Merriam Press Military Monograph 138. First Edition (June 2012). Donald McClure Fenwick enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at the young age of 18. His destiny was to serve his country as a Marine and to make the Marine Corps a career. He reported to Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California in January 1957 for recruit training and retired in October 1990. For 33 years he served our nation and retired as a Master Gunnery Sergeant. His illustrious military career embodies both the old breed and the new breed of the Marine Corps. Donald would serve in distant lands such as Vietnam and Okinawa with several cruises aboard ship in the Caribbean Sea and Mediterranean Sea. His 33 years of honest and faithful service to the United States of America and to the Marine Corps is a legacy and a story that needs to be told. His story will capture your attention and give you an insight into the reality of what being a United States Marine is all about. His personal experiences while growing up on the farm in rural Kentucky and while progressing through the enlisted ranks, reveal the espirit de corps, camaraderie and the struggles he had to endure. He is a national asset as are many of the unsung heroes of our time. May we never forget their personal sacrifices and love of country and Corps. Contents: Life on the Farm; A Destiny to Serve; Vietnam-The Early Years; Vietnam-The Second Tour; Okinawa-Back to The Rock; The Love of his Life; Retirement-Life after the Corps. 71 photos (mostly of Vietnam, all unpublished).

This is the fourth volume in a planned 10-volume operational and chronological series covering the U.S. Marine Corps' participation in the Vietnam War. A separate topical series will complement the operational histories. This volume details the change in focus of the III Marine Amphibious Force (III MAF), which fought in South Vietnam's northernmost corps area, I Corps. III MAF, faced with a continued threat in 1967 of North Vietnamese large unit entry across the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Vietnams, turned over the Chu Lai enclave to the U .S. Army's Task Force Oregon and shifted the bulk of its forces-and its attention-northward. Throughout the year, the 3d Marine Division fought a conventional, large-unit war against the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) near the demilitarized zone. The 1st Marine Division, concentrated in Thua Thien and Quang Nam provinces, continued both offensive and pacification operations. Its enemy ranged from small groups of Viet Cong guerrillas in hamlets and villages up to formations as large as the 2d NVA Division. The 1st Marine Aircraft Wing provided air support to both divisions, as well as Army and allied units in I Corps. The Force Logistic Command, amalgamated from all Marine logistics organizations in Vietnam, served all, major Marine commands. This volume, like its predecessors, concentrates on the ground war in I Corps and II I MAF's perspective of the Vietnam War as an entity. It also covers the Marine Corps participation in the advisory effort, the operations of the two Special Landing Forces of the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet, and the services of Marines with the staff of the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. There are additional chapters on supporting arms and logistics, and a discussion of the Marine role in Vietnam in relation to the overall American effort. The nature of the war facing III MAF during 1967 forced the authors to concentrate on major operations, particularly those characterized by heavy combat. The uneven quality of the official reports submitted by combat units also played a role in selecting the materials presented in this volume. This is not meant to slight those whose combat service involved long, hot days on patrol, wearying hours of perimeter defense, an d innumerable operations, named and un-named . These Marines also endured fights just as deadly as the ones against large enemy regular units. III MAF's combat successes in 1967 came from the efforts of all Americans in I Corps.

In 1971, while U.S. ground forces were prohibited from crossing the Laotian border, a South Vietnamese Army corps, with U.S. air support, launched the largest airmobile operation in the history of warfare, Lam Son 719. The objective: to sever the North Vietnamese Army's main logistical artery, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, at its hub, Tchepone in Laos, an operation that, according to General Creighton Abrams, could have been the decisive battle of the war, hastening the withdrawal of U.S. forces and ensuring the survival of South Vietnam. The outcome: defeat of the South Vietnamese Army and heavy losses of U.S. helicopters and aircrews, but a successful preemptive strike that met President Nixon's near-term political objectives. Author Robert Sander, a helicopter pilot in Lam Son 719, explores why an operation of such importance failed. Drawing on archives and interviews, and firsthand testimony and reports, Sander chronicles not only the planning and execution of the operation but also the maneuvers of the bastions of political and military power during the ten-year effort to end Communist infiltration of South Vietnam leading up to Lam Son 719. The result is a picture from disparate perspectives: the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations; the South Vietnamese government led by President Nguyen Van Thieu; and senior U.S. military commanders and army aviators. Sander's conclusion is at once powerful and persuasively clear. Lam Son 719 was doomed in both the planning and execution - a casualty of domestic and international politics, flawed assumptions, incompetent execution, and the resolve of the North Vietnamese Army. A powerful work of military and political history, this book offers eloquent testimony that ""failure, like success, cannot be measured in absolute terms.

