CHAPTER 14

Continuing Operational Problems, 1970-1971

Protecting the Da Nang Vital Area—Base Defense—Intelligence: Collection and Use—The Boobytrap War

Protecting the Da Nang Vital Area

Marines had first landed in Vietnam in 1965 to pro­tect the Da Nang airfield. Defense of the airfield, and also of the city of Da Nang and the teeming military and civilian complex surrounding it, continued to be a III MAF responsibility during the last year and a half of combat. The Da Nang Vital Area (DVA), as it was called, in early 1970 encompassed about 45 square miles of territory, was bordered on the south by the Cau Do River and on the east by the South China Sea and extended westward to include the airbase. An es­timated 600, 000 Vietnamese civilians lived in the DVA, their villages and hamlets crowding close to 65 South Vietnamese and 45 United States military installations. These installations included ARVN I Corps Headquarters, the III MAF and later XXIV Corps Headquarters at Camp Horn, the 1st MAW and MAG-11 cantonments at Da Nang, and MAG-16's field at Marble Mountain, as well as a variety of combat sup­port and service support commands.

Most of the civilians in the DVA lived in Da Nang, South Vietnam's second largest city. Called Tourane by the French, Da Nang had grown explosively as a result of the war, its population increasing from 110, 000 in 1961 to 400, 000 10 years later. Government and public services had not kept pace with growth. In 1969, the city had only six postmen and 380 tele­phones. It possessed neither a sewage system nor a newspaper. Only 10 percent of the population was served by the municipal electric system and seven per­cent by the water system. A U.S. Government report described Da Nang as 'a miserable collection of un-serviced huts, infused with temporary military infras­tructure, surrounding a heavily overused and outdated city core.'' The congested downtown area and the out­lying hamlets were a refuge for U.S. and ARVN desert­ers and AWOLs, prostitutes, and drug peddlers. Viet Cong agents and terrorists mingled with the city's root­less, often unemployed lower class.

South Vietnamese political and military authority within the DVA was divided. The area around Mar­ble Mountain Air Facility and a strip of land between the south end of the airfield and the Cau Do River were part of Hoa Vang District, with defense and civil government conducted by the district under the su­pervision of Quang Nam Province. The rest of the DVA, including the city and the airfield, constituted the municipality of Da Nang, controlled both militar­ily and politically by a mayor appointed from Saigon. The mayor was independent of and often hostile to the province chief. ARVN Colonel Nguyen Noc Khoi, Mayor of Da Nang during 1970, also acted as Com­mander, Da Nang Special Sector (DSS), and as Deputy for Garrison Affairs to the I Corps commander, Lieu­tenant General Lam. As Mayor, Khoi supervised the activities of the 1, 376 national policemen and three companies of the National Police Field Force stationed in Da Nang. As Commander, Da Nang Special Sec­tor, he controlled 3 Regional Force companies, 19 Popular Force platoons, and 16, 000 armed PSDF mem­bers. As Deputy for Garrison Affairs, Khoi was respon­sible for maintaining order among all RVNAF military personnel in Da Nang City and directed the Viet­namese Armed Forces Police there.2

Ill MAF, in cooperation with Da Nang Special Sec­tor and Hoa Vang District, coordinated the defense of the U.S. military installations in and around Da Nang and assisted in the general protection of the city. Under III MAF supervision, the 1st Military Police Bat­talion, which had arrived at Da Nang in 1966 to relieve Marine infantry guarding the vital airfield, performed the defense function. At the beginning of 1970, the battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Speros D. Thomaldis, was assigned the mission of planning and directing the integrated defense of the DVA. This was to be accomplished in cooperation with the Com­mander, Da Nang Special Sector, by coordinating the activities of tenant units to assign and secure sectors of responsibility, establish and maintain lines of com­munication, and constitute reserve contingency forces.

In essence, the battalion supervised the close-in defense activities of the commands within the DVA and ensured that these commands were ready to fur­nish company and platoon reaction forces, as required, for operations in the area. The MP battalion itself manned the fortifications surrounding Da Nang Air-base. It conducted antiinfiltration patrols and ambush-