Camp Carroll
Camp Carroll was a United States Marine Corps artillery base during the Vietnam War. It was located at 16°45′47″N 106°55′50″E / 16.76306°N 106.93056°E (MGRS 48QYD062545), 8 km southwest of the town of Cam Lo. Camp Carroll was also at the centroid of a large arc of the strategic Highway 9 corridor south of the DMZ, which made it a key facility.
History
The camp was named after Navy Cross recipient Captain James J. Carroll who was the commanding officer of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines. He was killed by friendly tank fire on October 5, 1966 during Operation Prairie.[1] The camp was commissioned on November 10, 1966 and became home for the 3rd Marine Regiment. It was one of nine artillery bases constructed along the DMZ and had 80 artillery pieces including M107 175mm guns from the United States Army. From a tactical perspective, therefore, the 175mm self-propelled gun was the most important weapon at Camp Carroll. The 175mm guns put Camp Carroll on the map, particularly the tactical maps of the North Vietnamese forward observers. The most powerful American field artillery tube, the 175mm could fire a 150-pound projectile 32,690 meters and effectively return fire on any enemy gun that could hit it.
Camp Carroll diminished in significance after the 1968 Tet Offensive. The 3rd Marine Division began relying on highly mobile postures rather than remaining in their fixed positions as sitting targets. The Marine Corps began pulling out of Vietnam in 1969 as part of President Richard Nixon's Vietnamization Policy.
On April 2, 1972, Colonel Pham Van Dinh surrendered the facility to the North Vietnamese Army. At present the land belongs to Xi Nghiep Ho Tieu Lam, the Vietnamese state-operated pepper enterprise.
Other
Camp Carroll also refers to a U.S. Army camp located in Waegwan, South Korea. It is referred to as "The Crown Jewel of Area 4".
Notes
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Camp Carroll. |
- ↑ Coan (2004), p.49.
References
- Bibliography
- Coan, James P. (2004). Con Thien - Hill of Angels. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-1414-8.
- Web
- Army map of Camp Carroll location
- Big Guns of Camp Carroll, by Peter Brush
- Surrender of Camp Carroll, vnafmamn.com
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