Book 3, the last of a three-book series, continues from 1968 in book 2 to cover the action of Marine Corps Tankers and Ontos crewmen fighting the locally grown Viet Cong; the better armed, trained, organized, and equipped Viet Cong main forces; and the North Vietnamese Army regulars from 1969 through 1970+ in I Corps, South Vietnam. As in books 1 and 2 and continuing in book 3, it features hundreds of personal stories and on-the-spot, real-time interviews of Marines just returning from their fight, all of which are framed within the official unit command chronologies and after-action reports, including documented “lessons learned.” The maps, personal pictures, organizational charts, and the citing of each Marine who gave his life are also linked to the Vietnam Wall and to the Foundation’s website, with volumes of additional information about the Marines and Ontos crewmen who left their sweat and blood in Vietnam, battling their Communist enemy.

Book 3, the last of a three-book series, continues from 1968 in book 2 to cover the action of Marine Corps Tankers and Ontos crewmen fighting the locally grown Viet Cong; the better armed, trained, organized, and equipped Viet Cong main forces; and the North Vietnamese Army regulars from 1969 through 1970+ in I Corps, South Vietnam. As in books 1 and 2 and continuing in book 3, it features hundreds of personal stories and on-the-spot, real-time interviews of Marines just returning from their fight, all of which are framed within the official unit command chronologies and after-action reports, including documented "lessons learned." The maps, personal pictures, organizational charts, and the citing of each Marine who gave his life are also linked to the Vietnam Wall and to the Foundation's website, with volumes of additional information about the Marines and Ontos crewmen who left their sweat and blood in Vietnam, battling their Communist enemy.

This is the fourth volume in an operational and chronological series covering the U.S. Marine Corps’ participation in the Vietnam War. This volume details the change in focus of the III Marine Amphibious Force (III MAF), which fought in South Vietnam’s northernmost corps area, I Corps. This volume, like its predecessors, concentrates on the ground war in I Corps and III MAF’s perspective of the Vietnam War as an entity. It also covers the Marine Corps participation in the advisory effort, the operations of the two Special Landing Forces of the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet, and the services of Marines with the staff of the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. There are additional chapters on supporting arms and logistics, and a discussion of the Marine role in Vietnam in relation to the overall American effort.

This book covers the action of marine tankers and Ontos crewmen who fought the local Viet Cong, the Viet Cong Main Forces, and the North Vietnamese Regular Army from 1965 to 1970 in I Corps, South Vietnam. It opens with a brief backdrop of the history of Vietnam, the political atmosphere in South Vietnam, a short bio of the senior military leadership on both sides, and what led the US to the landing of marines on March 8, 1965. From that point, the chronology is based on previously classified documents, Marine Corps official documents, with interviews from and articles by marine veterans who detailed their fight. Maps, personal pictures, and charts supplement the narrative.

This is the second volume in a series of chronological histories prepared by the Marine Corps History and Museums Division to cover the entire span of Marine Corps involvement in the Vietnam War. This volume details the Marine activities during 1965, the year the war escalated and major American combat units were committed to the conflict. The narrative traces the landing of the nearly 5,000-man 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade and its transformation into the ΙII Marine Amphibious Force, which by the end of the year contained over 38,000 Marines. During this period, the Marines established three enclaves in South Vietnam’s northernmost corps area, I Corps, and their mission expanded from defense of the Da Nang Airbase to a balanced strategy involving base defense, offensive operations, and pacification. This volume continues to treat the activities of Marine advisors to the South Vietnamese armed forces but in less detail than its predecessor volume, U.S. Marines in Vietnam, 1954-1964; The Advisory and Combat Assistance Era.

FOUR CONGRESSIONAL MEDALS OF HONOR, THIRTEEN NAVAL CROSSES, SEVENTY-TWO SILVER STARS . . . In four and a half years in Vietnam, the Marines of the Third Reconnaissance Battalion repeatedly penetrated North Vietnamese and Vietcong sanctuaries by foot and by helicopter to find enemy forces, learn the enemy's intentions, and, when possible, bring deadly fire down on his head. Heavily armed, well-camouflaged teams of six and eight men daily exposed themselves to overwhelming enemy forces so that other Marines would have the information necessary to fight the war. It's all here: grueling, tense, and deadly recon patrols; insertions directly into NVA basecamps; last-stand defenses in the wreckage of downed helicopters; pursuit by superior North Vietnamese forces; agonizing deaths of men who valiantly put their lives on the line. NEVER WITHOUT HEROES is the first book to recount the story of a Marine reconnaissance battalion in Vietnam from the day of its arrival to its withdrawal. In Vietnam, Larry Vetter served as a platoon leader in Third Recon Battalion. He supplements his own recollections with Marine Corps records, exhaustive interviews with veterans, and correspondence to capture the bravery, and self-sacrifice of war.