Campaign
Campaign
Operation Fayette Canyon
In mid-December, Operation Fayette Canyon was started in the mountains 25 miles northwest of Tam Ky. Conducted by the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry , and the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry, of the 196th Brigade, and by the 198th Brigade's 1st Battalion, 46th Infantry, 327 enemy were killed, bunker and other complexes were destroyed, and 65 weapons were captured by the time the operation ended on February 28.
Members of the 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry (Old Guard) of the 11th Infantry Brigade and 5th Battalion, 46th Infantry, 198th Infantry Brigade designated Task Force Cooksey (after the Assistant Division Commander, Brigadeer General Howard W. Cooksey) set up a cordon which isolated the peninsula from the mainland. The combat phase of Russell Beach officially ended February 9 accounting for more than 210 VC killed, 15.5 tons of salt, two tons of corn, 13 tons of rice, 59 individual weapons, and six crew served weapons. Twenty-three sampans were destroyed as they tried to evade through Navy Swift Boats off the Batangan Peninsula.
By late February the pacification end of Russell Beach showed nearly 12,000 civilians had been moved to the Combined Holding and Interrogation Center (CHIC) near Quang Ngai City.
A lull in fighting was observed during the Vietnamese Lunar New Year (Tet) but heavy contact broke out in February when VC/NVA elements launched a series of well coordinated mortar and rocket attacks on all US fire support bases and installations throughout the Americal Division.
In March, a series of operations started, with each brigade area given a separate name for its operational zone.
