Robert Gouge

Raiding the Sanctuary: Redcatchers in Cambodia, May 12th - June 25th, 1970 Robert Gouge

The "Warriors" of the 5th Battalion, 12th Infantry, 199th Light Infantry Brigade joined the U. S. Army's lightning offensive into the Cambodian border sanctuaries late in the afternoon of May 12th, 1970. Less than six hours after arriving at a small, poorly-constructed patrol base called LZ Brown, two under-strength infantry companies from the battalion were fiercely engaged with the 174th NVA Regiment. This battle marked the North Vietnamese Army's first major counter-attack of the Cambodian Incursion. For the next two months during that hectic summer of 1970, the 5-12th Infantry and Delta Battery, 2nd Battalion, 40th Artillery fought head to head on a daily basis with some of the toughest and most determined units in the North Vietnamese Army.