Medal of Honor - General James E. Livingston - Vietnam War - Forgotten History

During the Tet holiday, traditionally a period of ceasefire, the North Vietnamese military commander General Vo Quynh Jap chose January 31st, 1968 to launch coordinated offensive surprise attacks aimed at 100 cities in the south of the country, breaking the stalemate in Vietnam. In northeast Quang Tri province, Marines, South Vietnamese, and U.S. Army forces held several locations. The most critical strategic location was the Dong Ha Bridge and the Qua Viet River. This was the headquarters of 3rd Marine Division and 9th Marine Regiment. Assigned to this location was Battalion Landing Team, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment. Facing this small force of 642 Marines and Navy Corpsmen, and unknown to the Marines at this time, was the 10,000-strong North Vietnamese Army 320th Division. Hello, I'm Colin Heaton with Forgotten History and this is the Living Legends edition and we will be discussing the Battle of Dong Ha and Dai Do and the presentation will be given by Medal of Honor recipient, then Captain, retired Major General James E. Livingston. My name is James Everett Livingston. I'm a retired Major General from the United States Marine Corps. My time of service in the Marine Corps was from 1961 to 1995. I had the opportunity to command every level in the Marine Corps and I had three tours in Vietnam. First tour was there in 63 and 64, primarily off the coast of Vietnam and the operations around and in Vietnam were primarily counterinsurgency operations. I went back in 1967 and 68 and became the commanding officer of Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines and I joined that particular union at Dong Ha in approximately September of 1967 and I served as a company commander of Echo Company from September of 67 to May of 68 when I was wounded in the battle we'll discuss here in a moment, the Battle of Dong Ha against the North Vietnamese. My third trip to Vietnam, I went back in 74 and 75 and I helped coordinate the evacuation of Saigon. I helped coordinate the RV intervac, the takedown of the Mayaguez that was on the way to Koh Tang Island and sort of closed Vietnam out and that was my tours, three tours in Vietnam. As far as the battle we're sort of working on or looking at today is the Battle of Dong Ha and I'm going to pose the questions that have been asked me about this particular battle and give you answers as I recall based on many years ago and not being associated totally with every aspect of the battle but I'll give you my information as I saw it and witnessed this there for about a day when Echo Company and I as a company commander was involved significantly in that operation. The first question was what, when and where was the Battle of Dai Do and Dong Ha? The battle started approximately around the 30th of April of 1968 and what triggered the event is a North Vietnamese shoulder shot at one of the Navy craft that went out to the ocean, uploaded with supplies and brought it back to Dong Ha which was a logistic supply base for all the Marine Corps elements and Army units in what is called Northern I Corps along Route 9 and Route 1 and from this location and they'd bring in supplies and they would use the trucks and helicopters to redistribute those supplies to operational units. My unit was specifically located near Dong Ha on the 30th of April and we were providing security for a bridge on Route 1 that crossed the Coviet River and I received word that the battalion had been engaged in some operations. They had received fire and they were attacked in various enemy locations. As that battle became more involved and it began to become very apparent that the size of the force that the 2nd Battalion and 4th Marines were involved in was a very significant force. It had bogged down a couple of companies in 2nd Battalion and 4th Marines. One of the battalion's company commanders had been wounded, a medivac, a guy named Jim Williams and as the battle proceeded the battalion commander made the assessment he didn't have the assets to take care of the force that they had engaged and I had been assigned to the 3rd Marine Division as a security force so he asked for me to be returned to 2nd Battalion and 4th Marines to assist in this particular operation. Associated with the Battle of Dong Ha ultimately became the village of Dai Do which is along Jones's Creek and it's a creek run sort of north south between the Coviet River and the Ben Hai River. In fact what happened was that the battalion commander asked for me to come join them in this particular fight based on his assessment he didn't have the forces to deal with the threat that they had engaged with. The 3rd Marine Division chopped me back to the 2nd Battalion and 4th Marines which means they reassigned me back to the 2nd Battalion and 4th Marines and I moved down the Coviet River moving west to east towards the ocean along the Coviet and linked up with the 2nd Battalion and 4th Marines headquarters and the battalion had been involved in a very significant fight. They'd been four three companies from the battalion involved and also being another company from 1st Battalion 3rd Marines involved and this particular company had