First Battle of Saigon

Westmoreland agreed, and by the time Tet broke, twenty-seven U.S. combat battalions were back inside the Saigon circle. If not for the ready availability of these units, the security forces at Tan Son Nhut and Saigon would have cracked before reinforcements could have made it in from the border, and the enemy would have been able to dig in for a house to house battle that would have dragged on for weeks and demolished major portions of Saigon.

Three days after the pivotal meeting between Corps commander and Theater commander, the unit that would be first to reach the capital when needed, 3rd Battalion 7th Infantry, 199th Light Infantry Brigade, helicoptered into position immediately southwest of Saigon. It was familiar ground. The entire 199th LIB had previously operated in the area with the 5th ARVN RangerGroup.

The 3rd Battalion 7th Infantry established their fire base a click west of Binh Chanh district headquarters, which was approximately ten kilometers southwest of Saigon in Gia Dinh province. 'We knew something was up," said Lieutenant Colonel Gibler. "We had several contacts in the last few days before Tet, but none of the enemy wanted to join battle. You'd see 'em, you'd go after 'em, and they'd fade, and that wasn't like the enemy we knew. When you had a small U.S. unit, a larger enemy concentration would usually set up an ambush, and attempt to take you on."

Lt. Col. Gibler was uneasy and on January 30th, he decided to circle the wagons. He called all his companies into the fire base. Gibler's company commanders helicoptered into the fire base for a briefing. The companies themselves would not close until the following morning.

The world went crazy that night and in the morning they could see the smoke boiling out of Saigon. Lt. Col Gibler receive a call from Capital Military District (CMD) to secure the Phu Tho Racetrack in Cholon and rescue the pinned-down MPs in the area. The Phu Tho racetrack had been seized by the 6th VC Liberation Forces Battalion. The hub of several main roads, it was a good rallying point for VC unfamiliar with the city, and its use as a helicopter landing zone was denied to the Americans. Alpha Company 3rd Battalion 7th Infantry got the call.

The infantry was packed aboard several deuce-and-halves for convoy up highway 4 from Binh Chanh to Saigon. A platoon of eight ACAVs from D troop 17th Cav. Commanded by First Lieutenant Richard W. Harper, positioned in the front, rear and in between the convoy of troops. The infantry-cavalry task force got rolling at about 0800, January 31,1968. It was an hour trip up Highway 4.

The column continued on until taking heavy automatic weapons fire from a rooftops and houses lining the boulevard. Alpha company 3rd Battalion 7th Infantry immediately detrucked while D troop 17th Cav. silenced the enemy with a 106mm recoilless rifle mounted on one of the ACAVs.

The task force turned north on a side street and advanced to within a klick of its objective, at which point Lt. Harper, his track commander, and his driver were killed when an RPG hit the lead ACAV. Automatic weapons fire raked the vehicle and the street. Company medics and truck drivers, aided by the battalion chaplain, frantically evacuated dazed and wounded soldiers out the back side as flames spread through the demolished vehicle, cooking off belts of linked ammunition.

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