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 alter 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 only be reached 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.