In February of 1968, the Tet Offensive was underway with the North Vietnamese Army having invaded South Vietnam in a surprise attack launched from the North as well as the west from Laos and Cambodia.
It is against that battle that a much smaller skirmish took place, one that involved two teams from E/51 LRRPs, or Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol, which trace their lineage to the Rangers and became Ranger companies later in the war.
The U.S. military knew that American POWs were being held in South Vietnam, somewhere in a remote camp located in the province of Quang Nam, but not much else. That is until two Puerto Rican soldiers were released from the camp in a propaganda move made by the Vietnamese. Interviews with the released POWs led to further intelligence about the Quang Nam (called ST18 by the U.S. military) POW camp and the possibility of the rescue mission, writes former E/51 LRRP Bob Wheeler in Patrolling magazine.
Two nine-man LRRP strike teams were assembled which were called Helen and Sandy, Wheeler writes. This was an irregular situation, as LRRPs normally operated in six-man recon teams, staying small and stealthy as they observed the enemy. This would be a different scenario entirely.
On Feb. 27, 1968, both teams were inserted into the target area on foot, moving out of an American firebase. As the LRRPs moved out and began looking for the POW camp and signs of the enemy, the enemy also looked and probed them by testing their patrol base defenses at night. By the end of the second day, two team members had to be medically evacuated by helicopter.
On March 4, both teams had set up their patrol base on a hilltop when the enemy hit them hard. Grenades were lobbed into the LRRP's positions and then they were hammered by AK-47 fire. The LRRPs returned fire, but three of their members appeared to be killed instantly, and others were seriously wounded. The LRRPs faced three separate assaults that day. Despite fears that they would be overrun, they held the line with the help of artillery fire.
Calling for extraction, three helicopters pulled the LRRPs off the hilltop, including a total of six comrades who were killed during the firefight.
"This was a noble mission; few had such a clear objective," Wheeler wrote about the event. "When the call of duty came in, we emptied the hooch’s and the volunteers that stepped forward were veteran LRRPs, short-timers and newbies. The opportunity to rescue the POWs united Team Helen and Sandy to risk all."