The Last Major Marine Battle of the Vietnam War
Many veterans who saw action in the Vietnam War have described military operations conducted in the A Shau Valley as hell on Earth. Nevertheless, the young men of the 9th Marine Regiment and the 2nd Battalion 12th Marines bravely penetrated this dangerous zone on January 22, 1969, as part of Operation Dewey Canyon, the last Marine Corps offensive in Vietnam. The operation was planned to wipe the North Vietnamese out of the valley. But as the Americans invaded enemy territory, the People’s Army of Vietnam began to cut off platoons and immobilize them with relentless small arms fire, grenades, and mortars. For over 60 days, the Marines built more than 20 base camps to fight off the Vietnamese and captured large quantities of enemy weapons, equipment, and supplies. Five Marines were eventually awarded the Medal of Honor for their selfless sacrifice during the conflict, proving the old adage that no matter how impossible the odds may seem, Marines always get the job done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MVOVPomqUY
Comments below video:
BMF6889 -1 month ago
As a Marine platoon commander at the time, I was on Operation Dewey Canyon. And yes, Marines always get the job done. But to be honest, our unit participated in Dewey Canyon, but we were not part of the most intensive fighting. By nature the Marines have an offensive mentality. I believed in 1969 that the only way to win the war was to invade North Vietnam like we did in WW II. But we allowed the North Vietnam Army to rest, train, re-equip, and launch attacks from safe havens we gave them. That is no how you win a war. We should have allowed the full force of Marines to launch and amphibious invasion into North Vietnam to decapitate the leadership and to crush the support that the North Vietnamese people had to continue the war. But we didn’t. Instead we chose to conduct a war of attrition that we could not win because the North Vietnamese had more conviction to win that we did. The Vietnam War Memorial is a dedication to the disgrace of our politicians to fail to allow us to win. Instead they surrendered and 58,000 men and women who the politicians sent into harms way died for nothing—not counting the hundreds of thousands of horribly wounded. I live with that every day.
Good evening, ETR, and thank you for the great link. So, so sorry that politics was allowed to “run the show’ and our great military weren’t allowed to do their job.