Mai Loc

The Mai Loc zttack occurred near our artillery base, Firebase Barbara. It was marked on our charts as a no fire zone, but we could not suport Mai Loc in any case because it was to the east of us, and our artillery was terraced down the western side of a mountain, intended to fire at the Ho Chi Minh trail, which ran along the Laotian border with Vietnam.
An Account of the attack on Mai Loc fromthe Vietnam wall.
Attack on Mai Loc Camp – April 9-10, 1970Mai Loc Camp was a U.S. Army and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) base located ten miles south of the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Vietnam, and west of Quang Tri in Quang Tri Province, RVN. During the late night and early morning of April 9-10, 1970, a company-sized North Vietnamese Army sapper unit attacked Mai Loc. The enemy presence had been detected around 11:00 PM when a trip flare was ignited on the perimeter of the camp, alerting personnel at the base. At 2:35 AM, the camp began receiving some 75-100 rounds of mixed 82mm mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire, followed ten minutes later by a sapper attack firing small arms and automatic weapons and using satchel charges. A total of 60-80 enemy were reported to have penetrated the outer perimeter at four locations. Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) troopers, U.S. Special Forces advisors, and U.S artillerymen on self-propelled twin 40mm guns returned fire on the enemy. Heavy fighting from the bunkers was reported inside the camp, and several small counterattacks from within the base repulsed the enemy from portions of the perimeter. The enemy was unable to penetrate the camp’s inner perimeter where the tactical operations center was located. As fighting continued, an element of the 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) in trucks and armored personnel carriers moved into the area and engaged the enemy at about 3:40 AM. Helicopter gunships and a Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) AC-47 gunship supported the contact. The remaining enemy began to withdraw, dragging an undetermined number of bodies at the same time. Contact was broken a 4:55 AM. U.S. casualties were six killed, including four members of the 14th Engineer Battalion, and thirteen wounded. The lost Americans included SP4 Francis X. Gaworski, PFC Phillip M. Long, PFC Joseph S. Nemeth, PFC Francis J. O’Reilly, SMJ Gale Stopher Jr., and SP5 Richard L. Whiteman. Fourteen CIDG troopers were also lost. One Vietnamese child was reported killed. RVNAF casualties were light. The bodies of nineteen enemy soldiers were found in the vicinity. Material damage to the base was light to moderate. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, wikipedia.org, and “Headquarters MACV - Monthly Summary for April 1970” at ttu.edu]

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