1800 hours, Operation CORRAL To initiate the start of Operation STABILIZE the 720th MP Battalion first had to effectively disrupt and eliminate the long existing Viet Cong infrastructure within the villages of the Tactical Area of Responsibility (TAOR) which in turn would eliminate the close-in-strike capability against Long Binh Post. As long as the Viet Cong infrastructure remained in place the civic action programs to improve the lives of the villagers and their confidence in their government would be doomed to failure and the lives of the MPs working in the TAOR placed in serious jeopardy.

To accomplish that goal a multi force search and cordon operation, Operation CORRAL, was undertaken in the Tactical Area of Responsibility with the 720th MP Battalion, 615th MP Company, 2nd Battalion of the 39th Brigade, 9th Infantry Division, 9th MP Company, and the Vietnamese National Police Field Forces (NPFF).

The 720th MP Battalion provided a total of ten Officers, two hundred-twenty nine Enlisted Personnel for the five day operation. All the primary villages within the TAOR were thoroughly cordoned off and searched. The operation began at 1800 hours (6:00 PM), with the 9th Infantry Division troopers performing perimeter security while the MP's from the 720th, 615th MP and 9th MP Companies and NPFF conducted sweeps of the village and surrounding jungle and rice paddies in search of the Viet Cong, their weapons and supplies. Throughout the night the combined US MP and Vietnamese NPFF worked under the light of artillery flares, and spotlights of assisting helicopter gunships.

During the 72 hour operation over 60 suspected Viet Cong guerrillas and their known sympathizers were apprehended and turned over to combined MACV and ARVN Military Intelligence teams for interrogation.

Enemy weapons, documents, food and medical supplies, including a variety of back market materials were seized and confiscated without suffering any major casualties.