TBS 2-67 Cruisebook_Updated_7Jan23

Departures
Battery B, 12th Marines added 1,800 rounds. Back up 3/3
went; 2/3 went up 881 South. It was an ugly affair and Lt.
Carter’s company had taken so many casualties it was
deemed combat ineffective and withdrawn, 3/9
replacing. Marine Air repeated what it had done so well
at 861, flying 166 sorties on 1May, and leaving 881 South in
3/9’s hands. One hill left, 881 North. By 5 may 2/3 held
it. The pattern was repetitive but effective.
NVA played one last card by surrounding a recon
team sent to find out if the NVA had fully withdrawn. Not
yet, they hadn’t. Team Breaker lost all but two men; HMM
164 lost a pilot. That left 155 Marines dead and 455
wounded. About a thousand NVA perished, but with so
many bunkers becoming graves, more would be a better
guess.
On 10 may it was all over. Wounds had greatly
thinned the 1 st platoon of Bravo 1/9. J. D. Carter was on
the USS Sanctuary. But he had survived the first big
battle of 1967. He would not survive the second: Con
Tien. Come June his body would be sent home to his
widow in Houston.
A‐14