Viet Cong Overrun Special Forces Camp, 14 U.S. Servicemen Killed

June 9, 1965 - Fourteen United States servicemen were killed and 10 were wounded in desperate fighting today when about 1,000 Viet Cong overran a district capital and attacked a Special Forces camp 60 miles north of Saigon.

It was one of the highest American losses in a single engagement of the Vietnam war.

Vietnamese losses were not immediately known but were believed to be extremely high. Some of the American casualties were reported to be Navy Seabees working on construction of an airstrip. 

Helicopters flew about 500 South Vietnamese troops into the battle area three hours after sunrise. They were reported engaged in heavy fighting outside the overrun district capital, Dongxoai.

The town was defended by about 90 government militiamen. With the U.S. servicemen at the Special Forces camp were 300 South Vietnamese irregular troops for whose training the Americans were responsible.

The Viet Cong were reported to have lobbed 200 mortar shells into the Special Forces camp a mile from Dongxoai and then to have overrun the nearby airstrip.

Helicopters tried to fly in relief troops after the attack, but withering machine-gun fire turned them back.

Planes dropped flares over the battle area in the predawn hours as fighters and armed helicopters strafed the enemy.

One early report said two of the planes — a U.S. Air Force B-57 bomber and a single-engine plane — had been downed by the intense enemy ground fire.

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