Operation DESOTO
Jan-April 1967

This is not an official USMC combat operations page, but my personal attempt to recover as much info as I can about the operations participated in by the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines in Vietnam. I will be posting recollections and pictures (when available) from Marines and FMF Corpsmen who participated in Operation DESOTO.  Comments are from informal emails, phone calls, and other correspondence to Brad and I. All related pictures and information is greatly appreciated.~DR

Area of Action Operation DESOTO
 27-30 January 1967

 
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Operations in the Que Son Basin brought an increase in the base and logistics structure in the area. Here, a Marine CH-46 lands on a newly constructed helicopter platform surrounded by the sand-bagged bunkers at the fortified hilltop position of Nui Dang. Department of Defense Photo (USMC) A42162.

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Duc Pho and Vicinity, January 1967

Operation DESOTO occurred as the 1st Marine Division prepared to issue the M-16 rifle to its infantrymen. MajGen. Herman Nickerson, Jr., used a 21 February visit to Operation DESOTO to discuss the weapon with one of the few 1st Division to have one.

Maps/picture and caption photocopied from "U.S. Marines in Vietnam - Fighting the North Vietnamese 1967" by Major Gary L, Telfer, USMC, Lieutenant Colonel Lane Rogers USMC and V. Keith Fleming, Jr. One of the "U.S. Marines in Vietnam Operational History" Series.

OPERATION DESOTO
3rd Battalion, 5th Marines

J.R. McElroy
Skipper, M/3/5

I served with "M" Co. 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines from 15 Dec 66 to 24 June 67. Participated in Operations SPOIL, DESOTO, UNION (hospitalized 13-21 May 67), UNION II, and ADAIR (until transferred to 2nd Combined Action Group, III MAF). Had an additional tour as an advisor to VN Marine Corps from 9 Dec 70 to 1 Dec 71. 

During Operation DESOTO most of Mike's action was against insurgent Viet Cong forces which utilized bunker complexes, hedgerows for fighting positions, open rice paddies approaching their defensive positions; and well-constructed cave hill sites for logistical support and living areas. Mike Company's action was in Duc Pho and the immediate surrounding area.

Artillery smoke rounds were successfully used in crossing a large rice paddy against heavy VC resistance. SSgt. Dinota, plt cmdr., was especially creative at ensuring trench-connected bunker complexes were eliminated. The Marines out front and in frontline foxholes fought with valor, and made Marines throughout the ages proud.

Gen. Herman Nickerson decorating GySgt. Dennis Dinota with the Silver Star.

Denny Dinota
 Plt. Sgt, Plt. Cmdr, Co. GySgt.
M Co. 3/5

I received the Silver Star for actions during DESOTO, early '67. DESOTO was a daily bitch. No real big battles, just a daily grind of low casualties, but every day.~Denny

"The Lesson"
Bill Vandergrift, M/3/5

While on Op DESOTO, I was to take part in a reactionary force in case one of our ambushes got into trouble. On this night, you couldn't see five feet in front of you. When it got dark over there, it was dark like a tomb. Our ambush went out just after the sun went down, I believe. I was with 1st squad, 1st plt. We were told to be ready to go at a moment's notice. Being in someone else's sand box, you play when they want to play. This night was play time, so the game was on. Charlie hit the ambush with grenades and small arms fire, the call came in for help. "Move out!" came down the line, "Be ready to haul ass!"

We had been told not to take our gear off other than our packs. Trying to sleep with one's gear on is quite uncomfortable, so I took mine off and laid it next to me. When the word came to haul ass, I had a hell of time finding my gear in the damn dark!  Our brothers were in trouble, and here I am looking for my web gear!  It only took a very short time for me to find the gear, but it seemed like an eternity feeling on the ground for the gear.

When I got to the CP, Gunny Dinota was madder then hell. The way he was hollering, someone was in big trouble, that someone was me. The next thing I saw was these pretty little stars, Gunny D had whacked me alongside the head, damn he could hit hard. My first thought was how dare him lay a hand on me, and him being a staff NCO to boot! For the next two days I felt like putting a bullet in him, who would have known in a firefight. As soon as I got over being mad and had time to think about what had happened, I knew he was right in his actions. 

 The lesson of that night taught me to be ready at all times for anything. A lesson like that stays with you, it served me well in the next ten months! Thanks Gunny, you sure saved my dumb ass!!

