired as our position was being overrun. So many memories and so many friends lost.
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My unit 2/22 25ID was the reaction force the next day. Many good men were lost.. According to the after battle report. There were many dazed and wounded NVA soldiers wandering around inside. The perimeter. Very good article.
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