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 Post subject: Fire Support Base Mary Ann
PostPosted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 12:54 am 
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Feldmarschall
Feldmarschall
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Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2007 1:48 am
Posts: 1051
Location: Washington state
(moved from the old YW site)

Fire Support Base Mary Ann
________________________________________
As I mentioned in another post on this forum, the morale of the US Army in Vietnam was on the down-slide later in the war. The generals knew the war was over, the enlisted men knew the war was over, even the president knew the war was over. Yet, political considerations prevented us from cutting our losses and moving out smartly, as they say in the Army. Consequently, we had a war that continued to drag along needlessly.

On March 22, 1971 (while I was in-country), Fire Support Base Mary Ann was overrun in Quang Tin province, in the northern part of South Vietnam. The units involved were elements of the Americal (23rd) Infantry Division. If any one division could be called the "hard luck" division of the war, I suppose the Americal was it. The My Lai incident involved a unit of the Americal and they had many other problems.

I am going to quote a passage from the book "The Rise and Fall of an American Army" by Shelby Stanton, and it is as follows:

"Fire Support Base Mary Ann had been hit on March 22, 1971, southwest of Tam Ky in Quang Tin province. The 196th Infantry Brigade's 1st Battalion of the 46th Infantry failed to safeguard the perimeter, enabling fifty North Vietnamese Army soldiers to overrun the outpost. They roamed through the firebase, destroying one 155mm howitzer and damaging another, throwing satchel charges in the command bunker, knifing Americans in their sleeping bags, and wrecking communications equipment. They killed and wounded nearly half the 250 soldiers there, who got only ten in exchange because they were cringing in their bunkers. After the defeat, the acting battalion commander flew into a rage and had five NVA bodies burned in the trash dump. General Westmoreland personally took over the investigation and found that there was clear dereliction of duty, lax defensive posture with officers not in charge. Army Secretary Resor took formal disciplinary action against six officers, including the division and assistant division commanders."

Remember, by this time, Westy was Chief of Staff of the Army. At least some general officers had to take some heat on this one instead of being protected by the good old boys network in the general officer's corps.

Now, I mentioned that this happened while I was in-country. When something like this happens in a theater of war, don't think that word doesn't get around. We were all a little jumpy for a while after hearing about the gooners creeping around, blowing GI's away in their sleep. It was not a morale-booster. It probably was a big morale booster for the NVA, seeing how combat ineffective we were in this situation.

I am personally interested in this stagnated, later part of the Vietnam war. Not so much because I was involved in some tiny way, because for years after I was there I never thought much about it. I take an interest in this subject now as it relates to future conflicts and what lessons are to be learned from letting an entire military service become de-moralized and combat ineffective.

The sharp, fighting edge of a military force cannot be maintained indefinitely in any conflict without working very hard to keep it there. One of the very basic major underpinnings of a force with good morale and combat effectiveness is it must have a clear, distinct goal and purpose. Without this objective, the point of the whole endeavor cannot be upheld. We are in danger of suffering this situation again in Iraq and Afganistan unless we re-assess the situation and establish some clear-cut goals and limits of commitment. To keep those soldiers going out day after day indefinitely will "blunt the spear" for sure.


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