The Finger Of Land (ridge line) was the dominant land feature located in the northeastern sector of the 720th MP Battalion’s 22 square mile Tactical Area Of Responsibility (TAOR). In 1967 it was thickly covered by trees and jungle and surrounded by abandoned and overgrown rice paddies.

   It began on Highway QL-15, the eastern boundary of the TAOR, and ran due west for approximately two klicks (2 kilometers) slowly tapering down into an area of rice paddies and brush that bordered the Nui Phuoc River that ran south and emptied into the Buong River one klick east of Hill-15.

   The Finger of Land is now an industrial park. USE THIS LINK

   Three Battalion deaths and approximately eight wounded were attributed to enemy activity on the Finger from 1967 through 1970. During the same time over 100 enemy were killed making it the bloodiest AO in the Battalion TAOR.

    SGT Ward G. Walter was killed on 29 November 1967 by small arms fire while part of a combined (A, B, & C Company) ambush team responding to an enemy attack against the Military Assistance Command Vietnam / Army Of The Republic Of Vietnam (MACV/ARVN) outpost at Phuoc Cang on Highway QL-15.

MACV

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September 1967 The area was patrolled by ambush and recon teams of the 615th MP Company, at that time attached to the 720th MP Battalion during the start of Operation CORRAL and STABILIZE.

     The 615th MP patrols were instrumental in initiating the eventual clearing of the wooded area to deny the enemy close in access to the post perimeter. Just prior to the operations in the fall of 1967 the boundaries of the TAOR were finally established and Highway QL-15 became the eastern border of the 720th TAOR.

   WANTED: Information on the units involved in and photographs of the jungle clearing operation, use the Email Link above.

   A single lane dirt trail wide enough for smaller wheeled and track vehicles left during the clearing operation, ran along the top of the ridge line from Highway QL-15 east for several hundred yards. It was seldom used except for large scale operations in the area in which Armored Personnel Carriers (APC) were used.

     Situated on the ridge line just off the trail was an abandoned U.S. Army tank placed their by an aviation unit and used for helicopter gunship target practice. It's armor showed numerous scars and holes from heavy caliber rounds fired into it from above. During 1968 the tank became a reference point for the B Company ambush teams that worked in the area. The B Company MPs also used it as a billboard to express their feelings for the local VC.

   SFC Frank Aloysius Condon and  SP/4 Lewis Randolph Lovell, Jr. of C Company were killed 6 June of 1968 when their patrol jeep, traveling on the dirt tract along the crest of the ridge ran over a Viet Cong land mine. The area was a free fire zone through late 1967, 1968 and early 1969.

23 February 1969 The thrust of the 274th Viet Cong Regiment, 5 NVA Division attack on the southern perimeter of Long Binh Post was launched through the eastern half of the TAOR along the Finger of Land. Since the eastern area was undeveloped and void of villages or dwellings, it afforded the communist forces easy access from the jungle hideaway and base camps south across the Buong River just outside of the area of operation of B Company.

        The routes utilized by the enemy were well documented from previous B Company ambush and recon patrols in the months just prior to the 23 February 1969 attack. Enemy bunkers and supplies were discovered and destroyed along the Buong River and observations of enemy movement and several ambushes were made in the area. Under darkness the communist forces utilized sampans to cross the Buong River and travel out of aerial view up two of the tree covered streams that ran north and south and intersected the southern half of the TAOR just below the Finger of Land. B Company ambush teams engaged the attacking force and disrupted their ability to coordinate. The enemy left 113 dead on the field, B Company sustained only seven wounded.

        Later in the summer a herbicide spraying operation would be conducted to eradicate the brush and tree cover along the rivers and stream entrances.

    Located in the northeastern corner of the Tactical Area of Responsibility (TAOR) it was the final phase of static outposts that were constructed by B Company after the Post Tet New Year's Communist attack on Long Binh Post of 23 February 1969.

     With the lessons learned from the attack through the Finger of Land along the southern perimeter of Long Binh Post, the 720th MP Battalion focused its attention on providing bases of operation for the B Company ambush and recon teams in the eastern, unpopulated portion of the Tactical Area Of Responsibility. The outpost was built to provide the needed support base and additional defensive early warning position on the Finger. Because of it’s location the construction of the outpost was a much quicker and easier undertaking than the one situated on top of Hill-15.

    The exact date the construction began is unknown, the best estimate is sometime in April or May of 1969 just after the death of SSG Richard E. Slaven and the wounding of SP/4 Robert A. Cressman, PFC Larry W. Holton, and their PF Interpreter CPL Lee Van Muon at Hill-15 on 29 March.  Heavy equipment used to clear the compound area and dig the bunker foundation was brought in via Highways 317 and QL-15, then along the old dirt roadway on top of the ridge.

        The principal structure of the outpost was an operations bunker berried into the south side of the ridge just a short distance from an old derelict U.S. Army tank which at that time was the only fixed landmark on the finger. Engineer's using heavy equipment excavated a deep rectangular trench.

        The Construction materials consisted of steel CONEX (shipping) containers, galvanized culvert halves and steel and wooden supports that were trucked in to the site. They were followed by rolls of concertina and barber wire, fence post, 6x6 wooden timbers, and pallets of sand bags.

        A bulldozer was used to dig a long trench into the ridge. A frame made from sheets of corrugated steel supported by steel posts with rows of sandbags stacked along them was constructed to hold a CONEX container. The CONEX container was slid into the frame half buried below ground level. Small openings were precut and used for gun ports. Once in place the trench was backfilled with earth. Sandbag walls were built the top exposed portion of the container. Roof trusses of 6x6 inch timbers were set on 6x6 posts covered with corrugated steel sheeting and several layers of sandbags for the 2nd floor observation post.

        Many of the MPs working on the site pulled double duty with the ambush teams and spent their evenings on security duty during the construction phase. They used the construction materials and jeep hoods for beds to keep them off the ground and away from the abundance of snakes, lizards, and insects that also inhabited the area.

        The surrounding perimeter area was cleared of underbrush and defensive fighting positions were staggered along a barbed wire fence. Once the operations bunker was completed work was started on other shelters to support the base and provide storage.

       There was one problem that plagued the operations bunker. During its construction no drain was added for the monsoon season and when the rains came it flooded quickly.

        Defensive weapons consisted of a .50 caliber machine gun and Claymore Mines in addition to the regular squad weapons of the ambush teams that manned the outpost. Mortar and illumination support was immediately available from D Company, 87th Infantry (Rifle Security), 95th MP Battalion, Long Binh Post, when their mortar platoon was assimilated into B company.

        Resupply and maintenance of the outpost by vehicle was much easier by way of the newly cleared construction roadway, and the ambush and recon teams were extra vigilant during their daily land mine sweeps.

        With the completion of the construction of the outpost and the initiation of defoliant spraying of the trees and brush cover along the Buong River to their south, and Nui Phuoc River to their west, B Company had a permanent defensive position on the Finger of Land to operate their recon and ambush patrols from.