Long, Cruel Woman: The Attack on Firebase Mary Ann, March 28, 1971

“The war didn’t make sense anymore. We all thought it was bullshit. We weren’t solving anything, we weren’t helping to win the war. We were just there, and it basically came down to staying alive and keeping your buddies alive.” –Pfc. Edward W. Voros, Company A, 46th Infantry, Americal Division, March 1971.

For most Americans, by the Spring of 1971, the “light at the end of tunnel” that had become the War in Vietnam was in sight. Peace talks were well underway in Paris, as was “Vietnamization’; President Nixon’s official policy for turning over the bulk of the war effort and fighting to the forces of the ARVN (Army of the Republic of [South] Vietnam). As part of the transition the 23rd US Infantry Division, the “Americal”, was due to be rotated out of fighting and turning over its positions to ARVN’s First Corp. The Americal had earned a bad reputation two years earlier at My Lai, and the division was subjected to a complete review and re-organization following that atrocity. The higher-ups decreed there would be no more “screw ups” by this unit while it served out its remaining time “in country.”

One of the most remote American positions was Fire Base Mary Ann, not far from Chu Lai, occupied by elements of the 46th Regiment of the Americal Division. By the last week of March an ARVN artillery battery had already moved in and the base was to be completely turned-over in early April. However, the local Viet Cong (Communist South Vietnamese) commander saw a growing opportunity during the transition to strike a final blow against the Imperialist forces of the US. Deploying the elite 409th Sapper Battalion for the attack, the Communist’s “parting shot” was to remind both the US and ARVN that the war was far from over.

Can you do as well or better than your historical counterpart?

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