Operation Starlite, 18-24 August 1965

The battle, stage by stage

1. 15-17 August 1965

   A deserter talks

   By 15 August a 17-year-old Viet Cong deserter from the regiment's 40th Battalion, Vo Thao, had told South Vietnamese Maj. Gen. Nguyen Chanh Thi, the I Corps commander, that the 1st VC Regiment was on the Van Tuong peninsula, about 12 miles south of the new Marine airfield at Chu Lai, and preparing to attack it. Radio intelligence placed the regiment there the same day. Maj. Gen. Lewis Walt's III Marine Amphibious Force chose to strike first. Col. Oscar F. Peatross's Regimental Landing Team 7 would trap the regiment against the sea: one battalion (3/3) landing over the beach, another (2/4) by helicopter inland, a third (3/7) afloat in reserve, with the cruiser Galveston, the destroyers Orleck and Prichett and Marine aircraft in support. Secrecy was tight, and most South Vietnamese commanders were not told. On the afternoon of 17 August Company M, 3/3 moved down the coast in amphibian tractors, landed just south of the mouth of the Tra Bong river and marched about four miles south through the night to a blocking position. Planners expected about 2,000 VC; the force actually present was about 1,500. Accounts differ on which of its battalions were present (the official history names the 60th and 80th; a later History Division study names the 40th and 60th). The VC positions shown are interpretive.

2. 18 August, 0630-0830

   Green Beach and LZs Red, White and Blue

   After A-4 Skyhawks strafed the area (bombs and naval gunfire were withheld to spare the hamlet of An Cuong 1), Companies I and K, 3/3 landed across Green Beach at 0630, with Company L following. Company K took fire as it came ashore. At 0645 helicopters of HMM-261 and HMM-361 began landing 2/4 inland: Company G just west of LZ Red, Company E and the battalion command group at LZ White under fire from a ridge to the north-east, and at 0745 Company H at LZ Blue, just south of the hamlet of Nam Yen 3. LZ Blue turned out to be almost on top of the 60th VC Battalion.

3. 18 August, about 0800-1630

   LZ Blue, Hill 43 and An Cuong 2

   Company H fought for Hill 43, a few hundred meters south-west of Nam Yen 3, and for the hamlet itself; Army UH-1B gunships, air strikes and the tanks and Ontos that reached Lt. Homer Jenkins by about 1000 helped, but fire from hedgerows on several sides stalled the attack. Lance Corporal Joe C. Paul, a fire team leader, placed himself between five wounded Marines and the enemy and, though critically wounded, kept firing until he collapsed; he died the next day and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. To the east Company I attacked the fortified hamlet of An Cuong 2, where Capt. Bruce Webb was killed by a grenade; Corporal Robert E. O'Malley crossed an open paddy into an enemy trench, killed eight of the enemy, and, wounded three times, covered the evacuation of his squad (Medal of Honor). Companies K and L took a hill on Phase Line Banana, 2,000 meters north of the beach. By 1630 Company H was back on LZ Blue.

4. 18 August, about 1255-1800

   Supply Column 21

   A column of five amphibian tractors and three flame tanks, sent from the command post with supplies for Company I, lost its way between Nam Yen 3 and An Thoi 2 and was ambushed about 400 meters west of An Cuong 2; its radio operator kept his microphone keyed, pleading for help. Maj. Andrew Comer, the 3/3 executive officer, led a relief force with a tank and Ontos; recoilless rifle fire hit the tank after it crossed Hill 30, and the relief group lost five dead and 17 wounded. Company I was ordered back, and Company L, 3/7 from the reserve landed by helicopter at 1730 and pushed in under heavy fire from the paddies east of An Cuong 2, losing four killed and 14 wounded. The howtar battery broke up about 100 VC caught in the open. As night fell the VC broke contact.

5. Night 18-19 August and 19 August

   Break-out and the sweep to the sea

   During the night most of the regiment's survivors slipped out of the trap; Vietnamese accounts say the 1st Regiment withdrew from the encirclement, and Marine intelligence later placed it on the Batangan peninsula to the south (the route shown is conjectural). At 0730 on 19 August 2/4 and 3/3 attacked again against snipers, tunnels and pockets of resistance in compartmented paddies; by nightfall 2/4 had swept east over the Phuoc Thuan peninsula to the sea. Companies I and M, 3/7 moved through An Cuong 2 without a fight, brought out the immobilized vehicles of Supply Column 21, and set a blocking position at An Thoi 2 by 1500. USS Prichett joined the gunfire ships.

6. 20-24 August

   Mopping up

   2/4 and 3/3 returned to Chu Lai on 20 August. Lt. Col. James Kelly's 1/7, lifted in by helicopter, joined Lt. Col. Charles Bodley's 3/7 and South Vietnamese units to search the Van Tuong hamlets, a maze of trenches, tunnels and caves; engineers blew up fortifications for five days. Van Tuong 1, ringed by trenches and a double fence with punji stakes, had been the regiment's command post. 3/7 swept the line of hills to the south. The searchers reported 54 more VC killed before Starlite ended on 24 August.

7. Aftermath

   The first big battle

   The official Marine history gives 45 Marines killed and 203 wounded; contemporary reports and later studies give slightly different totals (51 killed in an FMFPac summary). The Marines claimed 614 VC killed by body count, with 9 prisoners and 109 weapons collected; the low weapons haul has led historians to treat the body count with caution, while Vietnamese accounts give far lower losses and claim much heavier American ones. Starlite was the first regimental-size battle fought by U.S. forces in Vietnam. It is commemorated in Vietnam as the Van Tuong victory; a national relic site and museum stand on the battlefield.