Operation HARVEST MOON Begins

December 8, 1965

Overview

In Operation HARVEST MOON, U.S. Marines of Task Force Delta and other units combine with South Vietnamese army troops to engage the 1st Viet Cong Regiment. The operation takes place in and around the Phuoc Ha Valley, northwest of Chu Lai. When U.S. and South Vietnamese units are on their way to trap the Viet Cong regiment in the valley, enemy forces ambush the South Vietnamese troops. The Marines march overland to reinforce the South Vietnamese lines, then organize a counterattack. Marines waiting offshore aboard the helicopter carrier USS Valley Forge arrive as reinforcements. The fighting lasts until December 20, when the Viet Cong withdraw. HARVEST MOON becomes the Marines’ largest engagement of the war since their arrival in Vietnam.¹

¹Jack Shulimson and Charles M. Johnson, The Landing and the Buildup, 1965, U.S. Marines in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: History and Museums Division, 1978), 101–111, 240; Spencer C. Tucker, ed. The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History, (2nd edition; Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), 461–462; David Burns Sigler, Vietnam Battle Chronology: U.S. Army and Marine Corps Combat Operations, 1965–1973 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co: 1992), 9–10; Shelby L. Stanton, The Rise and Fall of an American Army: U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1965–1973 (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 2003), 40–43.