Firebase Pedro (also known as Landing Zone Pedro) is a former U.S. Army and

Army of the Republic of Vietnam The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ; ) composed the ground forces of the Republic of Vietnam Military Forces, South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. Its predecessor was the ground forc ...

(ARVN)

firebase Firebase was a company that developed backend software. It was founded in San Francisco in 2011 and was incorporated in Delaware. In 2014, Firebase was bought by Google. Its name continues as a set of backend cloud computing services and ...

southwest of Quảng Trị in central

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

History

The base was established on Route 557 approximately 5 km southwest of the Quảng Trị. Landing Zone Pedro was first established by the 5th Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment in January 1968 for use during Operation Pegasus.

1972

By January 1972 the ARVN 3rd Division had assumed responsibility for the area north of Highway 9. Pedro was occupied by the Vietnamese Marine Corps (VNMC) 1st Marine Battalion. The PAVN launched their

Easter Offensive The Easter Offensive, also known as the 1972 spring–summer offensive (') by North Vietnam, or the Red Fiery Summer (') as romanticized in South Vietnamese literature, was a military campaign conducted by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN, t ...

on 30 March 1972 and PAVN artillery fire hit all the ARVN and Marine positions along the DMZ. On 5 April the VNMC 1st Battalion was withdrawn to Ái Tử Combat Base and replaced with the VNMC 6th battalion. At dawn on 9 April the PAVN launched an attack, led by tanks, against Pedro. The PAVN tanks had outrun their infantry support and 9 tanks were lost in a minefield around Pedro. An armored task force of 8 M48s and 12 M113s from the ARVN 20th Tank Battalion were despatched from Ái Tử to support the Marines at Pedro. At the same time a flight of Vietnamese Air Force

Douglas A-1 Skyraider The Douglas A-1 Skyraider (formerly designated AD before the 1962 1962 United States Tri-Service aircraft designation system, unification of Navy and Air Force designations) is an American single-seat attack aircraft in service from 1946 to the ...

s arrived overhead and destroyed 5 tanks. When the ARVN armor arrived they destroyed five T-54s for no losses and drove one captured T-54 back to Ái Tử. On 10 and 11 April further PAVN attacks on Pedro were repulsed at a cost of over 200 PAVN estimated killed. At 02:00 on 29 April the PAVN attacked the ARVN positions north and south of Ái Tử and the ARVN defenses began to crumble. By midday on 30 April, the 3rd Division commander ordered a withdrawal from Ái Tử to a defensive line along the south of the Thạch Hãn River and the withdrawal was completed late that day.

Current use

The base has reverted to jungle.

References

{{reflist Installations of the United States Army in South Vietnam Installations of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Buildings and structures in Quảng Trị province