This is the third volume in a planned 10-volume operational and chronological series covering the Marine Corps' participation in the Vietnam War. A separate topical series will complement the operational histories. This particular volume details the continue d buildup in 1966 of the III Marine Amphibious Force in South Vietnam's northernmost corps area, I Corps, and the accelerated tempo of fighting during the year . The result was an "expanding war." The III Marine Amphibious Force had established three enclaves in I Corps during 1965. Employing what they believed was a balanced strategy-base defense, offensive operations, and pacification-the Marines planned to consolidate their base areas in 1966. At the beginning of 1966, the 1st Marine Division reinforced the 3d Marine Division and 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in Vietnam. By the end of the year, the III Marine Amphibious Force had nearly doubled in size. Two separate events, however, were to dash the high hopes held by the Marines in 1966. An internal political crisis in the spring halted the Marine pacification campaign south of the large Da Nang Airbase. In July, the North Vietnamese Army launched an incursion through the Demilitarized Zone and Marines went north to counter the enemy thrust. By December 1966, Marine units were stretched thin along the 265-mile length of I Corps. As one Marine commander observed, "too much real estate-do not have enough men." Although written from the perspective of III MAF and the ground war in I Corps, the volume treats the activities of Marine advisors to the South Vietnamese Armed Forces, the Seventh Fleet Special Landing Force, and Marines on the staff of the U .S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, in Saigon.

This is the first of a series of functional volumes on the Marine Corps' participation in the Vietnam War, which will complement the 10-volume operational and chronological series also underway. This particular history examines the role of the Navy chaplain serving with Marines, a vital partnership of fighting man and man of God which has been an integral part of the history of the Marine Corps since its inception. The first Marine aviation units to support the South Vietnamese Government forces entered Vietnam in 1962 and with them came their chaplains. When major Marine ground forces were first assigned to Vietnam in 1965, the number of assigned chaplains increased apace. By 1968 the III Marine Amphibious Force, occupying the five northernmost provinces of South Vietnam, numbered over 80,000 Marines and had under its command the better part of three Marine divisions, a greatly expanded Marine aircraft wing, and a U.S. Army corps of multi-divisional strength. The number of Navy chaplains serving ashore with Marine units exceeded all past experience, and the scope of their ministry had expanded into new and sometimes troubling fields. When the American involvement in the war gave way to Vietnamization, Marine units phased down in strength, eventually departing the country from 1969-1971. Then, as today, they stood ready in the Pacific, on board ship and at bases in Okinawa, Japan, Hawaii, and California, to provide, as needed, a ready force to meet their country's call. And with them, as always, stood their chaplains, in peace or war ready to provide the counsel, comfort, and religious experience that are so much a part of military life.

"Greyhound in Vietnam," Richard M. Bush, Senior Chief Petty Officer, United States Navy (Ret.): Richard Bush served as crew on several United States Navy warships. Favored among them is USS Lynde McCormick (DDG 8); the "Best DDG." "Greyhound in Vietnam" manuscript evolved from a near- daily sea-journal penned aboard McCormick while Richard was Gunfire Control Technician Petty Officer Second Class, USN. Navy destroyer McCormick, a "greyhound," engaged a Western Pacific Ocean deployment, 1 October 1971 through 10 March 1972 (5 1/3 Months; 161 days). McCormick operated southeast Asia, offshore and in river deltas, in support of United States and Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam. Too, McCormick operated close inshore, Gulf of Tonkin, in support of U. S. pilots who flew missions against well defended North Vietnam shore-targets.