Lt. Col. William Rockey's Letter of Appreciation to the
3rd Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment

Headquarters
3rd Battalion, 5th Marines
1st Marine Division (Rein), FMF
FPO, San Francisco, California, 96602  

  27 March 1968  

From: Commanding Officer
To: Marines and Navymen of this Battalion
Subj: Letter of Appreciation     

It has been my great privilege to have been in command of this battalion for the past seven months. Now I must turn over command to my successor, and move on to another assignment. I cannot leave without telling you how I feel about you Marines and Navymen, my shipmates.

Since I joined on 7 September 1967, the battalion, or elements of it, have fought in Operations SWIFT, SHELBYVILLE, ESSEX, DENVER, BAXTER, JUNCTION, AUBURN, many No-Names, the TET Offensive, HUE CITY, HOUSTON, and many others.

During this time you have killed 739 enemy soldiers, probably killed another 518, and captured 105 enemy, and many weapons. You have fought day and night in the rice paddies, in the mountains, in the villages and city. You have fought in the unbelievable summer heat, the bone chilling winter, the driving monsoon rains. You have been mortared, gassed, grenaded, rocketed, mined, booby-trapped, machine gunned, sniped at, even attacked hand-to-hand.

Many times you have been ordered to attack a numerically superior dug-in force. You have been required to patrol in exceedingly hazardous situations with under strength squads and fire teams. You have made helicopter assaults into hot landing zones. You have fought -- or will fight -- for almost thirteen straight months with only a short R&R, or hospitalization from wounds as a break. 

You have fought without flight pay, jump pay, submarine pay, air crew pay, diver's pay, extra incentive pay, per diem, or any other fancy pay. You have fought and, like Marines and their attached Navy shipmates for the last 193 years, you have never failed to take the objective, repulse every attack, or to go where you were ordered. No rockets were ever fired from the area you patrolled. You spoiled the enemy's TET attack against Danang. You cornered the Viet Cong's R-20 Battalion and destroyed it. You attacked and defeated the 31st Regiment of the 2nd NVA Division inflicting very heavy casualties on the enemy.

You are members of a combat-proven battalion of an illustrious regiment which received its initiation to war at Belleau Wood, and has fought in almost all our Corps' battles since. You have carried your responsibility to our Corps superbly, and added new honors to our colors.

I want to tell each of you how proud I am to have served with you. You responded magnificently to every demand placed on you. You have never faltered. You always won. You make me very, very proud to be a United States Marine."

     W.K. Rockey 

(Letter of Appreciation and picture courtesy of Col. Bill Rockey.)

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