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08-04-2006, 11:28 AM
3rd Battalion, 26th Marines Fight With the NVA 324B Division in September 1967 During the Vietnam War
On disengaging from the September 1967 battle, one member of the NVA's 324B Division picked up a radio and bid farewell to the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines: "Goodbye, 3/26!"
By Colonel **** Camp, U.S. Marine Corps (ret.)
Captain Matt Caulfield's understrength company labored through the brush and scrub growth of an abandoned rice paddy toward its objective, a low ridgeline 200 to 300 meters away. Corporal Mike Norcross' squad had the point and followed an old tank trail across a dry watercourse and up a slope. Thick foliage 7 to 8 feet high lined both sides of the track, severely limiting observation. The trail unexpectedly opened into a clearing. As the squad started across, a burst of fire hit the second man in the column, mortally wounding him. "As the point was moving through the open area," recalled Second Lieutenant Bill Cowan, "there was a burst of AK-47 fire, followed by several more little bursts. I immediately rushed forward and saw that one of the Marines in the point squad was down."
Norcross reacted quickly and got his squad on line to push forward. Before the Marines could advance, heavy fire wounded the 1st Fire Team leader and stopped the squad in its tracks.
As Caulfield evaluated the contact, he heard a Marine scream, "God, the whole mountain is coming."
Caulfield looked up. "Two columns of the enemy -- between 200 and 400 of them -- started on a direct diagonal toward us," he recalled.
First Lieutenant Ron Zappardino, India Company's FAC, was behind Cowan. "The next thing I knew," Zappardino recalled, "Cowan and the three or four other India Company Marines slammed into me and I was backing down the way I had come, firing my M-16 with one hand and my .45-caliber pistol with the other. Every hand was needed, every bullet counted. We were toe-to-toe, punching it out!"
It was September 1967. The 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines (3/26), would fight two major engagements with elements of the NVA 324B Division early that month, suffering almost 350 casualties -- four out of 10 Marines killed or wounded. The actions took place just south of the Demilitarized Zone in an area that became known as the "Leatherneck Square," a quadrangle just below the Ben Hai River, which marked the boundary between North and South Vietnam. The "Square," bounded in the south by Cam Lo and Dong Ha and in the north by Gio Linh and Con Thien, was one of the most hotly contested areas in South Vietnam.
Article (http://www.historynet.com/magazines/vietnam/3372226.html?featured=y&c=y) (long)
On disengaging from the September 1967 battle, one member of the NVA's 324B Division picked up a radio and bid farewell to the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines: "Goodbye, 3/26!"
By Colonel **** Camp, U.S. Marine Corps (ret.)
Captain Matt Caulfield's understrength company labored through the brush and scrub growth of an abandoned rice paddy toward its objective, a low ridgeline 200 to 300 meters away. Corporal Mike Norcross' squad had the point and followed an old tank trail across a dry watercourse and up a slope. Thick foliage 7 to 8 feet high lined both sides of the track, severely limiting observation. The trail unexpectedly opened into a clearing. As the squad started across, a burst of fire hit the second man in the column, mortally wounding him. "As the point was moving through the open area," recalled Second Lieutenant Bill Cowan, "there was a burst of AK-47 fire, followed by several more little bursts. I immediately rushed forward and saw that one of the Marines in the point squad was down."
Norcross reacted quickly and got his squad on line to push forward. Before the Marines could advance, heavy fire wounded the 1st Fire Team leader and stopped the squad in its tracks.
As Caulfield evaluated the contact, he heard a Marine scream, "God, the whole mountain is coming."
Caulfield looked up. "Two columns of the enemy -- between 200 and 400 of them -- started on a direct diagonal toward us," he recalled.
First Lieutenant Ron Zappardino, India Company's FAC, was behind Cowan. "The next thing I knew," Zappardino recalled, "Cowan and the three or four other India Company Marines slammed into me and I was backing down the way I had come, firing my M-16 with one hand and my .45-caliber pistol with the other. Every hand was needed, every bullet counted. We were toe-to-toe, punching it out!"
It was September 1967. The 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines (3/26), would fight two major engagements with elements of the NVA 324B Division early that month, suffering almost 350 casualties -- four out of 10 Marines killed or wounded. The actions took place just south of the Demilitarized Zone in an area that became known as the "Leatherneck Square," a quadrangle just below the Ben Hai River, which marked the boundary between North and South Vietnam. The "Square," bounded in the south by Cam Lo and Dong Ha and in the north by Gio Linh and Con Thien, was one of the most hotly contested areas in South Vietnam.
Article (http://www.historynet.com/magazines/vietnam/3372226.html?featured=y&c=y) (long)