{"id":69184,"date":"2023-09-16T02:41:55","date_gmt":"2023-09-16T07:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/?p=69184"},"modified":"2023-09-16T02:43:04","modified_gmt":"2023-09-16T07:43:04","slug":"know-you-usmc-history-operation-starlite-1965","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/16\/know-you-usmc-history-operation-starlite-1965\/","title":{"rendered":"Know You USMC History: Operation Starlite (1965)"},"content":{"rendered":"

H\/T Fix Bayonets<\/a><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/h1>\n

Locate, Close With, and Destroy<\/a><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are two reasons for people to clash.\u00a0 First, because some people believe they have no other choice.\u00a0 A second reason is that it suits them.<\/h2>\n

During OPERATION STARLITE<\/em>, the 1st V.C. Regiment lost 615 men, either as killed in action or detained as prisoners of war.\u00a0 Following the operation, the regiment needed a break.\u00a0 The Americans do not know how many of the remaining 886 men were wounded in action.\u00a0 They figured it was a substantial number.\u00a0 What the regiment needed was time for replacements and resupply.\u00a0 American Marines, however, were not well disposed to allow them to accomplish that.\u00a0 The Commanding General, III Marine Amphibious Force (III MAF), decided to destroy the 1st V.C. Regiment.[1]<\/a><\/h2>\n

III MAF intelligence sources knew that remnants of the enemy regiment had withdrawn to the Batangan Peninsula, located eight miles south of Van Tuong.\u00a0 After consulting with his South Vietnamese counterpart, the Commanding General, I Corps Tactical Zone, General Chi,[2]<\/a>\u00a0Walt issued a warning order to the Commanding Officer, 7th<\/sup>\u00a0Marine Regiment.[3]<\/a><\/h2>\n

In contrast with\u00a0Operation Starlite,<\/em>\u00a0the planning and preparations for the new operation were unusually excessive.\u00a0 For several days, Navy and Marine Corps commanders traveled between Da Nang and Chu Lai to receive briefings from the III MAF staff.\u00a0 The Commander, Amphibious Ready Group, and Colonel Peatross coordinated their activities with the South Vietnamese.\u00a0 Operation Order 423-65 became\u00a0Operation Piranha.<\/em><\/h2>\n

The concept of this operation was similar to that of\u00a0Starlite.<\/em><\/h2>\n

Two Marine battalions (1\/7 and 3\/3) would embark with the U.S. Seventh Fleet, while another battalion (3\/7) would conduct a vertical assault inside the objective area.\u00a0 The battalion commanders were Lieutenant Colonel Kelly, Lieutenant Colonel Muir, and Lieutenant Colonel Bodley.<\/h2>\n

Kelly would land 1\/7 across White Beach, north of the Batangan Peninsula, and move south.\u00a0 Bodley\u2019s air assault Marines would set up a blocking position some 4,000 meters inland.\u00a0 Muir\u2019s battalion would serve as the regiment\u2019s reserve force.\u00a0 Participating South Vietnamese battalions included the ARVN 2nd Battalion, 4th Regiment, and the Vietnamese Marine Corps\u2019 3rd Battalion.\u00a0 Vietnamese Marines would conduct a vertical (helicopter) insertion south of Bodley\u2019s battalion and conduct search and clear operations on the An Ky Peninsula, which was separated from Batangan by the Sa Ky River.<\/h2>\n

RTWT.<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H\/T Fix Bayonets     Locate, Close With, and Destroy   There are two reasons for people to clash.\u00a0 First, because some people believe they have no other choice.\u00a0 A second reason is that it suits them. During OPERATION STARLITE, the 1st V.C. Regiment lost 615 men, either as killed in action or detained as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[5773,5523,1286,6458,5016,1898],"tags":[16486,763,16485,9368,766,8123],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69184"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69190,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69184\/revisions\/69190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}