Fortress Ridge

21-24 December 1967

On 1 November 1967, the 3d Battalion, 1st Marines, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Max McQuown, learned it would be the new SLF Bravo BLT, in relief of the BLT 1 / 3. McQuown's battalion passed to the command of SLF Bravo on 1 December and the same day embarked for the Special Landing Force Camp at Subic Bay in the Philippine Islands for intensive training and equipment rehabilitation. On the 17th, the SLF sailed again, destination: I Corps.

Fortress Ridge involved seaborne and heliborne landings on the beach area of Gio Linh District, seven kilometers south of the DMZ. After seizing four separate objectives, each company was to conduct search and destroy operations in adjacent areas. Intelligence sources reported one battalion of the 803d NVA Regiment, an unidentified main force battalion, and the K400 Local Force Company near the beach. The operation started on the morning of 21 December as BLT 3/1's Company M, commanded by Captain Raymond A. Thomas, landed in LVTs on Red Beach. Half an hour later, Company L landed on the north bank of the Cua Viet River, almost five kilometers to the southwest. HMM-262 took Companies I and K into two zones in the sand dunes four kilometers inland from Company M.

Nothing happened during the morning, but at 1324 hours Captain Lawrence R. Moran's Company I received small arms and mortar fire on the south side of the village of Ha Loi Tay. A heavy firefight ensued between Company I and Communist forces. Information from Company I indicated that they had met a sizable, well-entrenched enemy force. Accordingly, the battalion mounted Company M on LVTs and moved it north on the beach side of the Gulf of Tonkin, where it could support Company I. When Company M arrived in the dune area north of Giem Ha Trung village, the Communists started shelling it with mortars. Rocket and artillery fire from Communists guns north of the Demilitarized Zone hit both companies. Darkness came early and Company I and the Communists broke contact. Company I established a defensive position to the west of Ha Loi Tay. Company M set up a perimeter defense in the area where it stopped that afternoon.

Events of the 21st indicated that the Communists were in force behind the beach, north of the day's area of operation. Lieutenant Colonel McQuown requested permission from the SLF to conduct search and destroy operations 1,000 meters north of Objective 1 and 1,000 meters inland from the beach. The SLF approved the plan, and shortly after 0800 on the 22nd, Company M moved through the Communist positions that had opposed Company I. The latter company remained in position to support the advance of Company M By 0900 Company M discovered the first positive result of Fortress Ridge: three NVA bodies. Both Companies I and M continued moving northward for the rest of the day, finding quantities of enemy arms and equipment in abandoned positions. Company K, north of Objective 3, had no contact. At dusk, Company L, four kilometers southwest of Companies I and M, came under small arms fire from across the Cua Viet, the last enemy action of the day. After a quiet night, the battalion resumed search and destroy sweeps on the 23rd. The day remained unevenful. Company I found the major portion of the day's harvest of duds and enemy ordnance.

Fortress Ridge concluded on the morning of the 24th. By 1100 all units were back onboard ship for a contemplative Christmas Eve. In its first operation in its new role, STY Bravo lost 10 shipmates and had another 27 wounded, but the Marines, however, had counted 10 dead VC soldiers and observed enough enemy equipment on the battlefield to know they had hurt the Communists. In his after action report, Lieutenant Colonel McQuown summarized the results of 21-24 December, writing, 'Operation Fortress Ridge provided the confidence and experience needed for a newly formed BLT to perform as a professional combat unit'.