1st MP Battalion Operations 1970-1971
(submitted by Jerry Poliszczuk)
with kind permission of

III MAF, in cooperation with Da Nang Special Sector and Hoa Vang District, coordinated the defense of the U.S. military installations in and around Da Nang and assisted in the general protection of the city. Under III MAF supervision, the 1st Military Police Battalion, which had arrived at Da Nang in 1966 to relieve Marine infantry guarding the vital airfield, performed the defense function. At the beginning of 1970, the Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Speros D. Thomaldis , was assigned the mission of planning and directing the integrated defense of the Da Nang Vital Area. This was to be accomplished in cooperation with the Commander, Da Nang Special Sector, by coordinating the activities of tenant units to assign and secure sectors of responsibility , establish and maintain lines of communication, and constitute reserve contingency forces.

In essence , the battalion supervised the close-in defense activities of the commands within the DVA and ensured that these commands were ready to furnish company and platoon reaction forces, as required, for operations in the area. The MP Battalion itself manned the fortifications surrounding the DA Nang Air base. It conducted anti infiltration patrols and ambushes and maintained observation posts outside the boundaries of the various installations, and it assisted South Vietnamese security forces guarding strategic bridges.

Also located in the DVA, the 3d MP Battalion prepared for redeployment in Keystone Robin Alpha, the 1st MP Battalion assumed control of the Marine war dog teams and also took over the 3d Battalion’s security responsibilities in the DVA. The 1st Battalion, now under Lieutenant Colonel Newell T. Donahoo, who had relieved  Lieutenant Colonal Thomaidis on 2 June, furnished guards for the former II MAF brig, which passed under Army control on 10 August. Company A of the 1st MP Battalion provided the AFB detachments, administered the dog force, and manned the III MAF CID. The 1st MP Battalion initially was scheduled for redeployment in late 1970, and by mid-August II MAF had completed plans to replace it with a provisional defense battalion consisting of on MP company and a rifle company from the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. With the delay of Maine redeployments, II MAF scrapped this plan and retained the entire 1st MP Battalion, which in fact became one of the last Marine ground units to stand down.

Throughout 1970 and early 1971, 1st MP Battalion Marines, who were not detailed to the Armed Forces Police or other special assignments,  put in and average of  21 hours per week on day watch and 24 on night watch. They spent another eight hours on patrols and ambushes and manned portions of the Da Nang perimeter for another 48 hours. In July 1970, a typical month, the battalion carried out 280-fire team and 30 squad daytime patrols and 300 fire team and 133 squad night ambushes, made 31 river patrols, and manned 62 squad combat outposts. The battalion also conducted a multi-company operation. Of the total of 836 small-unit activities, the battalion conducted 627 with South Vietnamese forces.  None of these operations produced significant enemy contact. The few actions that did occur were confined to brief exchanges of fire or an occasional grenade thrown at a passing Marine patrol.

Each month elements of the battalion took part in sweeps and cordon and search operations in cooperation with Vietnamese Regional and Popular forces, National police, and with reaction forces from other U.S. commands in the DVA. These operations rarely flushed out any NVA or VC, but they produced a steady haul of suspected VCI.  RVNAF deserters and American military personnel who ere off limits or absent without leave were also frequently taken into custody. During August, for example companies of the 1st MP Battalion participated in 10 searches, apprehending 16 VCI, 35 ARVN deserters, 2 U.S. Army soldiers, an Marine, and a U.S. Navy sailor.

Working with troops and police from DA Nang Special Sector, the Marine MPs cracked down on the drug peddlers and prostitutes that infested the city. On 12, 13, and 14 October , elements of Company B joined Vietnamese authorities in a series of raids on hideouts in downtown Da Nang. The MPs and police seized caches of drugs, and arrested 21 Marines and five US-Army soldiers, all of whom were turned over to the Armed Forces Police and charged with being in un-authorized areas. They also apprehended 27 prostitutes and two VC suspects.

The enemy in the DVA consisted mostly of Viet Cong terrorist, sappers, and political agitators who usually operated in groups of three to five. By effective security measures, III MAF prevented sapper attacks on the airfields during 1970 and early 1971, but terrorism still took a steady toll of American and South Vietnamese live and property.   During July 1970, for example, three civilians were killed and 2 U.S. Marines, 11 ARVN soldiers, 6 national policemen, and 14 civilians were injured in 10 separate terrorist incidents. In October,  Navy intelligence reported that enemy sappers were planning to attack the U.S. Consulate in Da Nang. The 1st MP Battalion temporarily doubled its guard force at the consulate, but no attack took place. Communist harassment of the DVA declined in the last moths of 1970, partly as a result of severe floods, but gradually increased again in early 1971.

Viet Cong terrorism sometimes took unusual forms. During March 1971, for instance , the MP battalion received reports of 'female VC operation in Da Nang in the role of  prostitutes with the intention of spreading VD to American and Korean officials. These VC were also reported to have been carrying small weapons with the intention of assassinating clients. 'These ladies of the evening,  if in fact they existed, claimed no known victims, but other young female Viet Cong were active in Da Nang.  The MPs helped to break up a cell of 15- to 18-year-old VC girls who had been blowing up allied military vehicles with bombs made from soda cans filled with plastic explosives.

Rocket attacks were the greatest Communist threat to the DVA, but their effect during 1970 and 1971 was more political and psychological than military.  The III MAF Chief of Staff, Brigadier General Leo J. Dulacki, observed: They sure didn't inflict much damage on us.... I think they were pretty damn poor when you consider what they could have done. Imagine the number of ammunition dumps, the number fuel depots and what -have-you we had scattered all over .....  If you had given me a couple of Marine squads I could have raised holy hell ....  by just planting a rocket or a mortar in the right place at the right time.... Looking back at the effects of enemy rocket attacks, Dulacki conceded that while of negligible importance militarily in most instance, rocket attacks on Da Nang served the enemy in other ways: "Unfortunately, these attacks did achieve on success--- the stateside media blew such incidents completely out of proportion and drew erroneous conclusions as to their meaning and effect.

The Marine MPs had to contend with internal South Vietnamese domestic terrorism, as well as the more familiar enemy violence. ARVN soldiers occasionally threw grenades at nation policemen and Popular Forces fired small arms to break up fights between rival noncommunist political groups.  During October, the battalion conducted a series of psychological operations in the supposedly pacified hamlets on the north and west border of the DA Nang Airbase, "in an effort to gain popular support to stem the indiscriminate firing of small arms.... Directed towards the perimeter bunkers and aircraft. "In spite of this effort, aircraft landing and taking off continued to be subjected to sporadic fire, some of which appeared to be from Popular Forces compounds.

During the first months of 1971, as III MAF was replaced by 3d MAB, the 1st Military Police Battalion, now commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Colia, who had replace Lieutenant Colonel Donahoo the previous November, continued to protect the Da Nang Vital Area. On 7 May, with the cessation of all Marine combat, the battalion ended small-unit operations and turned defense of the airfield over to the 104th Regional Force Battalion and the 796th Regional Force Company. The MP battalion retained its AFP and brig duties throughout the rest of May, as well as the guard of the remaining 3d MAB cantonments. On 1 June, a detachment of Marines from the U.S. Embassy Security Guard in Saigon relieve the MPs protecting the Da Nang consulate, and five days later the battalion was released from all Armed Forces Police tasks. The Battalion stood down on 7 June. By the 24th, all elements had departed for Camp Pendleton, where the battalion was deactivated. As the last Marines left, the commander of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade took over as defense coordinator for U.S. installations in the DVA.