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Sgt Joseph Madagan (Madman)
to remember
Marine GySgt Tom Perry Acton.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Fort Worth, TX
Last Address Bedford/Paris, Texas
Casualty Date May 23, 1968
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Gun, Small Arms Fire
Location Quang Nam (Vietnam)
Conflict Vietnam War
Location of Interment Bluebonnet Hills Memorial Park - Colleyville, Texas
Vietnam War/Tet Counteroffensive Campaign (1968)/Battle of Duong Lam
From Month/Year
February / 1968
To Month/Year
February / 1968
Description On the ground in the 7th Marines sector, North Vietnamese units hit several of the Combined Action platoons, especially in the 3d and 1st Battalion areas. One of the major attacks was against CAP B-3 in the hamlet of Duong Lam just below the Tuy Loan River. Shortly after 0100 on the 6th, enemy gunners opened up on the hamlet with intermittent mortar rounds and small-arms fire. About an hour later, North Vietnamese troops who had infiltrated Duong Lam rushed the CAP compound.
While successfully beating back the enemy onslaught, the Combined Action leader called for help. At 0240, a squad from the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, supported by two tanks from the 1st Tank Battalion, moved to assist the embattled CAP unit. The reaction force itself came under automatic weapons fire and enemy rocket- propelled grenades disabled the two tanks.
About 0330, two more Marine tanks from the district town of Hieu Duc arrived at the northern fringes of the hamlet. The armored force pushed through the hamlet and encountered only occasional small-arms fire. Joining up with the squad from the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines and some newly arrived ARVN troops, the tanks then relieved the Combined Action garrison. The combined force then swept the general area where they found two enemy bodies and took three prisoners.
According to the prisoner accounts, they were from the 3d Battalion, 31st NVA Regiment and confirmed that ". . . Da Nang itself was the ultimate objective."
