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.
![](https://cherrieswriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/95a551a30258fcd9afc984a5b4c42fd1.jpg?w=1024)
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.
![](https://cherrieswriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/grant-sign-rev.jpg?w=600)
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.
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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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I was in a HHC in the 101st Airborne Div as the Battalion Mail Clerk and unfortunately had to handle all the mail for all casualties for over a year. Stories like this never got the exposure to tell the experiences that soldiers went through.
THE SUN CAME OUT TODAY
The Sun came out today,
To shed its radiant beams on the soil.
What a curious sight to behold,
Amid all this trouble and toil.
The Sun came out today,
But it may as well not have come out at all.
It brought along blue skies and great white clouds.
What nerve, what gall.
Yes, the Sun came out today,
But it may as well not have come out at all.
It came not for warmth, it came not for hope,
It came to watch men fall!!
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ONCE SAW A ARTICLE WHICH I THINK DESCRIBES THE LZ’s in Nam , INTO THE. BULLS EYE . WE WERE SITTING DUCKS WAITING TO BE ATTACKED . UNDER STAFFED AND EQUIPPED MAKING US AND EASY TARGET FROM THE NEAR BOARDER OF CAMBODIA. LZ GRANT, BARBARA , CAROLYN AND IKE JUST TO NAME A FEW. WE KNEW THEY WERE GOING TO COME AND THEY DID. THE ROCKETS , MORTARS , RPG’s , 50 CAL, AND SMALL ARMS TORE INTO US . THE GRUNTS ON THE BERM TOOK THE BLUNT OF THE INITAL ATTACK. THE RED LEGS RUSHED TO THE GUNS RIPPING THE PERIMETER WHITH HE , FIRECRACKER AND WHAT EVER WAS AVAILABLE. HOWITZERS LITE THE NIGHT WITH FLARES AS AK ROUNDS BOUNCED OFF THE BARRELS . BEE HIVE ROUNDS BLASTED AWAY ON CHARGE 7 , ALL SEVEN POWDER BAGS . GRUNTS FOUGHT IT OUT HAND TO HAND AS THE NVA HAD BREACHED THE PERIMETER. THE COMMAND WERE BE PROUD , THE BULKS EYE TROOPS GAVE THEM ANOTHER HIGH BODY COUNT , SOME THIERS AND SOME OF OURS . A REDLEG ACCOUNT OF LZ IKE IN MAY , JUNE AND NOVEMBER OF 1969 .
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Today there are two skylifts going up on Nui Ba Den. One goes half way up and the other to the top where there are a number of large Buddhist statues. One can even go up walking on stones steps.
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Oh, and thank your for the well written and gripping story.
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And some straphanger AG General, after sitting on it for months, downgraded the PUC recommended all the way up the line to the lesser VUC. UNREAL.
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I’m available for narration, sorry to say, this one was lacking. Thanks for the video however. I’m a Vietnam vet of the 1st Cavalry there all of 1967. DS
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I was there the next day 3/9/69, my 21st birthday as an artillery surveyor to reestablish the survey control for 1/30th Artillery. It was not a good place to be that day. I think there were several KIA from 1/30th that week. And the 1/30th 1st Sarge was wounded and I’m thinking he lost a finger but stayed with his troopers at Grant. I remember them pulling a couple bodies off the trees where Beehive had nailed them to to it. I was with DIVArty. We spent a couple days there until we could catch a ride out. Most of the slicks were bringing in supplies etc and taking wounded and KIA out. We were not a priority.
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