Operation Thunder — Nui Be Mountains, Binh Tuy (May 1971)

Operation Thunder — the operation frame

Operation-level page, reconstructed. This establishes what Operation Thunder was, why FSB King existed, and where 2/8 Cav fit — drawn from a newspaper clipping (datelined FSB King) in Jim Garvin's collection, Howard McGrew's calendar, and the 3rd Brigade (Separate) context. It is not a day-by-day record of D Company's actions, which await the 2/8 Cav journal (NARA RG 472).

Operation Thunder was a combined US / Binh Tuy Regional Forces search-and-clear of the Nui Be Mountains in Binh Tuy Province, in the back half of May 1971. A newspaper account in Jim Garvin's collection, datelined Fire Support Base King, frames King as having been "built as a launching site for Operation Thunder," by which the combined force "combed the Nui Be Mountains in search of the command and control element of the VC." The 3rd Brigade (Separate) history places the MR-7 Rear Service Group at Nui Be — and the haul Thunder turned up (an ordnance depot, an aid station, a factory-size sewing machine, typewriters, and food caches) is exactly a rear-service logistics base, not a combat position. So Thunder reads as a raid on that rear-service complex.

The operation was a Vietnamization showcase: described as the first time the Binh Tuy RFs had worked directly with Cav units in a combined effort of this size, with the RF commander ("Trung Uy") commanding the ground forces alongside LTC Bacon through a US interpreter. US air strikes cut instant LZs in the mountain tops ahead of the assault, and a US Navy destroyer offshore in the South China Sea — with a dozen Marines attached to 2/8 to coordinate — added naval gunfire.

Where 2/8 Cav fit — and the local calendar

FSB King was a 2/8 Cav fire-support base (three 105mm howitzers split off from FSB Fanning), the southeasternmost firebase toward the Binh Tuy coast — "the farthest 3rd Bde firebase from Bien Hoa," in the article's words. Howard McGrew's field calendar puts D Company in the operation from inside the unit:

• 19 May — truck to Ham Tan airfield — staging on the coast.
• 20 May — combat assault to "the mountains" (Nui Be) — Thunder's opening; FSB King established the same day.
• 25 May — a new location — the operation shifting as more was uncovered.
• 28 May — return to FSB King — the operation winding down.
• 1 June — FSB King dismantled (gazetteer) — King had served its purpose.

So D Company staged from Ham Tan airfield, air-assaulted into the Nui Be mountains, and operated there 20–28 May under the cover of King's guns, falling back to King as Thunder closed. D Co was one element of a battalion-plus-RF effort; the article is pitched at the combined level (it quotes Bacon and the RF commander) and does not attribute the cache discoveries to any single company.

A second primary source from inside D Company corroborates the close of the operation. SP4 Marvin Dale Miller (D Co, Cat Platoon) wrote to his mother on 30 May 1971, from the firebase: "I'm on base King now. But we're going to tear it down in a couple of days and go back to Fanning. King's not far from Ham Tam." Written on the 30th, this independently confirms — from a man standing on King — both the ~1 June teardown and the return to FSB Fanning afterward (he is indeed "back on Fanning" by his 19 June letter), and his offhand geography ("not far from Ham Tam") corroborates the King–Ham Tan relationship at the heart of the operation. To that point, his "the same old thing, just alot more of it" is the only hint he gives his mother of the raised tempo Thunder represented. See the 30 May 1971 letter.

Sources

Reconstructed from the v16_news_articles clipping (slide 2), McGrew's calendar, and the 3rd Brigade (Separate) context. The operation frame and FSB King's purpose are well supported; the day-by-day actions and the participating companies await the 2/8 Cav journal.