Operation Keystone Eagle

The MACV selected the 3d Marine Division to be part of the initial redeployment because it could return to Okinawa, it would be replaced by the well-disciplined 1st ARVN Division, and, thanks to the heroic efforts of the officers and men of the division, Quang Tri Province was one of the most secure in the country.

According to the schedule developed by MACV planners, one infantry regiment (along with its supporting air, artillery, and other units) would depart South Vietnam for Okinawa on 1 July 1969; a third on 1 September, and, finally, all remaining division personnel by 30 September.

Because the 9th Marines were currently acting as the division re serve and were not occupying a fire support base, they received the distinction of being chosen as part of the first increment, code- named Operation Keystone Eagle. Included with the infantry units would be the artillery of 2/12, the 3d Antitank Battalion, 1st Amphibious Tractor Battalion, Company C, 3d Tank Battalion, and the 1st Searchlight Battery. To accompany the RLT, the 1st Marine Air Wing would release one jet and one helicopter squadron along with an assortment of other, smaller supporting units.

Though the designated units would be departing South Vietnam, the men making up those units at redeployment time would not necessarily be the ones who had earlier been carried on each unit's roster. Instead, III MAF instituted a program of shifting individual Marines who had neared the end of their thirteen-month tour into the redeploying units, while the deploying unit's members with more time to serve were transferred to outfits not being redeployed. This shifting of personnel was called "mix-mastering."

Since returning from Operation Apache Snow at the end of May, the 9th Marines had been involved in two other operations. Cameron Falls had begun on 29 May as the regiment searched for the 304th NVA Division in the mountainous region south of the Vandegrift Combat Base, near the upper reaches of the Da Krong. After setting up FSB Whisman on 30 May, the regiment's 2d Battalion was hit by an NVA ground attack during the early morning hours of 1 June. Fortunately, the Marines' well-ingrained habit of stringing defensive wire, digging fighting holes, setting out Claymore mines and trip flares, and digging bunkers as soon as they arrived paid off. The at tack was quickly repulsed, at the cost of two Marines and nineteen NVA killed.

After that fight, the 2d Battalion started a sweep to the northeast along the Da Krong while 3/9 proceeded southeast from FSB Shepherd, five kilometers to the north. The two battalions hoped to trap an NVA force reported to be on Hill 824. After moving through rugged terrain consisting of triple-canopied rain forest and four meter-high elephant grass, the two Marine columns converged on Hill 824. On 5 June, Company H, 2/9, was ambushed by a well-dug- in force on the southern banks of the Da Krong. Intense fighting at close quarters raged for nearly twelve hours before the Marines broke through the enemy's defensive line. Upon policing the immediate area, battalion members found a sophisticated network of bunkers, caves, and living quarters and a wide variety of supplies.

Continued patrolling by the two Marine battalions in their AOs over the next two weeks failed to turn up any other large groups of the enemy. Operation Cameron Falls ended on 23 June, when the participating units were shifted farther west to participate in a new operation.

Acting on intelligence reports that enemy units had infiltrated the area south and east of the old Khe Sanh Combat Base, 3d Marine Division headquarters created a joint task force to deploy Marine, army, and ARVN units into the area. Operation Utah Mesa began on l2 June, when 1/9 moved onto FSB Bison northeast of Khe Sanh. The 3d Battalion, 2d ARVN Regiment occupied nearby FSB Quantico. While these units swept west, three companies of U.S. Army mechanized infantry would advance west along Route 9.

The NVA reacted to this intrusion by launching a series of night attacks against the allied units. The first came against Company B, 61st U.S. Infantry on l8 June. Before dawn that day, the NVA hit the soldiers' night defensive position located just east of Lang Vei. After breaking through the perimeter, the NVA swarmed over the NDP, fighting the soldiers at close quarters. The NVA pulled out at dawn, leaving forty-one bodies behind. The U.S. Army units lost eleven killed and fifteen wounded.

A few hours later, a recon patrol from Company C, 1/9, was am bushed three kilometers southeast of Khe Sanh. The fight started when the NVA raked the patrol with .50-caliber machine-gun fire, instantly killing three Marines. The patrol's survivors then attacked, destroying the enemy machine gun. Soon joined by the remainder of Company C, the riflemen assaulted the enemy's defensive line, driving them southward into a wall of artillery fire.

Two days later, after having continued their westward push, the allied force was hit again. In three separate ground attacks the NVA assaulted the combined NDP of Company D, 1/9, and Company B, 1/61. Though they had to call in air strikes, artillery, and helicopter gunships, the Marines and soldiers held, killing twenty-seven NVA.

On 23 June, 1/9 was pulled out of the field and returned to Vandegrift Combat Base. There, the battalion's equipment was up graded and its personnel was mix-mastered. On 12 July, the battalion moved to Da Nang. Two days later, the unit boarded the USS Paul Revere and sailed for Okinawa.

The two remaining battalions of the 9th Marines continued their operations near Khe Sanh. Enemy contact was an almost daily event. Not only were small bands of determined NVA encountered during the day, but the enemy probed the Marines' NDPs nearly every night. One unit, Company K, 3/9, was hit on two successive nights, 24 and 25 June. Though the fighting was hard and raged for hours, the Marines held.

On 2 July, the NVA struck FSB Spark south of Khe Sanh, where 2/9 was headquartered, with a flurry of 82mm mortar rounds. The barrage wounded more than forty Marines. Four days later Operaton Utah Mesa ended when both battalions were pulled back to the Vandegrift Combat Base to prepare for redeployment. The second major unit of the 3d Marine Division to be pulled out of the war zone was 2/9 on 1 August. It was followed by 3/9 on 13 August. In all, nearly eighty-four hundred Marines moved to Okinawa in this first increment of America's withdrawal from South Vietnam.