Army Reporter information
for 9 INF DIV
D/3/5 CAV
7/1 CAV
From date 680525 to 680529
9 INF DIV was a US Army unit
D/3/5 CAV was a US Army unit
7/1 CAV was a US Army unit
Primary service involved, US Army
South Vietnam
Location, Saigon
Description: The following is an edited version of an article titled "9th Inf Div Smashes Drive" from the 25 May 1968 issue. As was the publication's custom, this article provides added details to material that appeared in the 'Vietnam Communique' column.
(Continued from page 1, which was not copied.) artillery supported both contacts.
At dawn, U.S. airstrikes raked the area killing many VC who had taken cover in a nearby factory complex. When the trapped Communists tried to flee south across open rice paddies, they were battered by gunships of the 3/5th Cav and the 7/1st Air Cav. While Co. A sealed off the bridge approach, Co. C's tracks roared through the factory rubble from the west, shutting off the enemy in a cement block building near the center of the complex. All the while, Huey Cobras and the new OH-6A Cayuse gunships hammered the VC position with miniguns and rockets. The enemy body count reached 213 as fighting tapered off by late afternoon. Contact continued into the night, with ARVN Rangers moving into the east side of the complex to complete the deadly pincer movement. Early the next morning, elements of the 3/39th Inf were summoned from Long An Province to guard the southern entrances to the city. Reaching the Kinh Doi Canal, a major shipping lane bordering the district of Cholon, the unit received heavy fire from dwellings in the area. A house-to-house counterattack chased enemy snipers to the roofs in a vain attempt to halt the battalion. Allied gunships again raked the battleground with miniguns and rockets.
Meanwhile, further south, the 4/39th Inf turned back another enemy force on its way to Saigon. In all, 115 enemy perished during the second day of fighting. At about 10 AM the following day, elements of the 5/60th Inf ran into heavy contact along the canal, while the 3/39th Inf engaged the enemy near the bridge. As fighting intensified, the 2/47th Inf rushed in from Camp Bear Cat, 20 miles away, to assist in parrying the enemy thrust. When heavy small arms and rocket fire greeted the 2nd Mechanized tracks east of the bridge, the battalion answered back with .50-cal. machineguns, which, together with gunships and airstrikes, soon forced another enemy withdrawal.
The division's newest maneuver battalion, the 6/31st Inf, encountered its first significant contact since arriving in Vietnam in early April. Most of the action flared at the junction of Highways 15 and 230. At one point during the afternoon, the 31st Inf forces were pinned down, but they soon overcame the snipers and moved to secure the bridges north and south of the contact. Toward evening, the enemy had lost an additional 169 men.
Earlier in the day, gunships of D/3/5th Cav spotted 20 medium-size sampans hidden in a cove along a stream about 1,000 yards from the contact. They were covered with blue plastic material and contained packs, webbing and food. The gunships quickly destroyed them. Shortly after, about 3,000 yards from the battle site, gunships observed two enemy 107mm rocket positions, mounted and ready to fire. The gunships disposed of the sites and the two rocket warheads near them.
On the fourth day, division units continuing to sweep and secure the southern fringes of Saigon, combined to kill 106 enemy in separate engagements throughout the day.
The next day was relatively quiet until about 7:20 PM when the 3/39th Inf exchanged heavy fire with the enemy about 500 yards south of the Y Bridge. Airstrikes and gunships helped the infantrymen kill 80 VC in the two-hour struggle. At the same time, eight miles south of Saigon, the 6/31st Inf felled 24 enemy in an hour-long battle punctuated by airstrikes and gunships.
The source for this information was 6805AR.AVN supplied by Les Hines
Additional information is available on CD-ROM.
Please send additions or corrections to: Gary Roush Email address: webmaster@vhpa.org
Return to panel index
Return to Helicopter Pilot KIA index
Return to VHPA Home Page
Copyright © 1998 - 2023 Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association
Date posted on this site:
05/13/2023