"Doc" Dan Link
FMF Corpsman, M/3/5

Doc Dan Link (left front)

Pictures taken by "Doc" Jim Clarke of "Doc" Dan Link receiving the Silver Star.

The award was given while he was at 7th Comm. Battalion several months after the fact. He was put up for the star in Operation DESOTO, Feb. 15, 67. Dan came out of the bush on UNION II. He and I grew up together in NJ from kindergarten, joined the Navy on the buddy system, went through Corps school together and wound up in the Nam at the same time. He went with the grunts, and I went to a MASH unit.

Doc Jim Clarke, 1st MarDiv

 Picture taken same day Doc Link received the Silver Star.
Semper Fi, 
Doc Jim Clarke

Submitted by JD Murray, M/3/5

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Duc Pho area
Jan. '67

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Kevin Kelly, Mike 3/5, 3rd platoon

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Kevin Kelly Bronze Star citation

Dennis "Ski" Tylinski, 3rd Platoon M/3/5

"DESOTO"
Joe Holt, I/3/5

I was with C 1/5 by then. My story about "Mush" (on the India 3/5 website) took place during DESOTO. I have two or three stories from that particular operation that I haven't finished yet. It wasn't that I concentrated on that particular operation, it's just that we did so much during it.

Immediately after the monsoon, the enemy activity got heavy. Everything slows down during the monsoon. I remember being told that the Seventh Marines had run into some bad situations and needed all the help they could get. There wasn't a day go by during that operation where the Company didn't exchange gunfire at least once. Sometimes intense. Very busy. We covered a lot of ground. Quang Ngai wasn't our normal stompin' ground.

One day we got to ride in trucks! Very rare. The point I remember most about that particular ride was that we actually went through Quang Ngai. The convoy slowed down to a crawl while going through the town and eventually I saw what the holdup was. This wasn't much of a town. Extended village more like it. Like we'd seen time and time again. 

Well, there was this one stretch of road in the town that had a sidewalk!...and a street light!!!!  Only about ten or twenty yards long, but the trucks were slowin' down so the guys could take pictures of it as they went by. That's as close to a city as I ever was while I was incountry...a street light will impress a fella if he's been in the bush a few months.

I remember how nice the weather was, almost springlike compared to the wet we'd been through the previous few months. The low, green expanse of rice that went on forever, interspersed with island villages here and there. The low hills we eventually had to traverse, green and grassy rather than those damn rocky things I'd been used to. The small herds of what I took to be milk cows on those grassy slopes, very pastoral...all blown to pieces by an air strike of some sort.

We were in column moving up one of these perfect grassy hills, perfect temperature, seventy five maybe, when we passed, on the grass directly next to this well worn path, a full grown cow that had been blown in half. The entire bottom portion of it was gone, only the backbone, tail, and unmarked head remained perfectly in tact, eyes open...almost like the bottom half had been erased somehow. Some clever grunt from the forward part of the column had put a lit cigarette between the cow's lips. Because of the soft
breeze the cigarette was aglow as if the cow was doing nothing more than enjoying
his smoke. Very entertaining in a surreal way.

The column had stopped for the moment while the CO was figuring out exactly where we were and where we wanted to go. He was walking from one end of the column to the other. As he came abreast of our bunch he pulled a cigarette out of his helmet, put it between his lips, and paused to ask if anyone had a light. One of our guys gave a small nod in the direction of the cow. The CO looked down, didn't bat an eye, and took a step forward towards the carcass. He reached down, plucked the lit cigarette from the cow's lips, used it to light his own, then placed it back in the cow. He stood up, took a long drag on his smoke, looked down at the cow, and said, "Thanks cow." He turned on his heel and proceeded toward the front of the column. He never missed a beat. It seemed completely natural, if perhaps peculiar, that the CO had gotten his light from that cow.

There are some moments that are unforgetable. That's one of' em, but it's only ten or twenty seconds out of my entire experience. That particular memory affects my attitude towards cows even today. There's a recent commercial on TV that promotes cheese. A large black and white cow is talking to it's calf. Every time I see that commercial I imagine a lit cigarette between it's lips. To me it would seem almost natural. I've wondered if any of the other guys who were in that section of our column that day remember the same moment with the same clarity? There were only ten or twelve of us who witnessed it, but I betcha they do.