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 PATROL

EMBASSY SIEGE

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South Vietnam - Saigon - 1968

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OPERATION TIME: 1900 EST

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1. SITUATION:

HISTORICAL CONTEXT:

 

Shortly after midnight on 31 January 1968, 19 Viet Cong (VC) sappers from the elite C-10 Sapper Battalion gathered at a VC safe house in a car repair shop at 59 Phan Thanh Gian Street to distribute weapons and conduct final preparations for the attack. Two of the sappers were later identified as U.S. Department of State employees. Their orders were to seize the embassy grounds, break into the chancery building and take hostage the people inside. The sappers had been told by the VC Sub-Region 6 headquarters that hundreds of anti-war and anti-government university students would converge on the embassy that morning to stage a sit-down strike. The sappers also expected one or more local force battalions to relieve them at some point during the next twenty-four hours.

The unit set off in a small truck and a taxi towards central Saigon. As the vehicles came down Mac Dinh Chi Street with their lights off after curfew, they were spotted by a Vietnamese police guard post north of the embassy, but rather than trying to stop the vehicles, the police instead took cover. As the taxi turned from Mac Dinh Chi Street onto Thong Nhut Boulevard, the occupants opened fire on the two MPs guarding the vehicle gate. The MPs, Specialist Four (SP4) Charles L Daniel and Private First Class William E Sebast, returned fire, closed and locked the steel gate and radioed that they were under attack. Hearing the firing at the side gate, Marine Sergeant Ronald W. Harper, who was in the rear of the embassy compound, ran back through the rear door of the chancery across the lobby past Marine Corporal George B Zahuranic, who was calling for help. Harper pulled a Vietnamese night watchman into the building and closed and bolted the heavy teak doors to the chancery.

Minutes later at 02:47, the VC blew a small hole in the perimeter wall on Thong Nhut Boulevard and gained access to the embassy compound. The first two VC who crawled through the hole were shot and killed by Daniel and Sebast in their guard post at the Mac Dinh Chi Street entrance. Daniel radioed "They're coming in! They're coming in! Help me! Help me!" before the radio went silent. A VC armed with an AK-47 rifle had emerged from the rear parking lot, shooting the two MPs in the back and killing them both. A second man carrying a rifle came around the building and the two men, later determined to be a pair of embassy drivers, joined the other VC soldiers on the front lawn.

On the chancery roof, Marine Sergeant Rudy A. Soto Jr saw the VC coming through the wall and tried to fire on them with his 12-gauge shotgun which jammed after a few rounds. He then emptied his .38 caliber revolver at the hole, but such fire was unlikely to be effective from that height and range. Inside the embassy grounds, the VC opened fire on the chancery building with Type 56 assault rifles and B-40 rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). Several RPGs penetrated the walls of the chancery, wounding Zahuranic and destroying the two radio sets in the guard post. Soto tried unsuccessfully to contact the lobby guard post and, assuming that Harper and Zahuranic were dead, he called for assistance and waited for the VC to reach him. In the villa at the rear of the embassy compound, Colonel George Jacobson, the Mission Coordinator, was awakened by the firing; searching for a weapon, he found a single 26 grenade.

The US Embassy is under siege!  When Gordon D. Rowe, commanding the 716th MP Battalion, has recieved a distress call from the US embassy in Saigon, and is dispatching the 1st Cav MP force to secure the embassy and the surroundings.

c. 1960s - Rules of Engagement

 

On order from your commander, enemy military and paramilitary forces are declared hostile and may be attacked subject to the following instructions:

  1. Positive Identification (PID) is required prior to engagement. PID is a reasonable certainty that the proposed target is a legitimate military target. If no PID, contact your next highest commander for decision.
  2. Do not engage anyone who has surrendered, or is unarmed or wounded. 
  3. Any requests for fire support or close air support within 600 Meters of a civilian center must first get authorization from commanding officer. 

2. MISSION

1st MP Platoon will INFIL Saigon by car/truck, and secure the local govenors home, before securing the embassy itself.
There are reports of hostages being held in the compound.
We have reports of street fighting, so be prepared for CQB.  We might encounter a VC counterattack once the embassy is secured so be prepared to defend civilians and embassy employees.

 

K. Grorud@0.5x.png

Head of 71st Assault Helicopter Company

Call-sign: Rattler 1-6

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