Battle 11-13 November 1966 - FOREWORD

This report not only chronicles the battalion’s efforts to survive during a particularly vicious and significant battle in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam in the Fall of 1966, it also chronicles a series of events that represents a number of “firsts” for the Red Warriors.

• For the first time since the battalion’s arrival in South Vietnam four months previously, the battalion, as a Task Force, was sent to the aid of another unit.

• For the first time since the battalion’s arrival in-country, it faced an enemy force of superior strength.

• And for the first time for any American unit in Vietnam, the battalion sustained a well-organized and executed enemy mortar attack of over 500 rounds in less than two hours and survived.

From the moment the Task Force set foot on the landing zone that was to be named in their honor, until they departed a day and a half later, the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment with its attachments, led by Lieutenant Colonel James R. Lay, acquitted itself on the field of battle with honor and distinction. Engaging the enemy forces at point-blank range with a combination of direct and indirect fire supplemented by air support, the Red Warriors repulsed a determined enemy force almost twice their strength.

Sustaining five killed and over 40 wounded in a combined mortar and ground attack, the Red Warriors, supported by B Battery 4/42 Artillery and 1st Platoon, B Company, 4th Engineers, proved their determination and skill as an effective combined arms team. The individual spontaneous and unselfish acts of bravery and extraordinary heroism demonstrated by the men and officers of the Task Force on the 12th of November 1966 signify the true character and spirit of the unit known as “The Red Warriors.”

It is little wonder that Lyndon Baines Johnson, the President of the United States, awarded the Red Warriors and its attachments the Valorous Unit Citation for this action.

Battle 15 February 1967 - FOREWORD

As with all major traumatic events in a person’s life, every man who was present in Landing Zone (LZ) 501N in the Republic of South Vietnam on the morning of February 15, 1967 can tell you exactly what he was doing when the first shots rang out, and exactly how he reacted. Experiences like this are forever seared into a man’s mind. For the men of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, their day of reckoning had begun.

Little did each man know what the next minutes and hours were going to bring. While some men were fighting for (and losing) their lives, others were wondering what was happening. Each fighting position around the LZ perimeter was a world unto itself, yet collectively they represented the sum of the whole. In those first minutes of battle, the soldiers of Charlie Company had no idea they were being attacked by a North Vietnamese infantry battalion whose mission it was to kill everyone in the company.

From the moment the battle at LZ 501N began, Charlie Company, led by Captain Edward Northrop acquitted itself on the field of battle with honor and distinction. Engaging the enemy forces at point-blank range with a combination of direct and indirect fire and air support, the men of “Chargin’ Charlie” repulsed a determined enemy force almost four times their strength.

When the call went out for assistance, Captain Edward Scherer and his Bravo Company were the next battalion elements to enter the fray. Forced by circumstances, Bravo Company, through air assault, committed its elements by platoon. By the time Captain Scherer was able to get his entire company on the ground in the LZ, his lead platoon was outside the perimeter decisively engaged with the enemy and in desperate need of help. Utilizing all their resources, Bravo Company executed a movement to contact just before it got dark, linked up with their estranged platoon, and began procedures to break contact with the enemy and return to the safety of the LZ.

In the meantime, having just arrived at the LZ, Alpha Company was immediately dispatched to provide a covering screen for Bravo Company and to assist them in getting re-entering the perimeter under the cover of darkness. The remainder of the night was punctuated by random and violent bursts of mortar, artillery fire and air support with illumination.

Sustaining 13 killed (one of whom was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor) and 32 wounded, the Red Warriors and their supporting air and artillery proved their determination and skill as an effective combined arms team. The individual spontaneous and unselfish acts of bravery and extraordinary heroism demonstrated by the men and officers of the battalion on the 15th of February 1967 signify the true character and spirit of the unit known as “The Red Warriors."

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This reconstructed report is a description of the battle between Bravo and Charlie Companies of the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, known as the “Red Warriors,” and the 7th Battalion of the 66th NVA Regiment on the 12th of July 1967 in the Ia Drang Valley of the Central Highlands, Pleiku Province, South Vietnam.

Operating at half-strength, the two Red Warrior companies and the Recon Platoon were jointly conducting their battalion’s search-and-destroy mission 6,000 meters (3 ½ miles) east of the Cambodian border in what turned out to be the “front yard” of the 66th NVA Regiment. (Unbeknownst to the Red Warriors, the 7th Battalion of the 66th NVA Regiment was encamped just across the border from them.)

The commander of the 7/66 NVA Battalion couldn't’t resist such a tempting target as two under-strength American companies operating alone, and the battle was joined under conditions that were ideal for him. The outcome of the battle was devastating to the Red Warriors. Not only was a company rendered combat-ineffective, but the shock of the battle field reports numbed the entire battalion when they learned that, after taking seven men prisoner, the enemy bound and then executed all of the remaining wounded they could find on the battlefield. (During the confusion of the fighting, some soldiers managed to escape and evade the enemy.)

The battalion had never experienced anything like this before. At the end of the battalion’s first year in Vietnam, the ugliest aspects of war had been painfully inflicted upon the Red Warriors of Vietnam. The personal stories of the survivors and the POWs tell of heroism in its purest form.

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