Stateside: The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his speech opposing the war at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at the Riverside Church in New York City.

Beyond Vietnam A Time to Break Silence

Stateside: At New York University during the week of April 8-15, students participate in a variety of activities designed to raise the level of campus discussion about the war in Vietnam as well as to initiate student actions against the war. They included seminars, films, panel discussions and theatrical performances. 

   The effort at NYU was part of many similar programs carried out at other campuses across the country. These local actions build towards two massive demonstrations in New York and San Francisco on April 15 sponsored by the Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam.

   With the new improvements of the physical defenses of the 3rd Ordnance Ammunition Depot: no-mans-zone between the post perimeter and wood line was widened; additional watch towers were added; barbed wire perimeter fences and flood lights were improved. Brigade tasked Group in Letter Of Instruction No. 2-67, with providing a new plan for interior security requirements to provide personnel and equipment for the new improvements. As a result on 15 April the Battalion ambush and security assignment outside the perimeter of the depot that began on 19 November 1966, came to an end.  The twenty-six enlisted men and one officer assigned to the detail were now free to perform other duties.

   The Battalion assumed the mission of operating joint check points in conjunction with the Vietnamese National Police, [Canh Sat] and Army of the Republic of Vietnam Military Police [Quan Canh] within the Saigon area. The check points were utilized to control the movement of restricted commodities.

   This was a prelude to what would later become Operation OVERTAKE, the suppression of cargo theft and black marketing operations from government contract vehicles. If you have any photographs or stories pertaining to these check points, please contact the History Project Manager via the Email Link.

   The following personnel were promoted under C Company Unit Orders No. 18 from Private (E-2) to Private First Class (E-3), Fred D. Clark and James R. Williams.

   Under Brigade instructions a military police needs survey for Long Binh Post was conducted by the III CTZ Provost Marshal.  With the programmed increase of troops strength from 19,000 to 42,000 expected by August 1967 and a projected increase to 80,000 by early 1968, it was recommended that Provost Marshal and military police operations needed a dedicate PMO section (4 officers and 13 enlisted men) and MP Company (4 officers and 151 enlisted men) to handle the mission.  This study would result in the eventual reassignment of the of the 615th MP Company from a combat support mission to one of discipline, law and order on 10 February 1968.