and JUSPAO. Four months later, Company E assumed sponsorship of My Hoa Orphanage. On Easter Sun�day 1971, Embassy Marines visited the children of the orphanage, bringing gifts of food, clothing, and toys which had been shipped by the American Legion aux�iliaries of Punta Gorda and Naples, Florida, and by the citizens and merchants of Immokalee, Florida through the efforts of the mother of Company E's Gunnery Sergeant Robert M. Jenkins.75
Although Marines were screened closely for securi�ty guard duty, Company E, like all other sizeable Ma�rine commands in Vietnam, had its share of discipline and drug problems. From January to June 1971, Cap�tain William E. Keller, Jr., who took command in November 1970, conducted company-level nonjudicial punishment on 27 Marines, while two more Ma�rines were dealt with at battalion level. Five of the Marines disciplined were ultimately removed from duty when found unsuitable for retention in the Ma�rine Security Guard program. An additional five Ma�rines during the same period were recommended for discharge by reason of unfitness for possession of dan�gerous drugs.*
On 29 April 1971 at the American Embassy Com�pound, the Chief of Missions, Saigon, Vietnam, the Honorable Ellsworth Bunker, presented the Meritori�ous Unit Commendation to Company E "for meritori�ous service as the immediate defense and security force for the U.S. Mission, Saigon, Republic of Vietnam, from 1 February 1969 to 31 December 1970." Two months after the Ambassador presented the award, Company E joined Sub-Unit One, 1st ANGLICO, and the Marine Advisory Unit as the only US. Marine com�mands remaining in Vietnam. The MSG detachment in Saigon, which would be transferred on 30 June 1974 to Company C, headquartered in Hong Kong, would ultimately be the last American unit evacuated from South Vietnam on 30 April 1975, nearly four years af�ter the Marine Corps tactical role ended in that country.76.
Conclusion
With President Nixon's commitment to the Ameri�can public to reduce troop levels in Vietnam, the Ma�rine presence decreased in strength from some 55, 000 to a mere few hundred between January 1970 and June 1971.
Throughout the redeployment cycle, two significant id fundamental features of the large-scale Marine presence in Vietnam remained constant: the essential air-ground character of Marine units and the focus on small-unit counterguemlla tactics. A Marine air-ground team existed until the final redeployment of the 3d Marine Amphibious Brigade in June 1971. Building on the tactical successes of 1968-1969, which had left the enemy battered and exhausted, III MAF, now concentrated in the Da Nang TAOR, stepped up its grassroots counterguemlla campaign. The Marines expanded the Combined Action Platoon concept-incorporating Marine infantry companies�with the Combined Unit Pacification Program. To enhance mo�bility and to facilitate controlling areas of operation with fewer forces during the latter stages of redeploy�ment, Marine infantry regiments requested and received helicopter detachments which were prepositioned with ground forces to expedite response time to enemy contacts or sightings.
The enemy was on the defensive during the last 18 months of Marine operations. Although the pacifica�tion goals established for 1970 by MACV were not en�tirely met, the steady decline in VC/NVA offensive activity from 1970-1971 and the return to terrorism and subversion, combined with the enemy's reliance on indirect fire and limited objective ground attacks, gave indication the enemy was either hurting or bid�ing his time as redeployment proceeded.
Vietnamization was given increased emphasis dur�ing this period. General Abrams' "One War" strategy of 1968-1969, which emphasized that the small-unit counterguemlla war and the big-unit war were mutu�ally supporting and interdependent, was continued in 1970-1971 with the RVNAF assuming proportion�ately greater responsibilities as American forces redeployed. To better pursue the goals of Vietnami�zation, the size of the RVNAF increased progressive�ly. By June 1971 the ARVN, VNN, VNMC. RFs and PFs of the RVNAF numbered 1, 058, 237.
General Lam, who commanded Vietnamese forces operating in the five provinces of I Corps, maneuvered 36 ARVN infantry battalions, 5 ARVN cavalry battal�ions, and 5 VNMC infantry battalions during the fi�nal months of Marine redeployment in 1971. In addition to the U.S. Army forces remaining in I Corps following the departure of the Marines, the Viet�namese regulars were augmented by the RFs and PFs,
* In June 1971, the commander of Naval Farces Vietnam estab�lished a program requiring that alt personnel, regardless of rank, departing Vietnam on permanent change of station orders under�go urinalysis examination for detection of opium or derivatives. Those identified as users were treated at the Detoxification Center, Nha Be and were then evacuated to US. Naval Hospital. San Diego.
