TURNING POINT AT TAM KY
In early May 1969, the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong were threatening Tam Ky, the capital of Quang Tin province in northern South Vietnam. The U.S. Army unit with responsibility for that area, the 23rd Infantry Division (Americal), was unable to stem the enemy advance. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, ordered the 101st Airborne Division to send in an airmobile brigade to destroy the enemy forces. The division chose the 1st Brigade, which went into action with its 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, and 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, along with Americal’s 1st Battalion, 46th Infantry Regiment. Among the soldiers in what was officially called Operation Lamar Plain was Lt. Ed Sherwood, a platoon leader in Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry. In Courage Under Fire: The 101st Airborne’s Hidden Battle at Tam Ky, he gives a detailed, day-by-day account of his battalion’s actions during the operation, with a focus on Delta Company. Sherwood begins at May 15, the move to Tam Ky, and the first combat assault the following day. He ends with June 12, Delta’s extraction from Hill 376 a few days after a massive artillery barrage destroyed the enemy force. Delta had been fighting for control of the hill since June 3. On June 8, it seemed that little progress had been made. The next day would be crucial.
Excerpted from Courage Under Fire: The 101st Airborne’s Hidden Battle at Tam Ky, by Ed Sherwood, Casemate Publishers, 2021
TODAY [JUNE 9] WILL BE A TURNING POINT, not an easy day, but a pivotal change for the better on Hill 376. Of course, no one knows it. Nothing in the last six days gives any hint that a breakthrough is about to occur. It is the nature of warfare. The decisive moment a favorable turn in a battle’s out-come occurs is often not recognized by those in the throes of fighting. Early morning events are a bad start for the day.
