Fire Support – October 1968

Fire Support

  1. The Battalion FO teams operated from Vandegrift Combat Base for the first five days of the month.  From 6-16 October they participated in Operation SCOTLAND NANKING in an area south of the former Khe Sahn Combat Base.  During that period individual teams operated with the Companies in the field.  Following that the teams operated with the Companies at Fire Support Bases Cates and Shepherd, Hills 691 and 950 for the remainder of the month.  The FO team assigned to Company D worked with that unit at Camp Carroll during the period 16-23 October when Company D was under the operational control of the 3rd Marines.
  2. Missions fired during the month of October are as follows:
  3. H&I’s – 585
  4. Observed Fires – 193
  5. Unobserved Fires – 27
  6. Illumination – 25

The observed fire missions fell into the following categories, confirmed and suspected enemy positions, night defensive fires and prep fires.

Due to heavy and dense foliage, surveillance was limited.  However, four NVA KIA confirmed and five secondary explosions

This page last corrected 2 September 2011