Operation Montgomery Rendezvous

[Bill Farnie]

June 8th 1969

Operation Apache Snow ends and Operation Montgomery Rendezvous begins with the 3rd Brigade 101st Airborne Division continuing their sweep of the Ashau Valley along the border with Laos with the most significant action being the Battle for Hill 996 which started on July 10th with B & Dco 1/506th Air Assaulting to the mountains of the Rao Lao Valley to assist Alpha Troop 2/17th Cav who had been in contact with an undetermined size NVA element the night of July 9th

[Bombardier]

hey bill, can you tell us more about Operation Montgomery Rendezvous ?

[Bill Farnie]

O.K. Bombardier, I'll give a quick synopsis of the operation and then next month I'll get into the battle for Hill 996 on the anniversary of it.

Operation Montgomery Rendezvous was against the NVA in the high ground to the east of the Ashau in the vicinity of FSB Airborne and in the mountains north of the Rao Lao Valley

The task force organization from June 8 to July 10th was as follows;

1/506, 2/506, 2/327, C/2/34 Armor ( first tanks in the Ashau Valley since the French were in Vietnam ), 3/5 Cav, A/2/17 Air Cav and units of the 3rd ARVN Regiment

Contact was sporadic. Probably due to Operation Apache Snow which dealt a big blow to the NVA in the Ashau and they seemed to be avoiding any major contact while they re-grouped except for the two following actions;

On the Night of June 14th FSB Berchtesgarden was attacked by sappers of the 6th NVA Regiment. They penetrated the wire and hit the Brigade TOC and the 2/327th command post and the bunker line. The sappers had breached the wire by tying down the trip flares and using an intensive barrage of 82 mm mortars on the 2/327th command post and the bunker line which prevented the reinforcement of the Brigade TOC.

33 NVA were killed and 3 POW's taken. Friendly casualties were 11 KIA and 47 wounded including the Brigade commander.

On June 16th sappers attacked FSB Currahee. Unlike FSB Berchtesgarden, the perimeter was not penetrated due to an alert trooper who spotted a sapper at 1600 trying to get through the wire on the west side of the FSB. Due to being detected they didn't start their attack until 0200 hrs of the 17th by attacking the entire northwest side of the perimeter. My company was the RRF and we made a night CA directly into the firebase on the southeast side to provide reinforcements ( received my 3rd Air Medal for that CA ). During this attack, it was the first time I had seen direct fire by the 105's using beehive rounds. It was something to see them level the guns with the ground and cut loose. At 0400 hrs they attacked the west side of the perimeter and an hour later they attacked the north side of the perimeter and gunships directed their fire within 150 meters of the perimeter which caused the enemy to charge the wire with RPG's but again direct fire from the 105's broke up that attack.

54 NVA were killed and 3 POW's taken. Friendly casualties were only 7 WIA's.

On July 10th the task force was changed when the 2/327th went Opcon to the 2nd Brigade to support operations in Bach Ma.

Contact during Op M R was still sporadic until July 8th when contacts were made that eventually led up to the battle for Hill 996.