and the objective area kept to a minimum to avoid warning the enemy.4
Despite the restriction on conducting an extensive reconnaissance of the target area. Lieutenant Colonel Roy E. Moss, then battalion commander of 2d Battalion, 1st Marines, recalled that he got permission from Colonel Kelley to make a quick aerial reconnaissance:
Major Connie Silard and Major Jim Clark, the pilots of the helicopter, and my S-3, Major Tom Campbell, departed the afternoon of the 6th in a UH-1E to have a look at the area. We knew we would have the opportunity to make only one pass over the objective area, locate the LZs, and plot them on our maps. The area near Fire Support Base Dagger was extremely dense and suitable LZs: were extremely difficult to spot. even from the air. We quickly pinpointed six suitable landing zones and then exited the area quickly in order not to give away our future intentions.6
Following an intensive A-4 preparation of LZ Dagger, the operation began at 1045 on 7 April, when helicopters from MAG-16 inserted two teams from Company A, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, a total of 14 Marines and two Navy corpsmen, on FSB Dagger. The teams searched the firebase for boobytraps and found two old ones. They had a brief firefight with three to five enemy, who quickly fled. A provisional platoon from Headquarters and Service Company of the 1st Battalion landed in trace of the reconnaissance units. At 1100, helicopters began bringing in two 105mm and four 155mm howitzers, with their crews and an infantry platoon. The infantry relieved the reconnaissance Marines in defense of the firebase. One of the reconnaissance teams was then lifted by helicopter to Hill 37, while the other remained at Dagger. By 1800, the artillery pieces were in position and ready to fire.
On the 8th, MAG-16 helicopters inserted five infantry companies (three from the 2d Battalion and one each from the 1st and 3d Battalions) under the operational control of the 2d Battalion, 1st Marines into six landing zones. The helicopters also brought in four more reconnaissance teams. This complicated lift into six widely separated landing zones, which involved 24 CH-46s, 4 CH-53s, and extensive fixed-wing and gun-ship support, went so smoothly that the 1st MAW command history called it "a culmination of six years' improvement on techniques and procedures developed prior to the Vietnam War."8
As III MAF had expected, Scott Orchard turned out to be a blow at empty air. From the 8th until the 11th, the rifle companies and reconnaissance teams maneuvered through the rugged country west of FSB Dagger. They found a scattering of small abandoned camps and caches and a number of old trails, but no prison compounds. Except for a few patrols and stragglers, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong had left long before the Marines arrived. The Marines did catch a few enemy. On 9 April, for example, a patrol from Company F encountered a lone Viet Cong in an open field and killed him. The following day. Marines from Company K spotted 15-30 North Vietnamese regulars wearing new-looking green utilities. In the ensuing exchange of fire, neither side suffered any casualties, and the NVA quickly withdrew. The artillery on FSB Dagger fired 235 missions during the operation, only two of them against observed enemy troops. On 11 April, helicopters lifted the infantry companies back to their battalion TAOI and extracted the reconnaissance teams. The artillery evacuated FSB Dagger the next day. In this, their last search and destroy operation of the war, the Marines suffered no casualties. They killed four enemy, three of them by artillery; took one prisoner; and captured 12 weapons and miscellaneous ammunition, food, clothing, and equipment. While establishing that Base Area 112 was still a very active line of communication, the Marines found no evidence of a prison camp.7
East of the area of Operation Scott Orchard, elements of the 196th Brigade began moving into the Que Sons as the last Marine units cleared out of the mountains. On 6 April, part of Company B, 3d Battalion, 21st U.S. Infantry arrived by helicopter on Hill 510. The next day. Company C from the same battalion occupied Hill 65 to protect the Army artillery already stationed there. On 7 and 8 April, the forward command post, an infantry platoon from the 3d Battalion, 1st Marines, and a 105mm howitzer detachment from Battery C, 1st Battalion, 11th Marines left Hill 510, the infantry elements returning to their battalion TAOI and the artillery going to the Northern Artillery Cantonment (NAC). On the 11th, the Marine mortar detachment displaced from Hill 425 to NAC. This movement, and the evacuation of FSB Dagger the following day, completed the removal of Marines from the area of Quang Nam south of the Vu Gia and Thu Bon.
At 2400 on 13 April, as planned earlier, the 1st Marine Division formally transferred responsibility for this portion of its TAOI to the America! Division. By that time, all four companies of the 3d Battalion, 21st Infantry were operating around Hill 510. Company, D of the 2d Battalion, 1st Infantry had taken over the