just been hammered and sort of been pulled back and I helped reorganize them on the evening of 1 May when I joined the battalion and a lot of marines had been killed the company commander had been killed and so the assessment was that the attack had stalled. A golf company had was assigned to take the village of Dai Do and had stalled and got into the edge of the village and was being threatened. The other companies were disposed where they couldn't take action at that particular point and again the other company from 1st Battalion 3rd Marines was not available because of the fact they were just not combat effective. So we reorganized and got associated with the terrain got the best threat analysis we could come up with with respect to what might be in front of us looking at all the supporting arms that were available in terms of air, helicopter gunships, naval gunfire, artillery of all varieties and also what kind of support the other companies could potentially provide for us in terms of whatever our mission may be later on. And it turned out that evening after we got sort of all the forces basically realigned to the extent we could under threat that the battalion commander called me in about three o'clock that morning of 2 May and told me my job was to attack basically through the same position that company from 1 3 had attacked through across 500 meters of open rice paddies and take the village of Dido in coordination with the golf company of Secretary of the 4th Marines which was commanded by Captain J.R. Vargas and Vargas would also be the second recipient of the Medal of Honor based on this particular battle. So I called the platoon commanders together we decided on a course of action and the course of action was simply this we would put two companies two platoons up one company back in reserve and the company headquarters would be between the two assault companies and the reserve platoon our assault platoons in the reserve platoon. So at five o'clock that morning we commenced the assault after I told the Marines after lining them up on what we call a forward edge of the battle area we told the Marines to fix bayonets and probably was one of the last big bayonet charges of the Vietnam War and we moved out with all the supporting arms we could coordinate and also with some assistance from golf company which was on the edge of the battlefield or the village of Dido. As we approached and got closer into the enemy became very apparent they were all in bunkers they had a very small aperture and they would allow the Marines to close on them very close then most of the Marines who got shot were shot in the head and we lost a significant number of Marines and my two assault platoons sort of got stuck and so what I did at that point we used the old classic Marine tactic when you take in a fortified position or a build-up area the first thing you want to do is create a penetration where you can flank it on either side and you won't be facing the bunkers head-on. So I took the reserve platoon where my company headquarters we penetrated the lines there were about 100 bunkers there and at this position we were able to roll these 100 bunkers up destroy the enemy forces which was significant and after the fight was over I linked up with a hotel golf company I'm sorry and we began to coordinate the defense of that edge of the battle of the village of Dido. Unfortunately Echo had taken some real hits I went in there with about 180 and to take that village and to link up with a golf company it had treated Echo down very significantly as a matter of fact it was sad I had about 180 Marines and they were only about 35 or 40 left that were effective the rest of them had been killed or wounded but we had accomplished our mission we had linked up with golf company and been able to take the first significant step in seizing Dido village. Later on that afternoon after we consolidated the forces reorganized redistribute ammunition fed the troops got all the metal bags out got all the dead bodies out the battalion commander general later brigadier general Bill Weiss secretary of the 4th Marine CO had directed the hotel company one of the other companies that had been beat up pretty bad and had lost their company commander in the past to continue the attack. As far as the question they proposed for me just to summarize this what was the numerical superiority and positions of the enemy as I said their positions was in bunkers their superiority was excellent it was obviously was a big force they had all the weapons there were new troops they had new equipment so they were the one of the superior forces coming from North Vietnam and Dong Ha just in retrospect was a significant target because at Dong Ha the supply base located there all the artillery is located there and also the headquarters for the 3rd Marine Division so it became a strategic target after Hue very strategic target after Hue because the North Vietnamese were convinced if they could take that location it may have terminated the war I mean it was that significant because it supplied provided all supplies artillery and all the command and control for that portion of the theater at that particular point so it was a key installation and the North Vietnamese