This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Sgt J. Mollohan
to remember
Marine LCpl Ronald Lee Longanecker.
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On July 8, 1966 two CH46's inserted a recon team SW of Cam Lo. The team made heavy contact and were successfully extracted. The same team was inserted 2 hours later. On this insertion a CH46 piloted by 1LT Bert L. Nale and 1LT David W. McCleery (HMM-164) was shot down. The helo burst into flames and all on board were able to exit the bird with exception of Recon LCPL Ronald L. Longanecker who is believed to have perished in the blaze. This incident was the first of many choppers to be shot down in Quang Tri Province and Longanecker was the first Marine KIA in Quang Tri. He was also the first to be listed as KIA-BNR. Narrative from 'Never Without Heroes' by Lawrence C. Vetter Jr.: 'The first patrol zone was to be about 4.5 miles southwest of Cam Lo in a pocket with ridgelines on all sides. The only openings were made by the Rao Vinh River where it flowed into and then out of the bowl.
The method of operation was the same. Al Gordon was on the first chopper to land and remembers: 'The back hatch dropped, and I ran down the ramp into the grass followed by Ray. The whole squad was out and heading for the tree line when we suddenly realized that the second chopper had come under heavy fire and couldn't get in. There seemed to be a couple of automatic weapons, and I don't know how many other small arms firing away at the birds from a nearby hill not more than two to three hundred meters away. We took cover in the trees and watched our helicopters in the air trying to stay out of range, and we wondered what the hell was going to happen next. Then we got the word that jets were coming in to rip the area, and we should mark our positions. So I took a colored panel out in front of us and then just sat back and was fascinated by the air show that came in. Our squad hadn't yet come under fire, and now it was an air-to-ground battle with us as spectators.' 'The Huey gunships came in first,' Ray Strohl added. 'We always had two of them nearby during these DMZ patrols. They were the first to hit that hillside.
When the jets came in, I swear they were so close I believe I saw the pilot of one of those jets wink at me.' Sitting in the trees and wondering about its fate, the first squad didn't have long to wait before the CH46 returned under fire to extract the Reconners. The platoon was flown back the nine miles to Dong Ha. The men were starting to unpack when the word came that they were going back immediately. Within the hour, the platoon was back in the air. Ray Strohl stated that they had just about made up their minds that there was no need to take any chow, just stock up on ammo. In fact, at that point they started taking an M60 machine gun with them. This time the patrol insertion point was going farther south, about two miles southeast of the last attempt and at a higher elevation, a three-hill complex about 300 meters tall. They were to land in the middle and just to the side of the center knoll. The first chopper, with Gordon, Strohl, and Lieutenant Terrebonne, dropped down to the planned LZ and immediately was hit by enemy fire. Before the team was able to jump out, the chopper pulled away, under fire all the while, and miraculously made it out. The second chopper wasn't so lucky.
The first tried to warn the second away but, hit by ground fire, the second helicopter lost power, tried to jettison fuel, but instead came in for a crash landing. The pilot did manage to fly a short distance to the west before bouncing down and rolling over. A fire burst out within the chopper as the Marines on board fought to get out of the bird in both directions. The lead chopper had turned and followed its crashing wingman. It quickly set down not far from the first, and the first squad scrambled out the back hatch to set a security perimeter for the Reconners trying to get out of the crashed chopper. Al Gordon and Lieutenant Terrebonne, however, both ran for the helicopter, which was lying in heavy brush on its side. Al Gordon said: 'We landed below the other CH46 before those guys had been able to get out. I ran for them, and Terrebonne was right behind me. It was lying on its side, and I climbed up on the topside and looked in the window.
And to this day I can still see Longanecker sitting there, on his back now as the chopper was on its side. He was dead, but his eyes were staring straight ahead. Then a little voice told me to get the hell out of there. The fire was starting to burn more, and everybody had gotten out. Some had to stumble and run through the fire. I ran, and when I was about fifty meters away, the chopper blew sky high behind me.' Strohl couldn't tell what exactly was happening at the helicopter because he was a part of a defensive position in the bush farther out. But one Marine had been killed and seven wounded in the crash.'
This Veteran has an (IMO) In Memory Of Headstone in Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial, Hawaii.
Vietnam War/Counteroffensive Phase II Campaign (1966-67)
From Month/Year
July / 1966
To Month/Year
May / 1967
Description This campaign was from 1 July 1966 to 31 May 1967. United States operations after 1 July 1966 were a continuation of the earlier counteroffensive campaign. Recognizing the interdependence of political, economic, sociological, and military factors, the Joint Chiefs of Staff declared that American military objectives should be to cause North Vietnam to cease its control and support of the insurgency in South Vietnam and Laos, to assist South Vietnam in defeating Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam, and to assist South Vietnam in pacification extending governmental control over its territory.
North Vietnam continued to build its own forces inside South Vietnam. At first this was done by continued infiltration by sea and along the Ho Chi Minh trail and then, in early 1966, through the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). U.S. air elements received permission to conduct reconnaissance bombing raids, and tactical air strikes into North Vietnam just north of the DMZ, but ground forces were denied authority to conduct reconnaissance patrols in the northern portion of the DMZ and inside North Vietnam. Confined to South Vietnamese territory U.S. ground forces fought a war of attrition against the enemy, relying for a time on body counts as one standard indicator for measuring successful progress for winning the war.
During 1966 there were eighteen major operations, the most successful of these being Operation WHITE WING (MASHER). During this operation, the 1st Cavalry Division, Korean units, and ARVN forces cleared the northern half of Binh Dinh Province on the central coast. In the process they decimated a division, later designated the North Vietnamese 3d Division. The U.S. 3d Marine Division was moved into the area of the two northern provinces and in concert with South Vietnamese Army and other Marine Corps units, conducted Operation HASTINGS against enemy infiltrators across the DMZ.
The largest sweep of 1966 took place northwest of Saigon in Operation ATTLEBORO, involving 22,000 American and South Vietnamese troops pitted against the VC 9th Division and a NVA regiment. The Allies defeated the enemy and, in what became a frequent occurrence, forced him back to his havens in Cambodia or Laos.
By 31 December 1966, U.S. military personnel in South Vietnam numbered 385,300. Enemy forces also increased substantially, so that for the same period, total enemy strength was in excess of 282,000 in addition to an estimated 80,000 political cadres. By 30 June 1967, total U.S. forces in SVN had risen to 448,800, but enemy strength had increased as well.
On 8 January U.S. and South Vietnamese troops launched separate drives against two major VC strongholds in South Vietnam-in the so-called "Iron Triangle" about 25 miles northwest of Saigon. For years this area had been under development as a VC logistics base and headquarters to control enemy activity in and around Saigon. The Allies captured huge caches of rice and other foodstuffs, destroyed a mammoth system of tunnels, and seized documents of considerable intelligence value.
In February, the same U.S. forces that had cleared the "Iron Triangle", were committed with other units in the largest allied operation of the war to date, JUNCTION CITY. Over 22 U.S. and four ARVN battalions engaged the enemy, killing 2,728. After clearing this area, the Allies constructed three airfields; erected a bridge and fortified two camps in which CIDG garrisons remained as the other allied forces withdrew.
