Colonel Joe Griffis
First Battalion, Fifth Marines
1969 - 1970
Since our founding in Vera Cruz, Mexico in 1914,
the Marines of the First Battalion, Fifth Marines have not deviated from their mission
of locating, closing with, and destroying the enemy. The names of such famous campaigns
as Belleau Wood in 1917, where the First Battalion, Fifth Marines earned the French
Fourregere and the nickname "Devil Dogs"; Guadalcanal, Peliliu, Okinawa, Inchon, and
the Frozen Chosen, the First Battalion, Fifth Marines had added the Citadel at Hue City,
Operations Houston, Taylor Common and most memorable for the current members of the
Battalion operations in the area affectionately termed the "Arizona Territory".
Conditions have greatly changed from the trenches of World War I, the beaches
of Guadalcanal, or the snow covered mountains of the Chosen Reservoir, yet the First
Battalion, Fifth Marines is still the vanguard for America's war effort. Occupying the
first line of defense for the Danang Vital area, todays "Grunt" works and fights at a
new type of warfare--Counter Inssurgent--in a new type of environment; the rice paddies
and the mountains, in 120 degree heat or during months of long monsoon rains. Success
in this new form of warfare could be measured by the 186 NVA killed by A and B companies
on June 8 and 9, 1969, the tons of rice denied the enemy in November, the Meritorious
Unit Commendation presented to "D" company of the First Battalion, Fifth Marines by the
Commandant, and surviving Jean Dixon's Doom Prediction, of the annihilation of the First
Battalion of 1 December 1969.
The war has been almost void of regimental size
assaults, rather it has been a war of primarily squad size ambushes and long range
platoon patrols, always with the emphasis on instantaneous reaction to emergency
confrontations. Spooky, Basketball, Arclights, SIDS, and "Super Bloopers" are the
language of this Marine Battalion and represents the logistical and technological
advances of the Marine Corps. Yet it is still the individual riflemen and the men
supporting him who face the enemy and count the victory. Reality in Vietnam is a
booby-trap, a cold C-ration, an enemy sapper, a medevac chopper, the next tree line,
your squad, and much more; but truth is your buddy walking behind you and your RTD.
Reality was Phu Loc Six (liberty bridge) in March 1969, the An Bangs in June,
the Phu Nhuans in September, Charlie Ridge in December and back in the Arizona in January.
It is the Arizona where we came to know ourselves to have been tested by the NVA's best,
and to have met that test with resounding victory. For it was in this wasteland of
deserted rice paddies that the enemy massed his best, attempted to penetrate the deepest,
and was defeated at every turn. It was in the Arizona where the sword of the NVA and
the guerrilla suffered his greatest loss of men, material and food supplies. First Battalion, Fifth Marines will continue to march, seeing its duty clearly
always performing in an exemplary manner, and earning the reputation of professionals
to those fellow Marines who marched through the mud, assaulted the treeline and who gave
their lives in battle, our pledge is simply Semper Fidelis.
