Timeline, September 8th

[David]

INTERBELLUM:
September 8, 1954 (Year of the Horse [Giap Ngo]): An agreement is signed at Manila establishing a Southeast Asia Treaty Organization aimed at checking Communist expansion.

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
September 8, 1965 (Year of the Snake [At Ti]) (US Defense): A Company, 1st Aviation Battalion, with elements of the 119th Aviation Company, Company A, performs an air-landed assault and extraction mission in support of the 5th Special Forces Group in Quang Ngai Province.

September 8, 1966 (Year of the Horse [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): Operation Fresno begins in the Mo Duc District south of Quang Ngai.

September 8, 1966 (Year of the Horse [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): After 5 RAR extracts from Operation Toledo, 1 ATF uses the same LZ/PZ to start Operation Vaucluse, a battalion search-and-destroy operation in the Nui Dinh region of Phuoc Tuy Province, 9 km west-southwest of the 1 ATF base. The AO is 65 square km of steep hilly terrain rising to 504 meters, covered mainly in jungle. The operation is directed against the VC Chau Duc District Commission, its security element and a communication-liaison platoon -- a total of up to 100 personnel, and also against elements of the VC 274 Main Force Regiment and D445 Provincial Mobile Battalion, which may possibly be in the area. A number of individual weapons, mines and grenades will be taken along with a large quantity of documents and more than three tonne of rice, as well as medical supplies. Four company-sized camps, one major installation of 30 buildings, a large bunker and tunnel system, a hospital and ammunition storage will be located and destroyed. Casualties: Australians: WIA 1; VC: KIA 7, wounded/escaped 4, POW 6.

September 8, 1968 (Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase V): General An, the 23rd ARVN Division Commander, and Colonel Sage, the Senior Advisor, and other crew members are killed in a helicopter crash two miles north of Duc Lap; only two crew members, who are seriously injured, survive.

September 8, 1972 (Year of the Rat [Nham Ty]) (US Cease-Fire): Nguyen Hue/Easter Offensive: I Corps launches the first of three separate operations to support its major objective, retaking Quang Tri City. The Airborne Division advances and reoccupies three key military installations formerly under ARVN control at La Vang, south of the Quang Tri Old Citadel. From these positions, the paratroopers can provide excellent protection for the southern flank of the South Vietnamese Marines.

[frisco-kid]

On this day in 1966 PFC Tommy Morales, C co, 2/502, 101st Abn. Div., was KIA by a booby trap near Tuy Hoa, Phu Yen Province, VN. He was the first of 3 troopers from C co that would be KIA in SEP66. Tommy was from Los Angeles, CA. He was 20yrs. old.

We had been in this AO since late JUL66 sustaining several WIA casualties, mostly to booby traps. This was heavy VC country. The operations that we were involved in while there was JOHN PAUL JONES, SEWARD, and GERONIMO. We operated jointly with the Koreans a few times while in this AO.