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Background/Context on Phu Bai Combat Base, Vietnam - and what happened there June 1, 1969?

PatrickAustin

I am researching an Army soldier's service record as much as possible (I am not family) for a book proposal and have the citation from a Bronze Star with "V" Device he was awarded. The citation contains some information about the soldier's heroics, but I want to step back and understand what was happening in that immediate area that day - June 1, 1969, Phu Bai Combat Base - and what led to the action he was involved in? What was he involved in? Was it a major offensive by the VC, or just a skirmish, harassment? Were there casualties on both sides? What were they? He was in the 31st Military History Detachment in XXIV Corps. What would his job have been? Was it unusual for someone in that unit to be on night guard duty? I will stop there, but as you can tell I have many questions....

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    Military History Detachments were small teams-3 to 6 personnel-who were assigned to various headquarters to prepare historical reports, conduct oral history interviews, prepare after action reports, collect important documents, and otherwise preserve historical records. They were often, for all intents and purposes, absorbed into the headquarters they supported as a staff section--the "Command Historian's Office"--and, as such, it wouldn't be unusual for the enlisted members of the unit (or even the officers) to be integrated into appropriate duty rosters, including duty rosters. That's what the 44th Medical Brigade did with the 27th Military History Detachment, for example, which supported them. 

    Additionally, each unit had a unit defense plan, so that if their base (Phu Bai, in this case) was attacked, they'd go to protect their individual unit's perimeter--again, in this case, as part of the larger unit they were supporting.

    If you want to understand the background of the Military History Detachments, there's a relatively new book out on them, titled:

    The U.S. Army Combat Historian and Combat History Operations, World War I to the Vietnam War, by Kathryn Roe Coker and Jason Wetzel, Casemate Press, Philadelphia, PA: 2023.

    According to Where We Were in Vietnam, Phu Bai Combat Base was the home to the Headquarters, 3d Marine Division, and the Phu Bai Army Airfield was the location of the 85th Evacuation Hospital. Shelby Stanton's Order of Battle, Vietnam says that the XIV Corps headquarters was also located at Phu Bai from August 1968 to March 1970, so I would assume that the 31st MHD supported that headquarters.

    A search for "31st" in the Kindle edition gives no hits, but it will provide context.

    Full disclosure, I was a combat historian in Desert Storm. It's not as glamorous as it sounds.

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    Military History Detachments were small teams-3 to 6 personnel-who were assigned to various headquarters to prepare historical reports, conduct oral history interviews, prepare after action reports, collect important documents, and otherwise preserve historical records. They were often, for all intents and purposes, absorbed into the headquarters they supported as a staff section--the "Command Historian's Office"--and, as such, it wouldn't be unusual for the enlisted members of the unit (or even the officers) to be integrated into appropriate duty rosters, including duty rosters. That's what the 44th Medical Brigade did with the 27th Military History Detachment, for example, which supported them. 

    Additionally, each unit had a unit defense plan, so that if their base (Phu Bai, in this case) was attacked, they'd go to protect their individual unit's perimeter--again, in this case, as part of the larger unit they were supporting.

    If you want to understand the background of the Military History Detachments, there's a relatively new book out on them, titled:

    The U.S. Army Combat Historian and Combat History Operations, World War I to the Vietnam War, by Kathryn Roe Coker and Jason Wetzel, Casemate Press, Philadelphia, PA: 2023.

    According to Where We Were in Vietnam, Phu Bai Combat Base was the home to the Headquarters, 3d Marine Division, and the Phu Bai Army Airfield was the location of the 85th Evacuation Hospital. Shelby Stanton's Order of Battle, Vietnam says that the XIV Corps headquarters was also located at Phu Bai from August 1968 to March 1970, so I would assume that the 31st MHD supported that headquarters.

    A search for "31st" in the Kindle edition gives no hits, but it will provide context.

    Full disclosure, I was a combat historian in Desert Storm. It's not as glamorous as it sounds.

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