Vietnam War/Counteroffensive Phase V Campaign (1968)/Operation Pocahontas Forest
From Month/Year
July / 1968
To Month/Year
August / 1968
Description 6 Jul to 4 Aug 68; The 4/3d, 4/21st, and 4/31st Infantry Battalions, 23d Infantry Div and three battalions from the 5th ARVN Regiment conducted this search and destoy operation into Antenna Valley in the Quang Ngai Province, I Corps, South Vietnam. Casualties: US 4 KIA, 58 WIA; ARVN 2 KIA, 6 WIA; enemy 96 KIA.
Southeast of An Hoa, in the Que Son area, the U.S. Army's Americal Division planned an offensive dubbed Operation Pocahontas Forest. The 1st Marine Division developed a plan to intercept Communist forces driven into the upper Song Thu Bon Valley by the Americal Division. At 1815 on 7 July, Battery A, 1st Battalion, 13th Marines established a fire support base on the west bank of the Song Thu Bon, near Nong Son, about 11 kilometers southwest of An Hoa.48 Its mission was to provide artillery support to the Marine units which would be engaged in Operation Mameluke Thrust/Pocahontas Forest. The next morning, the 1st Battalion, 26th Marines conducted a helicopter assault into a landing zone along the Khe Dienne, also just west of the Song Thu Bon, but about three kilometers upstream of the new fire support base at Nong Son.
