Viet Cong Overwhelm Two Marine Outposts

Apr. 24, 1965 - Communist Viet Cong guerrillas, in their first major action against American combat troops in Vietnam, today overwhelmed two U.S. Marine outposts near the vital air base at Da Nang, killing two Americans and wounding four others.

The guerrillas, moving under cover of early morning darkness, killed one leatherneck and wounded another as they overran a two-man listening post. Then the Communists hit a seven-man outpost behind the listening post, killing another Marine and wounding two others and a Navy corpsman.

The wounded Marine at the listening post lay there through the predawn hours until a Marine patrol recovered him after sunup.

The clash was the first real assault against an American outpost and the first in which U.S Marines were known to have been killed by the Viet Cong.

At the same time, 70 American planes pounded North Vietnam, blasting a railroad, two bridges, and a ferry dock.

Another 5,000 American ground troops will be landed in Vietnam this spring to bolster airfield defenses and, if necessary, to take the offensive. The troops may be more Marines but will more likely be Army airborne units or regular infantry.

High American officials are concerned about how some thinly held military installations would fare in the event of large-scale penetrations by the Viet Cong.

In some areas, the enemy is believed to have regular units with heavy firepower able to overrun such airfields as Bien Hoa, 20 miles north of Saigon.

Regardless of which units are next in order for duty in Vietnam, the Pentagon estimate of the need for 12,000 additional American troops — both combat and non-combat — by the end of 1965 is considered conservative.

The present American force in Vietnam total 32,500 men. It probably will add up to more than 50,000 by December.

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