The Second Battalion 4th Marines endure critical conflict during the Vietnam War
Top: Marines of 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines Move Into Dai Do Village, May 1968
This month, we describe a battle took place from April 30 through May 3, 1968, involving Army, Navy, and Marine units. The fight for Dai-Do was but a portion of the Tet Offensive, which began on January 30, 1968.
Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion 4th Marine Regiment (BLT 2/4), which had been in the area for two months, had detected enemy movement along Highway 1, north of Dong Ha. The South Vietnamese units had contacted the enemy in the last few days of April. Captain James E. Livingston’s Echo Company 2/4 was at the Dong Ha bridge and was given the assignment of investigating the enemy presence.
Battalion Commander Lt. Colonel William Weise ordered Hotel Company to take Dong Huan hamlet and then hit An Lac. The reconnaissance platoon and two M-48 tanks remained in Bac Vong to support Hotel.
Weise requested permission for Echo to be released from bridge duty at Dong Ha and for Foxtrot and Golf, two additional companies, to be moved at his discretion. Two of Foxtrot Company’s platoons and all of Golf 2/4 moved out. Foxtrot troops boarded amtracs (amphibious armored vehicles) for Bac Vong. Golf would be lifted by helicopters later that day, but Echo would not be released to Weise for another 36 hours.
Weise ordered Foxtrot to attack Dai Do, but its assault was stopped by heavy fire. Golf was also engaged from Lam Xuan and Nhia Ha, preventing the helicopter lift. Golf commander Captain Jay R. Vargas was wounded for the third time in three months. By the end of April 30, his men had been on the move for 36 hours straight.
On May 1, at 10:40 a.m., Golf attacked Dai Do after a two-hour shelling and a bomb run by two A-4s. Hotel and Navy Hotel, joined by Bravo, engaged the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) craft and provided supporting fire. Golf cleared bunkers and swept through the hamlet, but these soldiers suffered heavy casualties, and Vargas was hit again. Weise ordered Golf to fall back and take a defensive position. Vargas called in fire, and 60mm mortars responded, bolstered by naval gunfire. Foxtrot was soon pinned down trying to reach Golf, isolated 500 meters away, and Hotel was also beaten down.
Livingston received his orders at 3 a.m., and at 5 a.m. on May 2, Echo Company fixed bayonets and attacked Dai Do from the northwest of An Lac, moving through Dinh To and toward Thuong Do, joining Golf and consolidating its position there. Well-concealed North Vietnamese soldiers greeted Echo with heavy fire as Livingston attacked from both the right and front of the enemy.
“We got up and headed straight into the enemy fire and then proceeded to drive right up the middle and through the entrenched NVA lines,” recalled Livingston.
Echo and Golf then engaged a hundred bunkers, holes, and positions, killing dozens of NVA soldiers and taking casualties as well. Livingston was wounded by shrapnel. He recalled that “the fighting at various times was furious and even hand to hand””really close.” Golf and Echo consolidated their positions when Hotel, moving up the left flank near a stream, was heavily engaged. Hearing the calls for help, Livingston took Echo into the new fight. His troops ran into the enemy again head-on, and this time Livingston was hit in his leg by heavy machine-gun fire.
Livingston ordered his Marines to leave him and fall back, refusing to be evacuated until all of his casualties were accounted for.
It was lucky for Hotel and Golf that Echo arrived on the scene. Echo saved the day for a lot of Marines. Despite their heavy casualties, the Marines forced the NVA back briefly and the enemy suffered even greater losses. As the day faded into night, Echo (45 men left), Foxtrot (52), Golf (34), and Hotel (64) secured their small perimeters, with Foxtrot and Golf in Dai Do proper.
These soldiers prepared for whatever the NVA would throw at them next. What was left of the battalion after two days of heavy fighting was going back into the breach. The Marines held on, reliably resupplied by fast riverboats.
