This is the last installment of the posts that each week have told something about what the units of the 2d Brigade did, beginning in late January 1968 when the brigade was ordered from Cu Chi to the far north of South Vietnam. There it participated in the heavy fighting of Tet 1968 and its aftermath, moving to LZ Sally in March. This report covers the final three weeks of my command, to June 28 when I turned the brigade over to Colonel John A. Hoefling.
On June 4 units of the 1/501 Inf, 2/501 Inf, and 2/17 Cav (plus three US Marine Corps platoons and one tank platoon of the 2/34 Armor Battalion), under the operational control of the 2/17 Cav, had completed a successful encirclement of the enemy near Phu Tu 15 kilometers south of Hue. This was the eleventh such encirclement by brigade units; the first was on March 27-28 by the 1/501. While such encirclements had become the brigade trademark, the brigade’s units had been for months taking the fight to the enemy in other operations day and night in the area around Hue and as far north as Quang Tri.

Later I would be told by Major General Ngo Quang Truong, commanding the 1st ARVN Division, that the operations of the 2d Brigade in May and early June, working with his division units and province forces south of Hue, had thwarted an enemy plan to assemble NVA and main force VC units to execute another “Tet-like” attack on Hue. Our combined efforts had broken the enemy scheme.

Now the entire brigade area of operations became relatively quiet. Our troops continued to scour the battle area and to set ambushes at night, but contact was light and casualties fewer than before; on June 17 we had not a single casualty. We and our Vietnamese partners had eliminated the NVA and VC main force units from our area. While local guerrillas remained, RF and PF and hamlet militia could protect the people from them, and farmers could harvest their rice undisturbed.

One morning in mid-June, I was with General Truong in his headquarters. As I began to leave, he invited me to the ceremonies that were to take place in Hue on June 19th, which was the Republic of Vietnam’s Armed Forces Day. When I accepted, he added, “Bring your brigade colors.” Puzzled, I stopped by to see General Truong’s deputy division commander to learn more about this request to bring the brigade colors. He told me that General Truong had recommended to the President of the Republic of Vietnam that the 2d Brigade Task Force be awarded his country’s Cross of Gallantry with Palm, which was the RVN’s equivalent of the US Presidential Unit Citation, and that President Thieu had approved that recommendation.

On June 19th, in Hue, in the presence of General Creighton Abrams, Commander, U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam, and a host of other dignitaries, President Nguyen Van Thieu of the Republic of Vietnam placed the streamer of Vietnam's Cross of Gallantry with Palm on the colors of the Second Brigade and presented me with the same award.

The period covered by General Truong's recommendation (and of the Department of the Army general order that confirmed the award) did not include the brigade's fighting periods during Tet 1968 and in our first weeks at LZ Sally. In my mind, and as the pages of this account make clear, the fact that it did not was simply an administrative error. The 2d Brigade Task Force truly earned such an award for the full period, and for the months that followed, and everyone knew it.

My profound thanks to the men who forged that record; my pride in you is unbounded.

Jack