ATTACK ON DAU TIENG BASE CAMP – JULY 4, 1968

Dau Tieng Base Camp was a U.S. Army and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) base in the Dau Tieng District in Binh Duong Province, RVN. Established in October 1966, the camp was located thirty-six miles northwest of Tan Son Nhut Air Base and fourteen miles east of Tay Ninh between the Saigon River and the Michelin Rubber Plantation. The 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division was located at the base in the summer of 1968 when at 2:00 AM on July 4th the camp came under a rocket and mortar attack. The base received forty-two 107mm rocket rounds and over five hundred rounds of mixed 82mm and 60mm mortar rounds. This massive artillery assault was combined with two separate ground probes on two sectors against the base camp perimeter. These probes were met by bunker line personnel and reaction forces from the Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry and the Headquarters Battery, 2nd Battalion, 77th Artillery. In both cases, the ground probes were repulsed with the enemy breaching the perimeter in only one location on the western side of the camp. Six Americans were killed in the attack and fifty-five wounded. Four of the lost U.S. personnel were from Headquarters & Headquarters Battery (HHB), 2/77th Field Artillery. They included PFC Bradley D. Bowers, SP4 Marshall W. Fisher, SP4 Eugene L. Markwell, and SP4 Wilfredo P. Zamora. SP4 Wardell Smith, a supplyman with infantry experience from the 25th Supply & Transport Battalion, attempted to rescue the artillerymen when he was killed by a satchel charge explosion near their bunker. His remains were taken to Graves Registration where his friends arrived after the battle to pay homage. An impromptu wake occurred as they visited his body which had been left completely unmarked by the deadly blast. Smith was posthumously awarded the Silver Star medal for his actions. Also lost was SP4 Earl E. Faulkner from E Company, 65th Engineers. Material losses were twelve ¼-ton trucks, five 3/4-ton trucks, three 2½-ton trucks, three five-ton trucks, one armored personnel carrier, and six buildings damaged. Enemy losses were recorded at sixteen killed and an assortment of weapons and explosives captured. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and information provided by James L. May (January 2021)]