FSB Fanning

Overview

FSB Fanning was a 1st Cavalry Division fire support base in the Long Khanh / Binh Tuy area (Military Region 3, III Corps), held by D Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry in the late spring of 1971. It is documented by Jim Garvin's photo deck (v06_fanning) -- Garvin served in Range Platoon ("Range 1"), and his Fanning chapter runs from his first mention of the base in a letter dated 11 May 1971 to 30 June 1971.

Fanning followed FSB Fontaine in the battalion's chain of moves: Garvin wrote that "the battalion had just made another move to Fire Support Base Fanning," and Fontaine had closed on 8 May 1971 -- the two dovetail. On or about 24 May 1971 the battalion split Fanning into two firebases of three 105mm howitzers each, the second being FSB King, in the hope that the reduced, reshaped positions would be easier to defend.

Layout

From Garvin's annotated aerial: the low perimeter wall was the berm, broken intermittently by guard positions, with the line company's hooches just behind it. The pie-shaped wedge at upper right held the TOC (Tactical Operations Center) -- the mess hall (two tents on the far right), the radio shack, the medic station, and quarters and supply points. Across the dirt road to the left of the TOC were the mortar platoon quarters and gun pits. Two helicopter pads sat at upper left and right. At upper left were two aviation-fuel pillows -- one night the VC put a tracer into one and set it ablaze. The near side of the base carried the positions for six 105mm howitzers (three stood empty, their guns gone out to King). A trench at lower left served as the garbage dump.

What the deck shows

• The firebase itself -- a Sky Crane lifting the dozer out after it built the berm, and Garvin's annotated aerial of the whole layout.
• Air support -- close looks at an AH-1 Cobra gunship: rocket pods, the 40mm grenade-launcher magazine and chin turret, and the gunship's punch at night.
• People -- Gary Collins in the rocket-pod frame; Garvin himself present.
• The road in -- logging trucks along Highway 1 as Garvin convoyed up to the base.

Operation Overlord (June 1971)

In early June 1971, FSB Fanning was the headquarters base for 2/8 Cav's part in Operation Overlord, a 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF) hammer-and-anvil operation against the 3/33 NVA Regiment in AO Gold (the Long Khanh / Phuoc Tuy border area). An operation-level account records that as the operation opened on 5 June 1971, "Headquarters 2/8 Battalion [remained] at FSB Fanning," with three companies in blocking positions along the Suoi Luc and a new US artillery base, FSB Hall, established to support the operation. While 3 RAR and supporting armour drove the enemy from the northwest, the 2/8 Cav and Australian blocks formed the anvil.

Howard McGrew's calendar (a primary D Co, 2/8 Cav source) tracks the same month from inside the unit: "June 5 - build FSB Hall," then "June 7 - Fanning," combat assaults on 9, 13, and 16 June, and "June 21 - CA to Fanning and to Vung Tau." The 5 June "build FSB Hall" matches the 1 ATF D-Day date-for-date, and the entries show Fanning serving as the staging hub between assaults -- the late-June build-up leads straight into the 24 June 1971 Firefight on the Mountain and Bunker Complex sweep already in the archive.

This independently confirms Fanning as 2/8 Cav's primary firebase in this period -- matching the Stars and Stripes clipping (from Jean "Dizzy" Blais) that calls it "2nd Bn., 8th Cav's primary firebase" -- and fixes the firebase gazetteer's "5-14 Jul 71" Overlord survey as a June date mis-transcribed. The source is secondary (compiled from Peter Scott, Command in Vietnam; Mike English, The Rifleman; Jerry Taylor, Last Out), so it is treated as corroboration of the 2/8 record rather than a primary 2/8 document.

Namesake

FSB Fanning was named for Martin V. Fanning, killed in action 24 April 1971 — recorded in the firebase gazetteer as "For Martin V. Fanning USA KNBC 24Apr71."

Sources

Built from Jim Garvin's FSB Fanning deck (v06_fanning), following the FSB Silver / Fontaine pattern; coordinates and namesake confirmed against the firebase gazetteer.

Open Questions

• [x] Reconcile the "5-14 Jul 71" re-survey coordinate (YS759987) -- resolved: Operation Overlord opened 5 June 1971 (1 ATF account), so the gazetteer's "Jul" is a Jun->Jul slip and the survey belongs to the early-June Overlord period. Residual: confirm whether YS759987 (~700 m southeast of YS751995) reflects a genuine position shift -- HQ stayed at Fanning while companies blocked along the Suoi Luc -- or simply a re-reading of the same base.