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Marine BGen Frederick J Karch.
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BRIG. GEN. FREDERICK J. KARCH 1917-2009 Frederick J. Karch, 1917-2009: Marine Corps general led first ground troops into Vietnam
May 26, 2009
WASHINGTON -- Frederick J. Karch, 91, a Marine Corps brigadier general who led the first official ground combat troops into Vietnam, died on May 23 at his home in Arlington, Va.
Gen. Karch, a Naval Academy graduate, served in the Marine Corps for 27 years, from before World War II through the Vietnam War. During World War II he was a part of the Pacific island-hopping campaign as U.S. forces fought the Japanese on a succession of islands, with Japan as the ultimate goal. He received the Bronze Star for his actions on Roi-Namur, Sapian, Tinian and Iwo Jima.
Two decades later, on March 8, 1965, the "dapper-looking, mustache-sporting veteran of two bloody World War II island campaigns" -- Edward F. Murphy's description in "Semper Fi Vietnam" (2003) -- landed with the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade on Red Beach at Da Nang, South Vietnam. Before their arrival, all military personnel in Vietnam were there as "advisers," and Gen. Karch told reporters that the activities of his men would be strictly defensive.
Later that year he voiced his respect for the stamina of the opposition fighters known as Viet Cong. "I thought that once they ran up against our first team they wouldn't stand and fight, but they did. I made a miscalculation."
Eastern Mandates Campaign (1944)/Operation Flintlock/Battle of Kwajalein Atoll
From Month/Year
January / 1944
To Month/Year
February / 1944
Description The Battle of Kwajalein was fought as part of the Pacific campaign of World War II. It took place from 31 January-3 February 1944, on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Employing the hard-learned lessons of the battle of Tarawa, the United States launched a successful twin assault on the main islands of Kwajalein in the south and Roi-Namur in the north. The Japanese defenders put up stiff resistance, although outnumbered and under-prepared. The determined defense of Roi-Namur left only 51 survivors of an original garrison of 3,500.
For the US, the battle represented both the next step in its island-hopping march to Japan and a significant moral victory because it was the first time the Americans had penetrated the "outer ring" of the Japanese Pacific sphere. For the Japanese, the battle represented the failure of the beach-line defense. Japanese defenses became prepared in depth, and the battles of Peleliu, Guam, and the Marianas proved far more costly to the US.