The NVA decided to stage a mass assault, which gave the battle-weary Marines the morale boost of a turkey shoot. Aircraft, artillery, and riflemen were all cut down by the enemy by the hundreds.
Golf was hit from the front and right flank as its men reached Thuong Do. Weise ordered Golf to hold and Foxtrot to move forward, but the Marines were not in position and were pinned down in the rice paddies. At 5:00 pm, Golf’s men received heavy fire from their left flank.
The company’s ARVN allies, who were holding that position, decided to leave the area without informing the Marines, allowing the NVA to maneuver and hit Golf from the rear. Golf was then hit with a frontal attack, and more enemy fire came from the right.
Weise and his radio telephone operators were wounded. Vargas was hit again and ordered to withdraw his men while helping carry Weise to the rear as Hilton called in air support. Vargas then collected the remaining Marines from Foxtrot and Golf to help with the wounded.
Weise passed temporary command to operations officer Warren, who reinforced Dai Do until relieved by the executive officer, Major Charles W. Knapp. The night of May 2 into May 3 saw sporadic enemy probing, and on May 3, the Marines entered Dinh To at 3 p.m. and Thuong Do later in the afternoon. The NVA had effectively withdrawn from Thuong Do, and An Lac was secured by 6 p.m. The remainder of BLT 2/4 withdrew to Mai Xa Chanh. The battle was over for the Marines. The battered 320th NVA Division retreated across the DMZ to recover.
BLT 2/4 suffered 81 killed and 397 wounded. On May 2, in Dai Do alone, 2/4 lost 40 with 111 wounded. The NVA saw 380 killed. The total American losses from April 30 to May 3 were: 3rd Marine Division, 233 killed, 821 wounded and one missing, and the Navy, 15 killed and 22 wounded. ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) losses were recorded at 42 killed and 124 wounded. The NVA suffered an admitted 2,366 killed and an unknown number of wounded with 43 POWs.
The 2/4 unit was credited with 537 enemy dead, but the exact numbers of NVA killed may never be known because the North Vietnamese tended to drag their dead away whenever possible. The great imbalance in the casualty figures punctuates the overall historical significance of the three-day battle.
Just 600 Marines faced a hardened, experienced NVA division of 10,000 or more. Their efforts prevented the North Vietnamese from moving many more divisions unchallenged farther south and interdict all supply routes.
The loss of the region would have been a tactical defeat but also a strategic debacle. Retaking those areas after the enemy had settled in would have cost at least 10 times the casualties lost in the victory.
When the fighting of April 30 through May 3, 1968, was finished, Captain Jay R. Vargas and Captain James Livingston were each awarded the Medal of Honor. In addition, Lt. Colonel William Weise received the Navy Cross.
Many other participants of the battle received awards for valor, and the Purple Heart was almost a 2/4-unit badge. To put this into a proper perspective, of the 600 men that went into battle, only 195 were still standing as they were ordered to withdraw. In other words, 68% of their unit was either killed or wounded.
The Marines who fought and died are memorialized by the 2/4 Association. They are affectionately called the “Magnificent Bastards” for good reason. Their performance, determination, and dedication to their objectives in the face of great numerical superiority were nothing less than magnificent.
The regiment had earned the title of Magnificent Bastards during World War II. I will let you in on a little secret. I served in the Second Battalion 4th Marine Regiment from August 1956 to July 1958. It was one of the happiest and proudest periods of my life. I will always be proud and grateful for the opportunity I had to serve our country as a United States Marine.
Sources and further suggested reading: Wikipedia for dates and units engaged; Noble Warrior by Medal of Honor Winner Major General James E. Livingston and Colin D. Heaton; The Magnificent Bastards: The Joint Army-Marine Defense of Dong Ha (different name for same battle) 1968 by Keith Nolan; Semper Fi The Definitive Illustrated History of the U.S. Marines by Col. H. Avery Chenoweth, USMCR (Ret.) with Col Brooke Nihart, USMC (Ret.).
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