Operation Hot Springs

The 1st Marine Division wasted no time in getting involved in the war. Between April and June it conducted ten battalion-sized operations outside the Chu Lai TAOR. Most, however, resulted in only minimal contact with the enemy. In one, though, Operation Hot Springs, in April, the 7th Marines tangled with the 1st VC Regiment in the area northwest of Quang Ngai City. The Marines killed more than 150 of the enemy and captured 23 weapons.

Despite these search and destroy operations, the major effort of the 1st Marine Division continued to focus on pacification. Besides the combined-action platoons that the division fielded, the two other main pacification programs were County Fair and Golden Fleece.

Begun in February 1966, County Fair operations emphasized coordination with South Vietnamese forces to reestablish government control over a village without alienating the residents. At the beginning of a County Fair, Marine forces would cordon off the target village while South Vietnamese troops gathered the villagers at a central collection point. The ARVN troops then searched the village for any VC or contraband. At the same time, South Vietnamese government officials processed the villagers (taking a census and issuing ID cards) and provided medical care and entertainment (pro government plays and music). The Marines remained in the background, providing logistical support and security as needed. The County Fair technique proved so successful in ferreting out the VC that General Westmoreland ordered them conducted in other corps areas, although he changed the name to Hamlet Festival.

Begun during the 1965 fall harvest season, Golden Fleece operations provided Marine security to farmers while they harvested their crops. These operations allowed the peasants to retain their produce while denying the Viet Cong the sustenance they needed to operate.

At the beginning of June 1966, the 1st Marine Division consisted of more than seventeen thousand men organized into two regiments of infantry, the 5th and 7th Marines, four battalions of artillery in the 11th Marines, plus supporting units. These forces allowed the division to expand its TAOR to more than five hundred square kilo meters from the three hundred square kilometers it covered at the start of the year. Long-range plans called for the TAOR to expand northward until it joined up with the Da Nang TAOR at Tam Ky, the capital of Quang Tin Province.

The immediate future, however, called for an excursion into the Do Xa region, southwest of Chu Lai near the western border of I Corps. Intelligence sources placed an enemy headquarters in the area. Under pressure from MACV to run an operation there, Brig. Gen. William A. Stiles, assistant division commander since late April, began the planning.  Just as Stiles and his staff completed their work, III MAF intelligence officers learned that the 2d NVA Division had entered the Que Son Valley. Generals Walt and Fields instantly recognized the threat to this strategic area and postponed the Do Xa operation. Instead, on 13 June they ordered an extensive reconnaissance effort to be made between Tam Ky and Hiep Duc.