Chapter 18 - 31st US Infantry Regiment Association

Cai Nua—January 10-12, 1969
On Friday, January 10, 1969, all four rifle
companies of the 6-31st were sent to the Cai Nua
area of Kien Thuong Province. Their mission was
to find an enemy base camp reported by
intelligence to be the source of intensifying enemy
activity along Highway 4. 1 While all four
companies would see action in the campaign,
dubbed BEARCAT I, the 1st and 2nd Platoons of D
Company would bear the brunt of the action. The
9th Infantry Division’s accustomed mode of
operation in response to intelligence was for a
company to patrol the area until it came into contact
with the enemy. If the enemy force was larger than
a platoon, artillery, helicopter gunships, and air power would be brought in to pin the enemy
down while more companies deployed by helicopter or river boat to try to prevent the enemy’s
escape. The Viet Cong’s usual reaction was to fight it out by day and slip away along a canal or
river at night, staying just below the waterline as they passed American outposts.
D Company’s 3rd Platoon was attached to a mechanized battalion near Saigon, leaving
the company short-handed. With Captain Gary Corbitt on emergency leave, Lieutenant Jeffrey
Nelson was in command. Short a platoon, Nelson formed three mini-platoons of 2 squads and a
command element each. The ad hoc reconfiguration included the 1st Platoon, less one squad,
with 27 men; the 2nd Platoon, less one squad, with 25 men; and D Company’s Headquarters with
an under strength squad each from the 1st and 2nd Platoons, totaling 17 men. 2 Because the 2nd
Platoon had no medic, Specialist Brian Swanhart, the 1st Platoon’s medic, insisted that every man
in the other two elements carry an extra battle dressing. They would need it.
A and B Companies made contact with the enemy soon after
reaching the area. 3 Both spotted and engaged small groups of VC. A
Company’s 1st Platoon detained two men near Highway 4 who
appeared to be a VC reconnaissance team. 4 The two sides were
aware of each others’ presence but it was the Americans who were
most visible. While Americans patrolled, the VC stayed hidden
along nipa-line streams and canals and used civilians to warn them of
approaching patrols. They were rarely found unless they wanted to
be but signs of their presence were harder to conceal. Hastily
abandoned sites littered with items of food, cooking utensils, and
occasionally clothing, bore silent witness to a lurking enemy
presence. Men who had fought the VC before recognized other signs
as they patrolled deserted roads and waterways. Civilians were not
going about their normal routines. There were no farmers in the
fields, no fishermen on the rivers and canals, and no market traffic.
1
6-31st Infantry Daily Operations Summary 10 Jan 69, Item 18: “Unit commenced OPN BEARCAT I,
providing security for Cai Nua and overwatch of Hwy between coord XS111489 & XS119458.”
2
6-31st Inf Daily Log 10 Jan 69, Item 9:
3
Picture taken near Cai Nua courtesy of Bob Weber (C Company).
4
6-31st Inf Daily Log 11 Jan 69, Item 4: