Ocean View, Viet Nam
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Ocean View was the northernmost U.S. military outpost in South Vietnam during that country's existence. The primary reason for its existence was an attempt to prevent infiltration of troops through the demilitarized zone and North Vietnam into I Corps and South Vietnam.
The position had an excellent view of infiltrators running the white sand gauntlet about 2.5 miles to the west.
That it was somewhat successful was demonstrated by the North Vietnamese armed force attempting to over-run the position at least twice: once around September 17, 1968 and on February 22, 1969.
Ocean View was an area that saw action several times in the period 1966-69. It was decided to put an observation tower there and staff the tower with Marines (and occasionally a naval officer) as forward observers for Navy ships firing at North Vietnamese positions or personnel. The most famous of the ships was the battleship USS New Jersey. She came in the later half of 1968 and immediately established fire superiority to the North Vietnamese gunners. The Marines in the tower were assigned to ANGLICO, which stands for Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company. The area surrounding the tower was mostly sand and looked like a desert. Some have compared it to being in the foreign legion rather than the Marine Corps. See the book "Praying for Slack". The tower was guarded by an infantry platoon, two small Army tanks with 40mm pom pom guns on each and a Marine tank or two. It was a very isolated spot and could be reached only by Amtrac or helicopter. Its purpose was to protect the supply center of Cua Viet several miles below on the coast. Navy ships would unload supplies at Cua Viet and these would be taken up the Cua Viet River to Dong Ha. The people in the tower, called spotters (Navy lingo for Forward Observer) purpose was to hinder North Vietnamese gunners from interrupting the re-supply process. Typically ships would begin to unload, North Vietnamese gunners would fire at Cua Viet from either North Viet Nam or the DMZ. Their rounds would essentially go over OceanView tower on the way south. The Observers or spotters would figure out the North Vietnamese positions and call out to the ships with the coordinates and then adjust the rounds onto the target. This would stop the shelling of Cua Viet either by knocking out the NVA gunners or at least scaring the hell out of them.
The Army track vehicles that were stationed at Ocean view were M42-A1, automatic 40 mm guns. The track vehicles were assigned to the 3rd Marine Division,they were nicknamed Dusters. The U.S. Army provided these vehicles at the Marine Corps request from 1st battalion 44th artillery , 108th Artillery Group, at Dong Ha combat base. The vehicles were involved in a all night fire fight with 500( est)North Vietnamese troops on Feb. 22, 1969. The battle ship New Jersey fired in support of the Marines and the Dusters. The New Jersey fired a number of 16 inch rounds that sailed over Ocean View to the West of the Out Post. There were bodies, blood trails, bunkers, explosives and weapons found on the battle ground the following morning.The Duster was reported to have had 60 confirmed kills that one night. The base was manned by 32 Marines from the 1st Amtrack Division,plus 11 duster crewmen on the 2 Dusters. Only the Duster that fired that night was the track vehicle stationed South of the command post. There was a tragedy that night as a Marine listening post became disorientated after they were chased by enemy troops back toward Ocean View. During the excitement of the impending battle the Marine listening post became lost in the dark, running into the concertina wire in front of the Duster which opened fire after being ordered to fire by the Marine Lieutenant. Two Marines died that night in a tragic friendly fire incident. The battle should go down in history as a very decisive battle that resulted in hundreds of North Vietnamese casualties and no American forces being injured by enemy fire.
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