Operation BOLD MARINER Begins

In Operation BOLD MARINER, a U.S. Navy Seventh Fleet task force puts a brigade-size Marine force ashore on the Batangan Peninsula, Quang Ngai Province, in South Vietnam. The region has long been a Viet Cong stronghold. The operation’s objective is to identify and clear out Viet Cong agents and secure the civilian population. The Marines, working in concert with U.S. Army and South Vietnamese troops, screen some 12,000 civilians and remove them from their villages for resettlement further south. They then identify and destroy nearly eight miles of enemy tunnels. The main portion of BOLD MARINER lasts until early February and is the largest amphibious operation of the war.¹