"Rocks and Fists:" Decimating the 141st NVA Regiment

During Tet, 1969, the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines cornered and crushed an elite North Vietnamese Army unit in a series of brutal battles marked by hand-to-hand combat and repeated assaults against a determined and entrenched enemy. The valor of Marines and Navy corpsmen was a common occurrence and resulted in a Medal of Honor, two Navy Crosses, the country's second highest award for bravery, and numerous Silver Star Awards. This is truly a tale of the grit of the individual Marine rifleman. Although the set piece battles pitting platoons and companies against superior enemy forces eventually carried the day, it was really the work of squads and fire teams up to and during the early stages of the engagement that unsettled the NVA and made it hard to marshal their forces. In addition to the combat during Tet, this work briefly examines the never-ending patrolling strategy of 1969 and how Marines employed the technology of the time, including parts of McNamara's infamous defensive barrier, to turn the area south of Da Nang into a killing zone for any NVA venturing into the battalion's area of responsibility.