Battle of Nam Dong

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Nam Dong
partof=Vietnam War
date=July 6, 1964
place=Nam Dong, Vietnam
UTM Grid YC 865-838cite book| last =Kelley| first =Michael P.| title =Where We Were In Vietnam| publisher =Hellgate Press| date =2002| pages = p. 5-351 | id = ISBN 1-55571-625-3 ]
result=Allied victory
combatant1=
combatant2=
commander1=Roger H. C. Donlon
commander2=Unknown commander
strength1=200+
strength2=1,000+
casualties1=South Vietnam: 115 dead and wounded US: 9 dead and wounded Australia: 1 dead
casualties2=62+ bodies leftThe Battle of Nam Dong was fought on July 6, 1964, when the Viet Cong attacked the Nam Dong CIDG camp in an attempt to overrun it.

The battle

Nam Dong is situated 32 miles west of Da Nang in a valley near the Laotian border; it was manned by South Vietnamese personnel with American and Australian advisors.

The Viet Cong struck at the camp at 2:30AM to achieve the element of surprise, and reached the outer perimeter where South Vietnamese special forces managed to hold out. The battle lasted for five hours when the VC decided to abort the mission. At 9:45AM six USMC helicopers arrived to extract the special forces. At the end of the battle, a total of 372 allies (12 American Green Berets, 300 South Vietnamese, and 60 Nung soldiers) held of deadly attacks against 900 Viet Cong.

For his actions at Nam Dong, Captain R. C. Donlon was the first American to receive the Medal of Honor in Vietnam.cite news
title =One Who Was Belligerent
publisher =TIME Magazine
date =1964-12-11
url =http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,897370,00.html
accessdate = 2007-04-22 ]

"The Green Berets"

A key battle scene in the 1968 film "The Green Berets" was based on this battle.

It was at this contact that the Australian member of the Australian Army Training Team (Vietnam) AATTV, Warrant Officer Kevin Conway, was cited by his commander, then Colonel Francis Philip (Ted) Serong for a Victoria Cross, the highest gallantry award for Australian service personnel. Kevin Conway was in a forward weapon pit with an American Master Sergeant Garbiel Alamo who was also killed in the North Vietnamese assault. Conway alone fired his mortar upon the assaulting enemy in ever decreasing range fire until he was forced to bring his mortar fire upon himself to save the perimeter of the base.

Warrant Officer Conway has never received the cited award for Valour. He was the first Australian to die in the Vietnam war. Serong stated that it was American Special Forces politics that denied Conway his Victoria Cross. M/Sgt Alamo was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

External links

* [http://www.101st.org/RB6/mainSF6.html Origins of Special Forces]

Notes

ee also

*Viet Cong and PAVN strategy and tactics