Op Meade River - 1968's final battle

By Major Robert T. Jordan, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)

(Dedicated to the men who fought, were wounded and especially to those who died during Operation Meade River ... and especially to those Marines who told their stories. A special thanks goes out to the families of SSgt Taylor [MoH] and to Mustang Capt. Hoover who passed away a few days before this article was published.)

Pundits proclaimed that the year 1968 was a "pivotal year" in the Vietnam war. The year began with North Vietnamese Army surrounding the Khe Sanh combat base near the South Vietnam' northern border -- then sent thousands of troops south in an attempt to break the will of the South Vietnamese during Tet, which was the the Vietnamese New Year.

The NVA suffered huge losses and were severely beaten back during both of these battles but the global news media saw it as a loss for the South Vietnamese because the NVA had been successful in penetrating many of the major towns and villages. But the slaughter of thousands of South Vietnamese civilians preempted the NVA's goal of encouraging the South Vietnamese people to rebel and join the North Vietnamese.

I arrived in South Vietnam in the middle of July in 1968. I was assigned duties as a Marine Corps combat correspondent and media escort. Much of the heavy fighting had dissipated but it was still very dangerous to travel outside the Da Nang area of operations. My job was to facilitate international television crews (talent, sound man and cameraman) safely into and out of combat. I was a staff non-commissioned officer (NCO) at the time. In the 13 months that I was there I was recorded to have successfully conducted over 200 ground combat operations with the media, including covering numerous battles, and explosions of two major ammunition dumps. Later in my tour I flew over 40 air combat flights covering recon inserts and extracts, medivacs and ground support operations of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing.

One my first combat operations was Meade River. It was the largest Marine Corps airborne operations and one the the bloodiest battles of the war. My story of SSgt Karl Taylor and his fellow Marines and corpsmen was published in the May/June VVA magazine. Taylor's actions resulted in him being awarded the Medal of Honor for his service and sacrifice just before the end of the operation.

Here is that story: https://vvaveteran.org/38-3/38-3_meaderiver.html

#VietnamWar # Medal of Honor #MeadeRiver