Operation Starlite
On August 18, 1965, thousands of United States Marines launched Operation Starlite, a massive assault against the 1st Viet Cong Regiment near Van Tuong, south of the Marine base at Chu Lai, South Vietnam.
It became the first major offensive battle fought by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War and the first major test of the Marines against a large, organized Viet Cong force.
Instead of waiting for the enemy to attack them, the Marines struck first.
What followed was a violent battle fought through rice paddies, villages, hedgerows and fortified positions — supported by helicopters, amphibious vehicles, artillery, Marine aircraft and the guns of U.S. Navy ships offshore.
The Threat to Chu Lai
Marines had established a major presence at Chu Lai in 1965, including an expeditionary airfield along the coast of South Vietnam.
Intelligence soon indicated that a substantial Viet Cong force was gathering south of the base.
The threat was the 1st Viet Cong Regiment, a well-organized force operating around the Van Tuong village complex.
Marine intelligence pieced together reports of enemy movement, and information from a Viet Cong deserter helped confirm that the regiment was concentrated south of Chu Lai and potentially preparing to attack the Marine position.
Lieutenant General Lewis W. Walt, commanding III Marine Amphibious Force, decided not to wait.
The Marines would go after them.
The operation was given the code name Starlite.
A Marine Corps Hammer and Anvil
The plan called for surrounding the enemy using several forms of attack at the same time.
Marines would come ashore from the sea in an amphibious assault while other Marines were carried by helicopter into landing zones farther inland. Additional forces would establish blocking positions to prevent the Viet Cong from escaping.
The primary Marine units involved included elements of:
3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines
2nd Battalion, 4th Marines
3rd Battalion, 7th Marines
Other Marine and Navy units provided artillery, aviation, logistical and naval gunfire support.
It was exactly the type of operation the Marine Corps had spent years preparing to conduct — combining forces from the land, sea and air against a single objective.
The Battle Begins
On the morning of August 18, 1965, Marine artillery and aircraft struck enemy positions around Van Tuong.
Then the Marines went in.
Amphibious forces came ashore from the South China Sea while helicopters carried Marines into landing zones inland.
Almost immediately, some Marine units encountered much heavier resistance than expected.
The Viet Cong were not simply scattered guerrillas.
They were dug into fortified positions and knew the terrain. Machine guns, mortars and small-arms fire erupted as Marines advanced through villages, rice paddies and thick vegetation.
In several locations, the fighting became extremely close.
A Convoy Runs Into Trouble
One of the most desperate episodes of Operation Starlite occurred when a Marine supply column attempting to reach engaged units ran into a powerful Viet Cong ambush.
Marine vehicles, including amphibious tractors, became trapped under intense fire.
The battle around the column became a fight for survival as Marines attempted to protect the wounded, recover vehicles and prevent the enemy from overrunning their position.
Aircraft and artillery were called in dangerously close to friendly troops.
Throughout the battlefield, similar pockets of heavy resistance forced Marines to fight their way through fortified villages and defensive positions one at a time.
The Viet Cong had expected to fight.
They had not expected the scale of the attack now closing around them.
Marine Air Power Enters the Fight
Marine aviation played a major role in Starlite.
F-4 Phantom IIs and A-4 Skyhawks attacked enemy positions while Marine helicopters moved troops, supplies and wounded Marines across the battlefield.
During the first day alone, Marine fixed-wing aircraft flew dozens of combat sorties.
Pilots sometimes delivered ordnance extremely close to friendly positions as Marines on the ground battled Viet Cong forces at short range.
Artillery batteries added thousands of rounds to the fight.
Offshore, U.S. Navy warships joined the battle with naval gunfire.
Starlite demonstrated what a Marine Air-Ground Task Force could accomplish when infantry, aviation, artillery and naval forces were coordinated against the same enemy.
The Viet Cong Try to Escape
As Marine forces pushed through Van Tuong, Viet Cong units attempted to withdraw from the tightening battlefield.
Some tried escaping toward the coast.
They found U.S. Navy guns waiting offshore.
Others disappeared into tunnels, caves and fortified village complexes that had been prepared throughout the region.
The battlefield made determining enemy losses difficult. Many Viet Cong positions were underground, and some tunnels and caves were destroyed or sealed during the fighting.
But by the end of the operation, the 1st Viet Cong Regiment had suffered severe losses and had been driven from the area.
The Cost of Starlite
Victory came at a price.
Marine Corps historical records list 45 Marines killed in action, six who later died of wounds, and 203 wounded during Operation Starlite.
More than 600 Viet Cong dead were confirmed on the battlefield, although Marine estimates at the time suggested enemy losses may have been considerably higher.
For many of the Marines involved, Starlite was their first experience with the kind of intense combat that would soon become familiar across Vietnam.
It was also a warning.
The enemy was capable of organizing, fortifying terrain and standing its ground against American forces.
Vietnam would not be an easy war.
Heroism at Van Tuong
Operation Starlite produced numerous acts of extraordinary courage.
Among them was Lance Corporal Joe Calvin Paul of Company H, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines.
During heavy fighting on August 18, Paul repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire while protecting wounded Marines.
Although wounded himself, he continued fighting and helped prevent enemy troops from overrunning his position.
Paul was mortally wounded during the battle.
For his actions during Operation Starlite, Lance Corporal Joe C. Paul was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
His actions became one of the enduring individual stories of the battle.
A New Kind of War
Operation Starlite was significant for more than its immediate battlefield results.
The Marines had combined an amphibious landing from the sea with a helicopter assault from the air while coordinating infantry, armor, artillery, aviation and naval gunfire.
The Marine Corps had spent decades developing amphibious warfare and years experimenting with helicopter mobility.
At Van Tuong, those concepts came together on a battlefield.
But Starlite also revealed the nature of the war ahead.
The Marines could defeat large enemy formations in direct combat, but finding and fixing those formations would often prove far more difficult.
The Viet Cong could disappear into villages, tunnels, jungles and mountains — only to emerge somewhere else.
There would be many more operations.
Many more battles.
And many more Marines sent into places whose names would become permanently associated with the Vietnam War.
The Legacy of Operation Starlite
Operation Starlite was the Marine Corps' first major battle of the Vietnam War, but it would soon be overshadowed by larger and bloodier battles.
Khe Sanh.
Hue City.
Con Thien.
The DMZ.
Hill 881.
Names that would become part of Marine Corps history.
But before those battles came Van Tuong and Operation Starlite.
On August 18, 1965, Marines went into battle by helicopter, amphibious tractor and landing craft against an enemy regiment waiting for them in the villages and rice paddies south of Chu Lai.
For thousands of Marines, the Vietnam War had suddenly changed.
The buildup was over.
The Marines were now at war.