Vandegrift Combat Base (also known as FSB Vandegrift and LZ Stud) is a former
U.S. Army,
U.S. Marine Corps, and
Army of the Republic of Vietnam
The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ; french: Armée de la république du Viêt Nam) composed the ground forces of the South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon in April 1975. It is estimated to have suffe ...
(ARVN) base north of
Ca Lu in
Quảng Trị Province,
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...
.
History
1968
LZ Stud was originally established by the
1st Cavalry Division on
Route 9 in early 1968 to support
Operation Pegasus, the relief of Khe Sanh.
On 14 March engineer construction began on a x airstrip and a logistical complex at LZ Stud.
On 24 March the quartering party moved to LZ Stud and began work on command and communications bunkers. By 29 March the strip was opened for
C-7 Caribou aircraft. On 30 March the
11th Aviation Group
11 (eleven) is the natural number following 10 and preceding 12. It is the first repdigit. In English, it is the smallest positive integer whose name has three syllables.
Name
"Eleven" derives from the Old English ', which is first attested ...
moved to LZ Stud.
[
The base was later occupied by the 9th Marine Regiment, part of the ]3rd Marine Division
The 3rd Marine Division is a division of the United States Marine Corps based at Camp Courtney, Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler in Okinawa, Japan. It is one of three active duty infantry divisions in the Marine Corps and together wit ...
who renamed it Vandegrift Combat Base after Marine General Alexander Vandegrift
General Alexander Archer Vandegrift, USMC (March 13, 1887 – May 8, 1973) was a United States Marine Corps four-star general. During World War II, he commanded the 1st Marine Division to victory in its first ground offensive of the war, the B ...
.[
]
1969
From January–March 1969 Vandegrift was used to support Operation Dewey Canyon, an offensive into the A Shau Valley
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes' ...
south of the base.
On 9 April 1969 a Marine Sikorsky CH-53A Sea Stallion helicopter (BuNo 153738) of HMH-462 crashed into the logistics support area at Vandegrift triggering a large fire.
In October 1969 the base was handed over to the ARVN 2nd Division who dismantled it and used it to reinforce Camp Carroll
Camp Carroll (also known as Artillery Plateau, Firebase Tan Lam and Hill 241) was a United States Marine Corps and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) artillery base during the Vietnam War. It was located 8 km southwest of Cam Lộ, Q ...
.[
]
1971
In late January 1971 the base was reoccupied by the 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division in support of Operation Dewey Canyon II and Operation Lam Son 719
Operation Lam Son 719 or 9th Route – Southern Laos Campaign ( vi, Chiến dịch Lam Sơn 719 or Chiến dịch đường 9 – Nam Lào) was a limited-objective offensive campaign conducted in the southeastern portion of the Kingdom of Laos. T ...
.
Current use
The base is abandoned and turned over to farmland.
References
Buildings and structures in Quảng Trị province
Military installations of the United States Marine Corps in South Vietnam
Installations of the United States Army in South Vietnam
{{Vietnam-war-stub