June 17, 1967 - The Battle of Xom Bo II

This section of the site is dedicated to all the men who fought in the battle of Xom Bo II back on June 17, 1967, and especially to those brave young men who perished there in the mud of LZ X-Ray. When called upon by our nation, these men gave their all. "June 17, 1967 - Battle of Xom Bo II,"  was written to celebrate their lives and recognize their ultimate sacrifices.

Their names are listed below:

Alpha Company 1/16th

Bravo Co, 1st Bn, 1/16th

HHC, (Recon) 1/16th

Bravo Co, 2nd Bn, 28th

Alpha Company 2/28th

Alpha Battery 6/27th

Xom Bo II was one of the bloodiest battles fought in the summer of 1967, but it never gained the notoriety of battles like Ap Gu or Ong Thanh. The battle of Xom Bo II had 189 casualties versus Ong Thanh, which had 141 and Ap Gu which suffered 119. Our rumble in the jungle ended with 39 men dead and a hundred and fifty more wounded. Two great books have been written about the bloody battle of Ong Thanh, and two books were written to tell of the battle of Ap Gu, but no book has been written about the battle of Xom Bo II until now.

I hope my book “June 17, 1967, The Battle of Xom Bo II” will correct this slight. What little that has been written about the battle portrayed it as a battle where only one battalion was involved or that we actually assaulted the LZ by helicopters, but those assertions are totally incorrect. Companies from the 2/28th Black Lions and the 1/16th Rangers fought in this battle, and they all suffered men killed and wounded. We were not transported into the LZ by air as Wikipedia entries suggested, but marched into LZ X-Ray from LZ Rufe. The battle was so fierce that Alpha Company and the recon platoon of the 1/16th were declared combat ineffective and had to be replaced by elements of the 1/18th. Bravo Company of the Black Lions was also declared combat ineffective because of its large number of casualties.

The book is about what my comrades did, saw, and suffered during the battle of Xom Bo II. A bloody battle fought during the pinnacle of the Summer of Love where our generation back in the world was experiencing a country in turmoil embroiled with race riots and war protest. A time where the unquestioned respect for parents, politicians, teachers, and the police had eroded to the point where many purposely did whatever they could to show their disdain for society’s rules. It was also a time for the birth of new sounds in music.

We were the sons of Second World War and Korean War veterans. Many of us wanted to be like our dads, uncles, and brothers who had served our country in previous wars. They had come home as heroes to a grateful country. They were welcomed home with ticker tape parades, cheering crowds and speeches about their bravery and valor. Many of those who returned would become captains of industry and leaders of our country. In 1967 even our President had previously served in the military and his predecessors President Kennedy, Eisenhower and Harry Truman had also served.

My story is about my comrades who unhesitatingly served their country, and returned to a nation indifferent to their courage and the sacrifices that they made for our country. It is about those who paid the ultimate price and the rest of us who were able to survive the killing, but came home scarred from battle, both physically and mentally.

To write this book, I interviewed many of my comrades, or their loved ones and friends. What was going to be a short two-thousand-word article for the Vietnam Magazine became a lengthy book that would tell the stories of hundreds of men who fought June 17, 1967, at LZ X-Ray in the battle of Xom Bo II.

I hope my story of what happened at LZ X-Ray sets history straight and does justice to all my comrades who fought so valiantly that hot, rainy afternoon of hell.