USMC STARLITE – 8/65*
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Date: August 1965*                     
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Battle Location:  I Corps, Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam*
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Battle Type: U.S. Marine assault versus Viet Cong defend*
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Description: Operation STARLITE was the first major U.S. military operation since Korea.  In 1965, intel indicated that the 1st Viet Cong Regiment was planning to attack the airbase at Chu Lai, southeast of Da Nang.  On August 18,1965, units from the 3rd, 4th, and 7th Marine Regiments launched a combined amphibious, armor, and helo-borne infantry assault fifteen miles south of Chu Lai in an effort to pre-empt the suspected VC offensive.  The operation lasted for two days and over 700 VC were killed.  Seven USMC tanks were damaged by enemy fire, one so badly that it had to be destroyed by a Marine demolition squad.*
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Note:  If played against the AI, the human player must play the U.S. side.*
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Source: Lehrack, "The First Battle:  Operation Starlite and the Beginning of the Blood Debt in Vietnam"; Sigler, "Vietnam Battle Chronology – U.S. Army and Marine Corps Combat Operations, 1965-1973"*
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Design by:  C. B. Blackard*