had made a major major effort to position forces to take that based on their experiences at Hue and earlier in the Tet Offensive and this was this particular area at the time was called a post-Tet Offensive. The terrain and all that the bunkers were typical A-frame bunkers they are tough to collapse even tanks would run up on them they couldn't collapse them the terrain was open rice paddies and it was just a tough area to fight in because you didn't have the cover and concealment you need and the only thing that provided you assets to protect yourself which a lot of gunfire support from naval gunfire artillery air helicopter gunships that we had significant support. After the battle there in the first phase as I said the condition of my company which is one of the questions was not very good we only had about 40 marines left and a golf company probably had 50 or 60 left and the hotel which I'll talk about next only had about probably about 70 marines left. The next phase of the operation was very significant and the significance was that the General Bill Wiest and Lieutenant Colonel Bill Wiest directed the hotel come around my left flank and continue the attack and against the village of Dai Do and subsequent villages. They bypassed me to my left they moved about 200 yards in front of me the North Vietnamese were ready for them and as soon as they got in the general area they executed the counter-attack against hotel company and hotel company is a acting company commander got wounded a young lieutenant named Vic Taylor took over but it became very apparent to me that this company remnants of hotel 24 was fixing to be overrun so I just said to hell with it and I said Echo I'm going up there to try to help make sure the hotel company survives this engagement so all of them agree all the Marines from Echo were remaining went with me and we linked up with the hotel company and we continued a big push against the North Vietnamese and overrun a couple of trench lines and there was such a significant threat in that area in terms of numbers which we had no indications how many people were in there they were just showing human wave after human wave after human wave and I said the Marines and the sailors docs were magnificent they did a great job in defending that area up to the point the attrition became so bad amongst the Marines and also the lack of ammunition it became a it became a hand to hand dog fight and God bless the young Marines they stood their ground and I was always so proud of every one of them that was there and how they encountered and how they reacted and every one of was a Marine to the end and unfortunately during this particular phase of the operation I stepped across the trench line and a Vietnamese that was firing an aircraft gun shot me through the leg with a 50 caliber machine gun and I went down and all the Marines saw that fact and they reacted because I was a senior man and I've sort of been a guy I guess pushing him to continue the attack and when I went down things began to sort of come on unglued so my advice to them was to get the hell out of the area and leave me here and I'd cover the withdrawal but God bless them you know the Marines take care of their own and I guess they considered me the boss at that point and so they took care of their own and a couple of young black Marines that had been wounded after we went through this dog fight and they killed just I don't know how they dragged me back and we pulled all the Marines back and pulled all the wounded Marines back and they reconsolidated and this sort of terminated my involvement in it and I was medevaced in center boardship and I was operated on six or seven times and ultimately better back to Hawaii where I recuperated for a couple of months but I went back to visit this area a few years later and the thing was very apparent to me we had the residual forces of this turned out to be a North Vietnamese division boxed up at the end of the village of Dai Do because if we'd pushed them out in the open because of the gunships because of the fixed wing artillery naval gunfire they would have been slaughtered at that point so they were fighting to the death just like we were fighting to the death. I would give them an A plus the damn guys knew how to fight but they never run up against Marines the way we were prepared to be we were prepared to fight because we'd been there working together for about seven or eight months and as I told the Marines in Echo we were prepared to do the NFL fight and God bless us we had trained we had been in a lot of engagement so we were about the most prepared battalion in the Marine Corps at that point to get involved in a fight at this time. So I think the thing that I recall that really sort of resonates in my mind is the spirit the enthusiasm the just the pure simplified spirit of the Marines that were involved in that fight and how they stood their ground even against overwhelming numbers lack of ammunition but at the end of the day when the battle was over the North Vietnamese the division of about 10,000 people were up against about 800 Marines with this gunfire support and they went home and they left a lot of bodies on the battlefield there's the numbers between three and four