CHAPTER XIV

Phase III-Termination

Phase II of JUNCTION CITY came to a close on 15 April. The original intention was that the operation would then cease; how-ever, the first two phases had proved so successful that Phase III was initiated. Control of this last phase was to be the sole respon-sibility of the 25th Infantry Division, which would commit a brigade to it.

Phase III continued the objectives of JUNCTION CITY I and II, using the mobile brigade concept to conduct offensive operations in War Zone C. The 3d Brigade, 4th Division, had already relieved the 196th Brigade of these operations near the end of Phase II. Therefore when the final phase opened, the 3d of the 4th continued to secure the towns of Tay Ninh and Suoi Da and Route 26 south from Tay Ninh, and to operate throughout the lower western half of War Zone C. One battalion of the brigade conducted search and destroy operations north of Route 247, thereby affording a degree of protection for the completion of the Special Forces camp at Prek Klok. The brigade was deployed until 20 April, when it ended its participation in JUNCTION CITY.

On the 21st the 1st Brigade, 9th Division, with a tank company and the South Vietnamese 36th Ranger Battalion attached, came under the operational control of the 25th Division and assumed the mission of the 3d Brigade, 4th Division. For the next twenty days the brigade forces conducted operations throughout the area, but the organized enemy units became almost impossible to find. Most of the contacts made were with relatively small Viet Cong groups; however, many bunkers and military structures were located and destroyed. Casualties sustained by friendly forces were primarily caused by mines and booby traps. It soon became evident that the enemy had dispersed to a new area.

At midnight on 14 May 1967, Operation JUNCTION CITY, the largest military offensive operation of the Vietnamese conflict to that time, was brought to a close.

The statistical results of JUNCTION CITY are impressive. All the regiments of the 9th Viet Cong Division had been trounced. The final totals carried 2,728 enemy killed and 34 prisoners taken.