Tyson Part Nine

FINAL FOOTNOTE

*I came to later at the hospital in Qui Nhon just before surgery. It was cold; I was shivering; and the next thing I knew, it was over. But, it had really just started for those of us who survived. Today, almost 36 years later, I feel like I died and was born at that clearing at the base of the Chu Pong Massif, southwest of Pleiku.* (Larry Conner, Plt Ldr, 3:A/1/35)

*A lot of good men died at 10 ALFA ..on both sides.* (Richard Hunter, 3:A/1/35)

SUMMARY

Casualties for the Task Force amounted to sixteen killed and eighty-eight wounded, almost thirty-nine percent of its total strength. For the 66^th NVA Regiment, 241 bodies were found in the forest around the original perimeter, and information was received that on 02 Jun, an NVA unit had passed through a Montagnard border village with walking wounded and carrying over 100 litter cases. The most glaring tactical errors made by the PAVN Commander was that he committed his forces piece-meal and did not wait until his returning units were of sufficient numbers to concentrate and break the defensive perimeter. Further, by not involving the full defensive circle, he did not challenge the movement of men and ammunition within the position used to shore up threatened portions of the line. Headquarters, IFFV did not show the 66^th NVA on the list of enemy units "in country" again until after the first of 1967.

*The NVA tactics, both at night and during the day, remained consistent in their inflexibility. Each assault came over the same ground and from the same direction as the previous one. This cost him dearly during the daylight phase of the attack as the defenders were able to "draw down" on the west side of the perimeter to reinforce the east side. This was a calculated risk on the part of the TF commander which met with success. A single limited attack from the west would have put a severe strain on the defensive line and probably required a major reshuffling of forces within the perimeter.

*The firing battery in support of TF TYSON was located to the east almost 12 kilometers away which is the approximate maximum range of the 105 howitzer. As the enemy was attacking from the east the defensive perimeter was directly on the gun target line along which the greatest dispersion of fire could be expected. This discouraged the adjustment of fire close to the perimeter until the situation became so critical as to warrant the acceptance of friendly causalities from our own supporting fire. In this particular instance no casualties resulted although the artillery was adjusted to within 100 meters of the defensive line.* (Capt.

NEWS ACCOUNT - 30 MAY 1966:

The "Nashville Tennessean" reported Monday, May 30, l966, dateline Saigon (AP):

"US infantrymen engaged a North Vietnamese force in bloody combat yesterday in the Central Highlands near the Cambodian border, a US spokesman reported. The action, in which 78 North Vietnamese regulars were reported killed in a day's fighting, was taking place west of Pleiku, 240 miles northeast of Saigon. It was in this same general area that 10,000 North Vietnamese regulars have been reported by authoritative sources in Saigon to be posted for an attack from Cambodia's Chu Phong Mountains.

The Americans involved were troops from the US Army's 25th Division. Their casualties in the fighting since noon Saturday were described by Saigon briefing officers as moderate. The clash topped the day's war news, which for weeks now has been secondary to South Vietnam's political crisis.

Informants in Saigon said Saturday the North Vietnamese troops were sitting on the Cambodian side of the border waiting to spring into South Vietnam's Central Highlands during the rainy season. Cambodia, a neutral, has denied it is allowing North Vietnamese troops or the Viet Cong guerrillas to use its territory and did so again today.

The report of the informants in Saigon, however, seemed to agree with remarks to newsmen in Washington Friday by Maj Gen Stanley R. Larson, that up to six North Vietnamese regiments were massed in Cambodia. His remarks drew a quick denial from the US Defense Department. It said there were unconfirmed reports of North Vietnamese being in Cambodia but no actual evidence of it. The Saigon informants said their information on the North Vietnamese was based on intelligence reports available to military commanders in South Vietnam. Larson, who is now on leave in Washington, is the commander of US forces in the Central Highlands area. After the Pentagon contradicted his statement in Washington, Larson told newsmen: "I stand corrected."

The informants here said the troops in the Cambodian mountains were from North Vietnam's 325th Division which engaged the US 1st Air Cavalry Division last November in the Ia Drang Valley in the Highlands. The new fighting in the Central Highlands was said to be near one of the exit points for the Ho Chi Minh Trail which winds down through Laos and, some say, Cambodia."

General Westmoreland inspects one of the Anti-aircraft MG's captured at 10 alfa

Gen. Westmoreland congratulates some of the men from Bravo Co 2/35th

PRESIDENTIAL UNIT CITATION

*At Chu Pong Mastif, SW of Pleiku, two rifle companies fought an NVA regiment for an LZ over a two-day period. US losses were 16 KIA, 90 WIA, 6 Huey's destroyed/damaged. NVA losses were 250+ KIA, 8 POW's.

*For their sustained valor, Company A was awarded the coveted Presidential Unit Citation and the Valorous Unit Award. The 1/35^th Infantry. Bn. was awarded the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry for this engagement. The "Battle of 10 ALFA" was later used at the Army's Infantry School at Ft. Benning as part of their training curriculum.* (Larry Conner, Plt Ldr, 3:A/1/35)

Department of the Army General Order No. 51, dated 27 September 1966, awarded the Presidential Unit Citation to both infantry companies that were in the Task Force "for extraordinary heroism" and "for distinguishing [themselves] by outstanding performance of duty against a numerically superior and heavily armed North Vietnamese Army force in Pleiku Province, Republic of Vietnam, on 28 - 29 May 1966."