Vietnam War: Operation Dewey Canyon

By Marc Bernstein | Vietnam  | 4 comments  |  Print This Post  |  Email This Post

Now the Marines positioned themselves to initiate Phase III. The 2nd Battalion patrolled the western flank of the operations area near Laos, while 3/9 maneuvered on the eastern flank. The plan was to bring 1/9 into the middle just as Phase III was about to jump off. But before Phase III could begin, 2/9 was given two additional tasks: Company G was to seize the important Co Ka Leuye ridgeline in the western extremity of 2/9’s sector, and Company F was to build an additional firebase, named Erskine, so the battalion could continue to operate under a protective artillery umbrella as it pushed southward. In 3/9’s sector, Company K began construction of Fire Support Base Lightning, east of Cunningham, which then received two battalions of the 2nd ARVN Regiment plus an ARVN artillery battalion late in January.

At the very end of January, bad weather became a serious factor. Visibility and cloud ceiling were both at zero. In early February, after several days of bad weather, Colonel Barrow instructed his battalions to pull their companies back to where they could be effectively supported from the fire support bases. Company G, which had completed its arduous climb to the top of Co Ka Leuye, now had to abandon that position.

As the company moved back down from the ridge on the morning of February 5, it stumbled into an ambush. Quickly, Captain Daniel A. Hitzelberger’s 2nd and 3rd platoons were pinned down by a hail of automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenade fire. Hitzelberger committed his 1st Platoon in a flanking maneuver that eventually freed up the 3rd Platoon and forced the enemy to withdraw, but not before the company suffered five Marines killed and 18 wounded. Among the dead was Lance Corporal Thomas P. Noonan Jr., a rifleman who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Noonan had braved withering enemy fire to drag a seriously wounded comrade to safety, inspiring the rest of his platoon to charge the enemy positions and reach three other wounded men who had been cut off by the heavy volume of fire.

After this encounter, Company G continued its difficult trek down the mountain. Hitzelberger later reported that “the stretcher cases were moving up and down slopes in excess of 70 degrees. We had to use six, eight and, at times, ten men to carry a stretcher and it would take us over 30 minutes to move one stretcher case over one bad area.”

Upon reaching the bottom of a rocky cliff, the company was met by a relief platoon from Company E, which brought medical supplies and some much-needed rations. Still, it took another 11⁄2 days for Company G to reach the Da Krong. At that point, two Marine CH-46 helicopters, flying through dense fog and enemy fire, evacuated the most seriously wounded to Vandegrift Combat Base. By February 8, Company G finally reached the safety of Landing Zone Dallas, west of Cunningham. Battalion commander Lt. Col. George C. Fox noted that Company G’s ordeal on Co Ka Leuye “was a tremendous performance in leadership and fire discipline.”

Meanwhile, Fire Support Base Cunningham was shelled by enemy 122mm guns located in Laos, receiving 30 to 40 rounds that disabled a howitzer and knocked out a battery’s fire direction center on February 2, killing five Marines and leaving five more wounded. The enemy guns were beyond the range of the firebase’s own 155mm howitzers. Cunningham continued to take sporadic artillery fire throughout Dewey Canyon.

All told, the 9th Marines were sidetracked by bad weather for nine straight days. Consequently, the 1st Battalion’s airlift into the area of operations was delayed and the North Vietnamese had additional time to prepare and strengthen their defenses for the coming Marine assault into Base Area 611. It had been anticipated that operating during the monsoon would prove problematic and in fact the weather did cost the Marines crucial momentum. Finally, on February 10, the weather improved enough for elements of 1/9 to move forward from Vandegrift and Shiloh to Fire Support Base Erskine. Battery F, 2nd Battalion, 12th Marines was shifted by helicopter from Razor southward to Erskine. Phase III was set to begin.

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Tags: Historical Conflicts, Vietnam War

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