Americal Daily News Sheets information
for 23 INF DIV

For date 690105


23 INF DIV was a US Army unit
Primary service involved, US Army
Quang Tin Province, I Corps, South Vietnam
Location, Chu Lai
Description: The following is an edited version from the Americal Daily News Sheets Vol. 3. No. 6 Monday January 6. CHU LAI (AMERICAL IO) - Americal Division forces reported killing one NVA and 23 VC, detaining 39 VC suspects, and capturing four individual weapons and 6900 pounds of rice in light action yesterday in southern I Corps. Action was heaviest in the 196th Inf. Bde. area where three companies accounted for 13 of the 17 VC killed and the lone weapon captured. One NVA was also killed, and 900 pounds of rice discovered. B/3-21 Inf., operating in small elements, killed eight VC in four separate encounters in an area 11 miles west of Tam Ky. Action began at 0900 hours when one element killed a VC trying to evade west. An hour later, 12 VC were spotted going the other way, and three were killed by artillery fire. Still another hour later, Co. B caught two more VC trying to flee east with packs containing rice. Both were killed by small arms fire. At 1235 hours and a little nearer Tam Ky, two more VC were killed while evading Co. B. The last two VC kills yielded an M-2 carbine, 30 rounds of ammunition for the carbine, and packs containing documents which were extracted. The 3-21 Inf. added three more kills to its growing total as a recon element intercepted three heavily camouflaged VC moving northwest 12 1/2 miles west of Tam Ky. The VC were killed in a firefight, and 60 pounds of salt were recovered. Another recon element had similar success as 1-46 Inf. soldiers surprised and killed three VC in a hootch area 12 1/2 miles southwest of Hoi AN. Among items captured were two wallets containing documents and two grenades, one a Chicom and the other an M-26. Elements of the 4-31 Inf. killed an NVA and a VC in two actions 29 and 21 miles northwest and west of Tam Ky, respectively. The remaining VC kills were credited to A Trp., 1st Sqdn., 1st Cav., working with the 2-1 Inf., and to B/2-1 Inf. which killed its man with mortar fire. A/1-46 Inf. found two small rice caches of 500 pounds in a paddy dike and 400 pounds in a hootch, both 10 miles southwest of Hoi An. Action slackened in the 11th Inf. Bde. area where five VC were killed by artillery in two actions, 39 VC suspects detained, and three weapons and three tons of rice captured. In a delayed report of Saturday evening action, a short Range Patrol of the 1-20 Inf. saw a VC company moving through a woodline near Highway 515 seven miles northwest of Duc Pho. Artillery fire was called in from C/1-82 Arty., and three VC were killed. C/4-3 Inf., led by 1LT Thomas Bedient (Bozeman, MT), watched 27 suspected VC moving through an area six miles west of Duc Pho. Fire called in from the 6-11 Arty. killed to VC, and the "Old Guard" troops detained the remaining 25. Prior to that incident, an element of Co. C found and evacuated 1000 pounds of rice southeast of Duc Pho, as B/4-3 Inf. had done an hour earlier with 5000 pounds nearby. C/3-11 Inf. captured three weapons, including a French MAS-36 rifle and a Thompson submachinegun in a cache hidden along a trail eight miles southwest of Quang Ngai City. Later and further south, Co. C turned up an M-1 carbine. Two grenades and some small arms ammunition also accompanied the first cache. Another day of minimal action in the 198th Inf. Bde. area produced one VC killed by an element of the 5-46 Inf. south of Binh Son after he had been spotted running by one of the battalion's observation posts. Soldiers of the 5-46 Inf. continued civic action work by treating 200 Vietnamese patients in two MEDCAPs at Chau Tu Three and Nuoc Mau. For the sixth time in the past 10 days, no Americal Division soldiers were killed. Nine were wounded and evacuated for medical treatment, according to an initial report.

The source for this information was NEWS6901.AML & 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

Last updated 01/02/2000

Date posted on this site: 05/13/2023