CHAPTER 11
Fire Support and Reconnaissance
Artillery
Support-Naval Gunfire-Other Ground Combat Support-Marine Reconnaissance- 1st
Force Reconnaissance Company, The Early Days- 3d Reconnaissance Battalion,
Opening Moves-Force and Division Reconnaissance
Merged Artillery Support
Marine artillery units arrived in
Vietnam piecemeal. By mid-July, Colonel William P. Pala had established the 12th
Marines headquarters, the artillery regiment of the 3d Marine Division, at Da
Nang.* His 1st and 2d Battalions were at Da Nang, but under the operational
control of the infantry regiments they supported, the 3d and 9th Marines,
respectively. The 2d Battalion, 12th Marines had two 105mm batteries at Da Nang,
D and E, while its third battery, F, remained on Okinawa. Two of the 1st
Battalion's 105mm batteries, A and B, were at Da Nang and its Battery C was
attached to the 3d Battalion, 12th Marines at Chu Lai.
At Phu Bai, the headquarters of the 4th
Battalion, 12th Marines, which also arrived in July, took control of the
artillery units there. These were one of its 155mm howitzer batteries. Battery
M; a 105mm battery, Battery I, 3d Battalion, 12th Marines; and the mortar
battery from the 2d Battalion, 12th
*A Marine division had a variety of
available artillery support. Its artillery regiment consisted of three direct
support and one general support battalions. The three direct support battalions,
the 1st, 2d, and 3d, contained three batteries, each with six M101A1 105mm towed
howitzers (range 11,300 meters), and one battery of six 107mm howtars (range
5,600 meters), a 4.2-inch mortar tube mounted on the frame of the old 75mm pack
howitzer. The 4th Battalion, the general support battalion, had three batteries,
each equipped with six 155mm howitzers (range 14,600 meters). In 1965, M-109
self-propelled 155mm howitzers were being phased in to replace the older M114A
towed howitzers. The 4th Battalion, 12th Marines deployed to Vietnam with two
batteries equipped with self-propelled howitzers and one towed battery. In
Vietnam, the Marines found they had a use for both weapons. The heavy, tracked
M109SP was largely road bound, while the lighter towed howitzer could be moved
either by truck or by helicopter.
Marines. On 16 September, Battery M
received six of the newer M-109 155mm self-propelled howitzers and its older
M-114A towed pieces were then distributed throughout the artillery battalion.
Headquarters Battery and Batteries I and M each manned two of the towed 155s.
Lieutenant Colonel Sumner A. Vale later remarked:
. . . seldom if ever h as an infantry
battalion commander had so much artillery support under his control as did
Taylor, I, and then Hanifin .... We had the 105 battery within the BLT
organization, [the equivalent of] two batteries of 155 howitzers, one towed and
one self-propelled, and a battery of howtars .... These 24 artillery pieces
compensated, in part, that 3/4 had only 3 rifle companies, one being stationed
in the Da Nang area.1
The reinforced 3d Battalion, 12th
Marines, under the operational control of the 4th Marines, provided the
artillery support for the Chu Lai TAOR. It included three 105mm batteries, C, G,
and H, its 107mm mortar battery, the 1st Platoon, 1st 8-inch Howitzer Battery
(SP), and Battery K from the 4th Battalion, 12th Marines equipped with 155mm
howitzers.
The 12th Marines headquarters assumed
direct control of the two general support batteries at Da Nang. These units were
Battery L of 155mm howitzers from the 4th Battalion, 12th Marines and two
platoons of the Force Troops 1st 8-inch Howitzer Battery (SP).
As the buildup continued. General Walt
made further changes in his artillery dispositions. Battery F, 2d Battalion,
12th Marines, arriving from Okinawa, joined its parent battalion at Da Nang. In
August, the 3d Battalion, llth Marines and the Force Troops 3d 155mm Gun Battery
(SP) arrived, reinforcing the artillery at Chu Lai. General Karch, the assistant
division commander and Chu Lai coordinator, placed all of the Chu Lai artillery
in a battalion group commanded by Lieutenant Colonel
