Timeline, September 25th

[David]

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
September 25, 1961 (Year of the Ox [Tan Suu]): Ambassador Nolting is notified by an ARVN commander and an International Voluntary Service aide that up to two regular VC battalions plus several hundred local guerillas attacked three land development centers near Ban Me Thuot a week ago and held them for several days, taking supplies, burning schoolhouses and administration buildings, and terrorizing residents. An ARVN armed column was sent in by foot, but bad weather prevented a supporting air drop. The VC withdrew into the mountains before South Vietnamese troops arrived, so the only action taken against them was bombing their line of retreat. In related actions on the 18th, Viet Cong took rice and supplies from settlements 20 miles southeast of Ban Me Thuot at Ban Ti Srenh, Ban Yang Bong, and Ban Kron Kmar. They also overwhelmed the Civil Guard post at "Ban Mgha" (name is unclear, but alternate name is BP 3481) while on their way to the settlement villages. Villagers were forewarned and managed to hide most of the rice from the VC and badly outnumbered local SDC members also hid guns and uniforms.

September 25, 1961 (Year of the Ox [Tan Suu]): Near the end of an address to the UN General Assembly, President Kennedy describes "the smoldering coals of war in Southeast Asia" and notes that the region is one of the "two threats to the peace...which causes us and most of you, the deepest concern," saying that "[t]he events and decisions of the next ten months may well decide the fate of man for the next ten thousand years. There will be no avoiding those events. There will be no appeal from these decisions...[n]ever have the nations of the world had so much to lose, or so much to gain. Together we shall save our planet, or together we shall perish in its flames . . . ."

September 25, 1965 (Year of the Snake [At Ti]) (US Defense): The start of Operation Dagger Thrust, a US Navy-Marine Amphibious Ready Group/Special Landing Force (ARG/SLF) amphibious campaign against Communist forces along the entire South Vietnamese coast, in support of the Market Time anti-infiltration effort. Between now and October 1, the force will strike targets near Vung Mu, Ben Goi, and Tam Quan in II Corps, but without finding any significant sign of the enemy.

The US Navy's ARG usually consisted of three or four ships, including an amphibious assault ship, a dock landing ship, an attack transport or an amphibious transport dock, and a tank landing ship, and sometimes other amphibious vessels. The Marine SLF included a medium helicopter squadron of 24 UH-34s. An infantry battalion landing team, reinforced with artillery, armor, engineer, and other support units, made up the ground combat element. The SLF could conduct landings on shore by helicopter, by the force's 41 organic tracked landing vehicles, or by both methods. The fleet provided additional assistance for amphibious operations, including carrier air cover, naval gunfire support, supply by Task Force 73, and medical support by hospital ships Repose, and Sanctuary. Naval personnel also served in Marine units as medical corpsmen, chaplains, and spotters in 1st Air and Naval Gunfire Liaison Company detachments. Underwater demolition teams, SEALs, beachmasters, and special communications beach jumper units supported operations on shore. At various times during the war, transport submarines Perch, Tunny, and Grayback carried Navy underwater demolition teams, SEALs, and South Vietnamese Marines to points off prospective landing beaches. After April 1967, the amphibious flotilla was divided into ARG/SLF Alpha and ARG/SLF Bravo.

September 25, 1967 (Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): During 155th AHC operations in support of Special Forces personnel in the Hue-Phu Bai area, gunner SP4 Vincent McDonough helps his wounded crew chief.

Autumn 1973 (Year of the Ox [Quy Suu]): After recovering from the failed Easter Offensive, the NVA has built up a sizable advantage over South Vietnamese forces; it has more AA weapons, more air defense units, more tanks, more infantry divisions and a sizeable general reserve. It also has created at Thanh Hoa its first strategic army corps (I Corps, not to be confused with South Vietnam's "Eye Corps"), consisting of the 308, 312 and 320B Divisions. The next year will be spent in wearing down the South Vietnamese forces and slowly extending its territory, but the first major test of the new force won't come until December 1974.

THIRD INDOCHINA WAR:
September 25, 1989 (Year of the Snake [Ky Ti]): Withdrawal from Cambodia: Front 979 (Osprey says "probably") begins moving through Kampot to Hatien. Front 797 moves from Kompong Cham and arrives at Samat; other elements of the front move from Svay Rieng to Moc Bai. Although PAVN claims to have withdrawn its last combat forces from Cambodia in September 1989, PAVN forces remained in Cambodia, at least in the early 1990s, as advisers to the PRK military; specialized units such as artillery, armor and Dac Cong commandos; and "fillers" and cadre for PRK units, with the lattery apparently drawn primarily from the PAVN 5, 302, 330 and 339 Divisions.