1-12 April 1966

Below is the 1st Battalion 3rd Marines After Action Report which was sent to me by Sgt Major Charlie Hayman. Delta 1/1 was attached to the 3rd Marines at the time, and played a major role in this operation. Charlie was the 60 MM mortar section leader, and related to me that it was a miserable time, and the plan was flawed. "When the birds touched downfall hell broke loose. We had to stop and take cover as we called for artillery to level the village. During that time, the choppers were still landing.  A CH46 land about 50 feet from my section and took a mortar round. The 1/1 S3 Officer Major Fits Woodrow was in that chopper, and it was burning. I took three of my men to help. That's when I found out that Fitz was wounded. He was really in bad shape. We stopped the bleeding, and did what we could until we hailed a Corpsman. Cpl. Pesnecker yelled an said he flagged an incoming bird, and we loaded Woodrow on the bird. There wasn't much left in the village. We did find the 7 missing Marines that were lost in that area." 

The first 13 pages describe the planning and sequence of events which took place during the operation. The remainder of the report details the results. Lessons learned from this and other early operations led to many highly successful later ops.

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