Week of September 7

This Week In History

During this week in the history of the Vietnam War, United States Marines launched Operation SWIFT to defend the Que Son Basin, a strategically-important river valley located in I Corps, South Vietnam’s northernmost tactical zone. During the summer months of 1967, allied forces enjoyed success at dislodging Communist forces which had infiltrated I Corps, forcing the enemy to retreat to mountain enclaves. Still, troops from the 2d NVA Division and local Viet Cong detachments carried out sporadic attacks against specific sites, such as the Nong Son coal mine, the only mine in the region, and the Da Nang airbase, a major staging area for allied forces. One of the most daring attacks targeted the Hoi An advisers’ compound and provincial jail on 14 July, when insurgents liberated nearly a thousand suspected Viet Cong cadres. These attacks, while unable to make headway against the buildup of allied forces in I Corps, served as symbolic victories in the Communists’ effort to demonstrate their determination and persistence to the 300,000 South Vietnamese civilians who lived in the area.

Marines and ARVN rangers launched Operation COCHISE in August in hopes of interdicting North Vietnamese forces in the area. This operation resulted in considerable losses for the North Vietnamese, but the Que Son Basin remained unpacified at the end of the month. As September neared, allied forces devised plans for additional operations to prevent Communist attacks from disturbing the upcoming rice harvest and national elections in the Que Son District. Operation SWIFT developed as an outgrowth of election-day sweeps near Dong Son village, located eight miles southwest of Thang Binh on Route 534. In the hours before dawn on 4 September, the enemy attacked Captain Robert F. Morgan’s Company D, 5th Marine Regiment, First Marine Division. Morgan lost his life in the ensuing firefight, and First Lieutenant William P. Vacca assumed command and called in airstrikes, which compelled the assailants to break off the attack. Around 8 AM, Company B arrived to reinforce Company D, but enemy fire downed a UH-1 helicopter and damaged two UH-34 helicopters during a mission to evacuate casualties and deliver ammunition. As a result of this contact, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Webster committed two additional companies to Dong Son, and the commander on the ground, Lieutenant Colonel Peter L. Hilgartner, discovered clues that a large contingent of enemy forces was present in the area. As dusk fell, one company of Marines became surrounded and requested airstrikes and artillery support. That evening, A-6 bombers targeted enemy antiaircraft defenses and mortar positions, enabling Marine helicopters to deliver supplies and evacuate the wounded. Still, North Vietnamese forces continued to attack Marine positions around Dong Son over the next four nights.

During the assault on 4 September, Lieutenant Vincent R. Capodanno, a Roman Catholic priest serving as the chaplain of 3d Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, lost his life while assisting the wounded. For his selfless acts of heroism, Lieutenant Capodanno posthumously received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Recently, a movement has begun within the Catholic Church to canonize Capodanno as a saint. In an incident two days later, Marine Sergeant Rodney M. Davis saved his companions and gave his life by jumping on a live grenade. Davis received the Medal of Honor for his sacrifice.

The North Vietnamese attempts to dislodge the Marines from the Que Son Basin failed, and Operation SWIFT concluded on 15 September. Allied assessments estimated that four months of operations in the Que Son Basin resulted in the deaths of 4,000 enemy soldiers, leaving the attacking North Vietnamese and Viet Cong units unfit for further combat. The United States paid a costly price for this victory: During SWIFT, 127 Marines and Navy Corpsmen were killed and 362 wounded. The autumn of 1967 saw General William Westmoreland commit additional troops from Task Force Oregon to I Corps in Operation WHEELER/WALLOWA. The escalating violence in I Corps displaced large numbers of civilians as refugees, making pacification efforts in these provinces, as the Marine Corps’ official history of the Vietnam War summarized, “tough, unrewarding, tedious assignment[s].”1

1Gary L. Telfer, Lane Rogers, and V. Keith Fleming, Jr., U.S. Marines in Vietnam: Fighting the North Vietnamese, 1967 (Washington, D.C.: History and Museum Division Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, 1984), 107-24.


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Vincent R Capodanno

Lieutenant Vincent R. Capodanno was the first Navy chaplain to lose his life during the Vietnam War. He received the Medal of Honor for assisting wounded soldiers during Operation SWIFT on the evening of 4 September 1967. Recently, a movement has begun within the Roman Catholic Church to canonize Capodanno as a saint. (U.S. Navy)

Que Son Basin

The Que Son Basin was a strategically-important rice producing region in I Corps. This river valley saw vicious fighting throughout 1967. (The Vietnam Center and Archive, Texas Tech University)

PJ Ferguson

Lance Corporal P. J. Ferguson, a member of the forward air control team attached to Second Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, First Marine Division takes a break during Operation SWIFT, a search and destroy operation conducted south of Da Nang. (National Archives and Records Administration)