Phan Thiet Convoy
~ 720th Military Police Battalion Reunion Association ~ Vietnam History Project ~
This Page Last Updated    28 August 2008
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18th Bde.
720th

Phan Thiet ... lies approximately 120 miles East Northeast of Saigon, right on the South China Sea. It was located at the very southeastern point of II Corps.

        It is a fishing town that was infamous for its pungent fish sauce "Nuoc-Mam," Vietnamese name for fermented fish sauce, which when the wind was coming from the right (wrong!) direction, covered the countryside with the most unpleasant (for Americans) smell imaginable.

        Phan Thiet is also the provincial capital of Binh Thuan, a rather arid province (although that was hard to believe during the monsoon season) with the exception of the mountains to the North and West that provided good cover for the NVA.

        Ho Chi Minh taught in Phan Thiet as a young man and thus it was symbolically important to the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army.

        Rice, salt and timber were other products produced in the province. The town itself lay generally on a Northeast to Southwest axis along the coastline. The Ca Ty River runs through Phan Thiet and empties into the South China Sea.

LZ Betty... lay about 4-5 miles Southwest of the center of Phan Thiet and was located on the top of a high bluff overlooking the sea. The LZ was supplied by both land, sea and air.

        On LZ Betty, units were scattered on both sides of the landing strip but the most "valuable" assets (some of the choppers & light aircraft, command & medical facilities, etc.) were mostly located between the landing strip and the bluff.

        There were two or three permanent French "colonial" buildings located next to the bluff which housed the medavac unit and the LZ Betty command. Elsewhere on the LZ, tents had largely given way to wooden and tin hooches by early 1970.
Phan Thiet and LZ Betty had been hit hard, like most of South Vietnam, during the 1968 Tet New Years Offensive, it remained a convenient target at night for mortar attacks and sapper attacks that tried to take out the choppers along the landing strip.
        The cemetery located just outside the area of the main gate was the scene of a major battle during Tet of 1968 and also served as the favorite location for sniper and harassment fire on the compound during the years that followed.

        The 630th MP Company (Escort Guard) Headquartered at Cam Ranh Bay, 97th MP Battalion, 16th MP Group, 18th MP Brigade, had a detachment stationed at the LZ that worked the Main Gate, guard tower, local convoy escort security and enforced discipline, law and order.

        Some of the units that occupied LZ Betty during the war were elements of the:
2nd Battalion 7 Cavalry Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Division, 1966; The 3rd Battalion, 506th Airborne Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, June 1968 through Aug 1970; The 1st Battalion (Mechanized) 50th Infantry, Task Force South, I Field Forces, 1970 and 1971.
1st
101st
IFF
Overview of Phan Thiet and LZ Betty Courtesy of SP/4 Robert C. Dash, 630th MP Company, 97th MP Battalion, January 1970 to March 1971. Bob is currently a professor of politics at Willamette University in Salem, OR and can be reached at rdash@willamette.edu
1971

4 March The 720th MP Battalion was assigned to provide escort security for the Phan Thiet convoy. During the months of March and April the Phan Thiet Convoy was being run twice weekly.

I do remember the Bluffs at Phan Thiet SGT Don Sinclair “Canuck” A Company, 720th MP Battalion, 89th MP Group, 18th MP Brigade, 1971 to 1972.
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