Vicious Ambush
at Vinh Huy
On June 2, 1967, Foxtrot Company of the 5th Marines' 2nd Battalion proportionately lost more of its men than any other American infantry company during the Vietnam War.
By Al Hemingway
I had a bad feeling about this one," recalled Lance Cpl. George Schneider of D Co., 1st Bn., 7th Marines. "Whenever they give you cold beer before going out, you know the stuff is going to hit the fan."Schneider's words would prove prophetic. After arriving in South Vietnam, the III Marine Amphibious Force (MAF) kept a watchful eye on the fertile and populous Que Son Basin. Straddling Quang Nam and Quang Tin provinces, the area was one of the "keys to control the five northern provinces of Vietnam." The enemy realized the importance of the region as well. Without this rice-rich countryside, and the support of the people, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) could not conduct combat operations in the coastal lowlands of I Corps.
On May 26, 1967, Operation Union II commenced. Together with Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) units, the 1st and 3rd battalions, 5th Marines, were ordered to flush out the pesky enemy forces. F Co., 2nd Bn., 5th Marines, reinforced the 1st Battalion. That day, L and M companies of the 3rd Battalion engaged the NVA at LZ Eagle near Nui Loc Son. They sustained 38 KIA and 82 WIA. But fighting was sporadic for the next six days. Leathernecks of F Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, bolt from a helicopter during Operation Union ll on May 29, 1967. This unit alone sustained 54 KIA and 73 WIA in just eight hours at Vinh Huy.
Bloody Shooting Gallery
The morning of June 2 had D Co., 1st Bn., 5th Marines, and F Co., 2nd Bn., 5th Marines, moving toward Objective Foxtrot, near the village of Vinh Huy. By midday, F Company approached a 1,000-yard "horseshoe-shaped" rice paddy flanked by low hill masses called Hill A and Hill B, both of which were covered by thick underbrush. Due to the dense foliage, both companies had lost visual contact with each other.
"
It was just too quiet, too serene," Pat Haley wrote in an article entitled "Ambush at Union II" in the November 1989 issue of Marine Corps Gazette. "You could almost smell the presence of the enemy."When three platoons and the headquarters group were well within the massive paddy, the 3rd NVA Regiment sprung its trap. "All hell broke loose as the incoming NVA projectiles turned the rice paddy ... into a bloody shooting gallery," Haley wrote.
'Yelling for a Corpsman'
Enemy machine gun fire from hills A and B sliced into the infantrymen. Also, the NVA had dug in on the northern and eastern edges of the paddy, delivering deadly automatic
weapons fire. Men dove for cover behind the smaller dikes to protect themselves. Luckily, the enemy's aim was slightly low. Moreover, their fields of fire did not include the 3rd Platoon, located in the rear of the column. The 1st and 2nd platoons, however, were being cut to pieces. Several rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) rounds slammed into one area, lifting a sergeant "straight up in the air." The concussion of the blast rendered him speechless and deaf. "The 2nd Platoon radioman was hit through his helmet and a chunk was missing from the top of his head, " Cpl. Tom Searfoss recalled. "A gunner was firing—I don't recall his name. Someone yelled and I looked, and the lower part of his jaw was missing?'Remembered Lance Cpl. R. Dean Johnson: "Our ammo man for our M-60 machine gun team was hit in the shoulder. I don't know how long we were pinned down—it seemed like forever. I had run out of water, and I drank a little brown rice paddy water to wet my mouth. Every-one was yelling for a corpsman."
Incredible Heroism
Capt. James Graham, F Company commander, was everywhere on the battle-field, directing his unit's defenses. He took charge of his hastily organized headquarters group. It attacked straight through 2nd Platoon's position to eliminate several NVA machine gun nests.
Silencing one of the guns, the beleaguered Leathernecks were able to move some of their wounded to a safer area in the paddy. Although wounded twice by this time, Graham refused to leave, ordering everyone to the rear while he remained with a wounded Marine.
Low on ammunition, Graham said in his last radio transmission that he was being assaulted by 25 NVA soldiers. He was killed while attempting to repulse the attackers. He received a posthumous Medal of Honor.
"We felt Graham was the best possible commander," said Cpl. Brent MacKinnon, Graham's radio operator. "He gave his all in the face of certain death?'
Meanwhile, Sgt. Melvin Long and his squad moved against Hill A. Long successfully maneuvered his men atop the rise and poured fire into enemy automatic-weapon emplacements.
"It was a beautiful sight to behold;" Haley wrote. "Long was wounded during his exposure, but was really psyched up. He was on a roll; ignoring his wounds, he continued firing his weapon, inserting new magazines two or three times. He was like a wind-whipped flame, unquenchable?' Long would receive the Navy Cross.
An unsung hero of the day was the company's Kit Carson Scout (an enemy soldier who defected) named Kinh. He personally killed between 25 and 30 NVA hiding in spider holes, which were covered by straw mats. Meanwhile, D Co., 1st Bn., 5th Marines, also was in the thick of things. "Pinned down in the paddies," Sgt. Chuck Jenkins related, "we were taking heavy casualties. From my company alone there were 17 KIA and 23 WIA:"
Record-Breaking Casualties
D Co., 1st Bn., 7th Marines, began to arrive by late afternoon as reinforcements. "I crossed a board over a small stream," Lance Cpl. Schneider said. "We were in a cemetery when 82mm mortars started dropping in on us. They [NVA] had trenches all over the place. Our mortarman, Wallace Leonard, was great. He kept moving around and lobbing those 60mm rounds right on top of them. He was something to see."
After additional U.S. air support and ground troops arrived, the NVA broke off contact. A temporary truce was called the next day. "For the rest of June 3," Edward F. Murphy wrote in Semper Fi, "in one of the most bizarre incidents of the war, the two foes worked side by side as they searched the tall grass for the bodies of their fallen comrades?'
Quickly reorganizing, the NVA retrieved their casualties and escaped. The Leathernecks suffered 73 killed and 139 wounded during the struggle in the Vinh Huy complex. Some 53 Marines and one Navy corpsman were KIA and 73 WIA from F Company (180 men strong) alone in eight hours. "It is my understanding that this is the highest number of casualties sustained by one U.S. rifle company in any one-day engagement during the Vietnam War;" unit veteran Patrick Haley wrote.
MEDAL OF HONOR (Posthumous) Capt. James A. Graham, U.S. Marine Corps
On June 2, 1967, Graham led a small assault force to rescue a platoon pinned down by two concealed machine guns. One gun was silenced, allowing the platoon to escape. Graham, suffering from two wounds, had killed 15 of the enemy. As the last of his group withdrew, Graham chose to stay behind with a seriously wounded Marine. His final radio transmission relayed that their position was being overrun by 25 enemy soldiers.
AL HEMINGWAY, a Marine Vietnam vet and VFW member, writes frequently on the Vietnam War for VFW.