Landing Zone Baldy (also known as FSB Baldy or Hill 63) was a

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

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) base located northwest of

Chu Lai Chu Lai is a seaport, urban and industrial area in Núi Thành District, Quảng Nam Province, Vietnam. The city is served by Chu Lai International Airport. It is also the site of the Chu Lai Open Economic Zone (Vietnamese: ''Khu Kinh Tế M� ...

, Quảng Nam Province in central Vietnam.

History

The base was located at the intersection of Highway 1 and Route 535, approximately 28 km northwest of Chu Lai. Baldy was originally established by the U.S. Army

196th Light Infantry Brigade The 196th Infantry Brigade ("Chargers"), also known as the Charger Brigade was first formed on 24 June 1921 as part of the United States Army Reserve's 98th Division with the responsibility of training soldiers. World War II During World War II, ...

and was then taken over as the headquarters for the 7th Marines. On the morning of 3 January 1968 the

People's Army of Vietnam The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), officially the Vietnam People's Army (VPA; , , ), also recognized as the Vietnamese Army (), the People's Army () or colloquially the Troops ( ), is the national Military, military force of the Vietnam, S ...

(PAVN) 2nd Division mortared Baldy as part of a series of attacks on four Marines bases. In August 1969 a logistics support unit of Force Logistic Support Group Bravo was established at Baldy. In late 1969 the

3rd Battalion 11th Marines 3rd Battalion, 11th Marines (3/11) is an artillery battalion comprising three firing batteries, a Liaison Unit, and a headquarters battery. The battalion is based at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California and its p ...

moved to Baldy. In September 1970 the 7th Marines began to withdraw from the Quế Sơn Valley and the Baldy tactical area of operations as part of Operation Keystone Robin Alpha handing over control to the

5th Marine Regiment The 5th Marine Regiment (also referred to as "5th Marines") is an infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps based at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. It is the most highly decorated regiment in the Marine Corps and falls ...

. From 2–15 October 1970 the U.S. Army's ''Task Force Saint'' comprising the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry, 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry and a battery from the 3rd Battalion, 82nd Artillery was based at Baldy for Operation Tulare Falls I and returned again as ''Task Force Burnett'' from 27 to 31 October. From 14 October 1970 the

1st Marine Aircraft Wing The 1st Marine Aircraft Wing is an aviation unit of the United States Marine Corps that serves as the Aviation Combat Element of the III Marine Expeditionary Force. The wing is headquartered at Camp Foster on the island of Okinawa Island, Okina ...

deployed a force of six CH-46Ds, 4 AH-1Gs and one UH-1E command ship to Baldy on a daily basis from

Marble Mountain Air Facility Marble Mountain Air Facility (MMAF), also known as Da Nang East Airfield, Marble Mountain Army Airfield and Nuoc Man Airfield, was an aviation facility used primarily by the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. It was a helicopt ...

to support 5th Marine

quick reaction force A rapid reaction force / rapid response force (RRF), quick reaction force / quick response force (QRF), immediate reaction force (IRF), rapid deployment force (RDF), or quick maneuver force (QMF) is a military or Law enforcement agency, law enf ...

(QRF) operations. In late November the Korean 2nd Marine Brigade also stationed a QRF platoon at Baldy. Baldy was a base for Marine combined action and pacification programmes throughout 1969–70. In January 1971 as part of the general drawdown of U.S. forces the 23rd Infantry Division took over the Marines' tactical area of responsibility, but made it clear they would not take over the Marine bases at Baldy,

Firebase Ross Firebase Ross (also known as Hill 51) was a U.S. Marine Corps, Army and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) fire support base located in the Quế Sơn Valley southwest of Hội An, Quảng Nam Province in central Vietnam. History The base w ...

Firebase Ryder 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 a ...

. On 4 March 1971, Logistics Support Unit 3 at Baldy ceased operations. On 20 March 1971 the Marines turned over Baldy to the ARVN.

Current use

The base appears to remain in use by the PAVN.

References

{{Marine Corps Military installations of the United States Marine Corps in South Vietnam Installations of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Buildings and structures in Quảng Nam province