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217 10: Hoi An Days, 1 October–25 December 1967 H oi An, one of the largest cities in central Vietnam, is also one of the oldest cities in the entire region. Settled by ethnic Chinese and other East Asian seafarers, Hoi An thrived as a population center three hundred years ago. It was Vietnam’s most important international seaport from the sixteenth century to the late nineteenth century. Hoi An residents interacted with merchants from both Asia and Europe, trading all sorts of goods, from spices to gold. Located on the bank of the Song Thu Bon (Thu Bon River) thirty kilometers south of Da Nang, Hoi An seems a very quiet riverside town dotted with temples, shrines, and Chinese-style tile-roofed wooden houses along a long, narrow road. Behind the beautiful scenic facades, however, the Hoi An TAOR also served as the home of one of the most active, experienced, and skilled groups of guerrilla fighters the Marines ever faced: the Hoi An “chapter” of the elusive and deadly Viet Cong. The 1st Battalion, 5th Marines relocated from Hill 51 Combat Base in the Que Son Valley to the Hoi An area in early October 1967. Second Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Division relieved 1/5 of the responsibility for Hill 51 and the Que Son Valley TAOR. The turnover of responsibilities commenced on 2 October 1967; however, completion of the equipment helilift and forward displacement of the rear echelon was not accomplished until 12 October because of restrictive weather conditions. The annual monsoon season had arrived in I Corps, during which time huge, drenching downpours regularly swamped the countryside. One Five relieved 1st Battalion, 1st Marines of the responsibility of Triem Trung (2) Combat Base, located approximately 4.5 kilometers west of downtown Hoi An, and the TAOR around Hoi An. The Hoi An TAOR covered the Hieu Nhon district and a portion of the Dien Ban district. One Five assumed the responsibility for this large and challenging chunk of real estate on 2 October upon the arrival of the 1/5 command group and the Marines of Alpha and Bravo Companies. As the constant ebb and flow of Marines, created by the individual rotation Charlie One Five: 218 system adopted early on during the Vietnam War, continued to impact 1/5, another combat veteran left Vietnam and eventually arrived home, but this time his rotation back to “the world” proved anything but routine. Sgt. Craig Jackson of Delta Company had a run-in with another of the hazards of life in Southeast Asia, a microscopic organism called an amoeba. He remembered: As the battalion packed up on Hill 51, I got sick. I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. It actually started right before we left Nui Lac Son; since the battalion was headed north, some Huey helicopters picked us up and flew us to the combat base. I was already sick to my stomach, and then the enemy fired at us all the way over there. Once I got to Hill 51, a corpsman took my temperature, and it was really high, like 102 or 103, and I felt like I had been kicked in the gut. The monsoon season had started, and the weather had turned nasty and cold. I got so that I couldn’t drink any water, and I coughed a lot. I couldn’t smoke a cigarette or eat anything without throwing up. I made the movement north with Delta Company, as the last 1/5 company to move to Hoi An. I stayed in a tent at Hoi An Combat Base. Lieutenant Strickland sent me to the battalion aid station. They couldn’t get my temperature down. A bunch of the Delta 1/5 Marines came to visit me over there and let me know that they didn’t like this area; they talked about a lot of mines and booby traps, and they had to ride around a lot on amtracs. One morning the docs told me to go out to the road and hitch a ride to Da Nang and to report in to 1st Medical Battalion for treatment. I went to the main gate of Hoi An, and the only ride I could get was on the back of a six-by truck. No tarp covered the back of that truck, and it rained like hell. The truck driver put the pedal to the metal all the way, while I got...

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