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First U.S. Army Ground Combat Unit Arrives in Vietnam

May 3, 1965 - May 7, 1965

1965-05-03_173rdAB
1965-05-03_173rdAB
Insignia of the 173d Airborne Brigade

The first U.S. Army ground combat unit to deploy to South Vietnam, the 173d Airborne Brigade, arrives from Okinawa. The brigade is stationed at Bien Hoa Air Base near Saigon. The 173d Airborne Brigade’s initial mission is limited to defending U.S. bases and installations, especially Bien Hoa. This mission quickly expands in the following days and weeks to include offensive counterinsurgency operations against Viet Cong forces.1

1John M. Carland, Stemming the Tide, May 1965–October 1966, United States Army in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 2000), 21–23; Graham A. Cosmas, MACV: The Joint Command in the Years of Escalation, 1962–1967, United States Army in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 2006), 210, 212; Shelby L. Stanton, Vietnam Order of Battle (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2003), 84.