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Operation Muscatine
Part of the Vietnam War
Date 18 December 1967 – 10 June 1968 Location Quảng Ngãi Province, South Vietnam Result US claims operational success
Belligerents
United States	Viet Cong
Strength
3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division 196th Infantry Brigade 198th Infantry Brigade 11th Infantry Brigade
Casualties and losses
killed	US body count: killed

Operation Muscatine was a security operation conducted during the Vietnam War by the US Army in Quảng Ngãi Province, South Vietnam from 18 December 1967 to 10 June 1968.

Background

Operation Muscatine was a security mission to protect Chu Lai and the neighboring lowlands from several Viet Cong (VC) battalions, and to search for their camps in the hills that ran along the Quảng Tín–Quảng Ngãi border.

Operation

The 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division joined with the 196th Infantry Brigade to conduct the operation. The 196th Infantry Brigade moved north into the Quế Sơn Valley to join Operation Wheeler and was replaced by the 198th Infantry Brigade, which in turn handed over the operation to the newly arrived 11th Infantry Brigade.

By January 1968 the 198th Infantry Brigade continued the operation in Đức Phổ District with the 1st Battalion, 52nd Infantry Regiment, and elements of the 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division. US soldiers suffered a steady stream of casualties from VC booby traps and mines, but rarely encountered the VC. Most of the mines came from bases abandoned by the South Korean2nd Marine Brigade who had departed the area without clearing their minefields.

On 17 January, Company A, 1/52nd Infantry, caught up with four VC local force companies near the coastal village of Phu Nhieu in Quảng Tín Province, several kilometers south of Chu Lai. Reinforced by the battalion’s Company B, the troops swept toward the village, while the 3rd Brigade’s reconnaissance platoon and Company B, 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, landed into blocking positions south and west of the town. As the attack progressed, VC who had sought refuge in the village fled into the blocking positions, where small arms fire and gunships cut them down. At a loss of 1 soldier killed and 6 wounded, the Americans claimed 100 VC dead, 7 prisoners and 38 captured weapons. By the end of January 1968 the operation had resulted in 454 VC dead and 103 weapons captured at a cost of 25 US killed.

In February 1968 in the aftermath of the Tet Offensive the 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, continued the operation together with Task Force Barker, a group composed of three infantry companies and a partial artillery battery drawn from various parts of the 11th Infantry Brigade that was commanded by the brigade’s operations officer, Lieutenant colonel Frank A. Barker. It patrolled a sector that lay northeast of Quảng Ngai and which included the Batangan Peninsula. Elements from the Army of the Republic of Vietnam 2nd Division guarded the districts immediately surrounding Quảng Ngai. The 3d Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment and the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, operated in the southeastern part of the province from the brigade headquarters at Duc Pho. The 11th Infantry Brigade, therefore, had a huge amount of territory to cover, a problem exacerbated by the fact that it was physically split in two by the ARVN zone.

Aftermath

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History.

1. ^ Villard, Erik (2017). United States Army in Vietnam Combat Operations Staying the Course October 1967 to September 1968. Center of Military History United States Army. ISBN 9780160942808. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

• 1967 in Vietnam
• 1968 in Vietnam
• Battles and operations of the Vietnam War
• Battles and operations of the Vietnam War in 1967
• Battles and operations of the Vietnam War in 1968