Qualla: Operation Union II

Operation Union II: Introduction

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The CH-53 was not supposed to land. Every medevac request had been denied — the darkness was too complete, the fire too intense, the LZ in the middle of a firefight. But Company D's Marines were dying, and the helicopter crew had heard the desperate radio call. They came in anyway, guided only by voices in the dark, and when they touched down on the battlefield long enough to load the wounded, the big Sikorsky absorbed 57 holes from exploding mortar rounds and automatic weapons fire before lifting back into the night sky. It reached Da Nang Air Base with everyone aboard alive. That single flight captures something essential about Operation Union II: men pushed past what seemed survivable, in a valley that refused to give ground.

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Operation Union II: A Valley Worth Fighting Over

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Quế Sơn Valley sits along the border between Quảng Nam and Quảng Tín Provinces, roughly 40 kilometers south of Da Nang. In 1967 it was among the most contested strips of earth in South Vietnam. Populous and paddy-rich, the valley produced rice that fed communities throughout ...

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Operation Union II: Into Landing Zone Eagle

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The morning of 26 May 1967 started clean enough. The 1st Battalion, 5th Marines moved to establish blocking positions in the western valley while the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines — three infantry companies, a weapons company, and a command group — boarded helicopters for a heliborn...

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Operation Union II: The Bald Eagle Force Comes In at Dark

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At 14:20, Houghton committed the 1st Marine Division's Bald Eagle Reactionary Force — a battalion-sized reserve built from Company E, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines; Company D, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines; and Company E, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, all under Lieutenant Colonel Mallett...

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Operation Union II: The Rout at Dawn

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The sudden appearance of the Bald Eagle force on the PAVN's northern flank changed the calculus. The North Vietnamese units disengaged and began withdrawing to the southwest — but their fortifications, which had sheltered them so effectively, now became liabilities. Once they mov...

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Operation Union II: What Remains in the Valley

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Quế Sơn Valley today is a green expanse of terraced rice fields flanked by the Trường Sơn foothills, largely indistinguishable from dozens of other central Vietnamese valleys unless you know where to look. The names — Loc Son, LZ Eagle, the PAVN regimental positions on the ri...

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