thousand of the ten thousand were either killed or wounded probably most of them were killed. Echo company as I told you went from 180 down to about 35 or 40 and at the end of the day I'm told and I don't have the numbers in front of me we lost approximately 100 Marines and second battalion fourth Marines that were killed and about 296 medevacs and there were about 150 or so that were not medevac but were wounded. So it was a hell of a fight and probably one of the last if not the last big fight in Vietnam and if we had lost that fight and they had seized Dong Ha the psychological impact on this country and on all the forces associated with that fight that was going on in May of 68 would have been just something I don't think the country could have dealt with at that point after Hue City and Saigon and all the other things that transpired up to that particular fight. A question was posed to me about a notification about a receipt of the Medal of Honor. Let me just make one thing very clear about this. My intention of being a Marine captain and being a company commander was to do my job to do my mission and to bring the Marines home. As far as going over there trying to get a Medal of Honor or get any award in Vietnam that never even crossed my mind. But I was recognized I guess for whatever contributions I made and the recommendation was to forward award recommended me and Jay Vargas for the Medal of Honor. And this thing was involved in the administrative process for about two and a half years. They had to go through all these checks and balances at all levels to make sure all the various levels of command the levels of the government concurred with the recommendation. And I was assigned down at Fort Benning, Georgia as the Assistant Marine Corps Rep when I was notified back in 1970. And the Commander General and Army General called me up to his office and said you're going to Washington you're going to receive the Medal of Honor. He's a wonderful man a very inspirational leader and I went up with my boss the Marine Colonel and we went up and talked about the details of it how to get the family there. And this was in 70 when air was not as available as you might expect. And I got all the family rounded it up and after we were notified we went to D.C. We were hosted by the Marine Corps and there were about seven or eight other recipients at that particular ceremony. But it was a wonderful ceremony people took great care of us winded down us for two or three days and the family for two or three days. So it was a great experience for the family both my wife and my young daughter and also my mom and dad my brother and sister-in-law. So it was first class great memories. Nixon was very kind and very honor in and made quite a few great gestures towards family. So great memory but the big thing that I recall most of all again is the significance of the Battle of Dado and the performance of the young Marines and Sailors. So whatever I got out of this award I wear it for the young Marines and Sailors primarily didn't make it home from Echo Company but for all of them their blood their sweat their commitment their professionalism is tied up in this award and I wear it for them and I don't wear it for myself. So the experience of Dado I did not let define my life I wanted to be a Marine every day of the week but the experience of Dado certainly placed me in positions I would not have been otherwise or the Medal of Honor award places me in positions I wouldn't be otherwise but the key to I think the whole experience is I enjoyed being a Marine. I enjoyed being associated Marines. I enjoyed lead Marines. One of the elements of my life is a recipient of the Medal of Honor obviously and I hope I wear it with dignity and pride and in memory of those young Marines that didn't really didn't make it home. So God bless the 2nd Battalion 4th Marines affectionately called a Magnificent Bastard. It was my pleasure my honor to command Echo Company 2nd Battalion 4th Marines and have the opportunity to serve with those exceptional young 18 19 and 20 year old Marines that give it all and God bless them for loving their country and being willing to go down range when I asked them to go around the range and never hesitate it. So the fighting capacity of young Americans is remarkable if they're trained properly, led properly, motivated properly, and equipped properly and I think Echo Company not because of me but I think Echo Company because of all the NCOs, Staff NCOs, the young officers had all those qualities associated with it. So God bless Echo, God bless 2nd Battalion 4th Marines and I'll tell you all who you remember the Marine Corps is a real Semper Fi Alpet. Once again I'm Colin Heaton and we hope you enjoyed this segment on Forgotten History. If you would like to know more about the Battle of Dido and Dong Ha as well as the career life of Major General James Livingston Medal of Honor recipient in the Battle of Dido then please get the book Noble Warrior and you can go to our website and gather more information on how to get that. If you like this segment of Forgotten History please click like and then subscribe and leave your comments. We welcome all comments and we will respond as soon as we can. Thank you.