31 March

1Lt BRIAN M. THACKER
Btry A, 1st Bn, 92d Artillery
Kontum Province, RVN
31 March 1971

1Lt Thacker was serving as the team leader operating with ARVN elements when a  numerically superior NVA force launched an early morning assault on the hilltop Firebase.

Rockets, Flame Throwers, and automatic weapons were all unleashed on the ARVN position that morning.  Enemy forces penetrated the perimeter defenses – 1Lt Thacker, along with his men, were forced to engage the enemy in hand-to-hand combat.

1Lt Thacker rallied and encouraged the American and ARVN troops under his command spurring them on to heroic efforts to repel the enemy.   He held his ground in a dangerously exposed observation position 4 hours while directing friendly airstrikes.

Thacker led his men to inflict a huge number of casualties and was able to hold the firebase.  The situation became untenable by late afternoon – Thacker organized the withdrawal calling for evacuation.

As his men made their way to a defensible position, 1Lt Thacker remained inside the original perimeter to provide covering fire armed only an M-16 rifle.

Realizing he couldn’t stop the advancing enemy alone and that the enemy was all around him — 1Lt Thacker hunkered down and called for friendly artillery fire on his own position.

Although decimated by artillery, the enemy still held what was left of the firebase.

Wounded and unable to escape from the area himself, 1LT Thacker successfully eluded the enemy forces for 8 days until friendly forces regained control of the firebase.

He revealed himself only after forces retook the firebase

1Lt Thacker survived his service and at the time of this post is 75 years old.

A post Viet Nam interview with 1Lt. Thacker can be heard here:

https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp-stories/loc.natlib.afc2001001.89787/