Operation Starlite
| Operation Starlite | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Vietnam War | |||||||||
 Vietcong prisoners await being carried by helicopter to rear area after Operation Starlite. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 United States
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 Viet Cong
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Lewis W. Walt Oscar F. Peatross |
Nguyen Chon | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 5,500 3/3, 2/4, 1/7 and SLF 3/7 Marines Infantry Battalions |
1,500 1st VC Regiment composed of 60th and 80th Battalions, and 45th Weapons Battalion, 52nd VC Company |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 51 killed 203 wounded |
U.S. report: 614 killed 42 captured 40 weapons captured |
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Operation Starlite (also known in Vietnam as Battle of Van Tuong) was the first major offensive regimental size action conducted by a purely U.S. military unit during the Vietnam War. The operation was launched based on intelligence provided by Major General Nguyen Chanh Thi, the commander of the South Vietnamese forces in northern I Corps area. Lieutenant General Lewis W. Walt devised a plan to launch a pre-emptive strike against the Viet Cong regiment to nullify the threat on the vital Chu Lai Air Base and Base Area and ensure its powerful communication tower remained intact.
The operation was conducted as a combined arms assault involving ground, air and naval units. U.S. Marines were deployed by helicopter insertion into the designated landing zone while an amphibious landing was used to deploy other Marines.
The operation was originally called Satellite, but a power blackout led to a clerical error and a clerk working by candlelight typed "Starlite" instead. It was launched on D-Day August 18, 1965, involving 5,500 Marines. Regimental 2nd Battalion 4th Marines (2/4), 1st Battalion, 7th Marines (1/7) and 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines (3/3), and 3rd Battalion 7th Marines (3/7) the SLF - permission was granted by Admiral Sharp to use Special Landing Force and originally a reserve component - in an assault on the Viet Cong base near Van Tuong. The United States Navy's USS Galveston and USS Cabildo were available for naval gunfire support and 3rd Battalion 12th Marines was the artillery unit in direct support. USS Vernon County embarked elements of 3/3 Marines (Battalion Landing Team) (BLT) 3, under Lieutenant Colonel Joseph E. Muir, USMC, at Chu Lai, and sailed south along the coast to An Thuong, where she put the troops ashore in one phase of "Starlite."
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Wikipedia