FSB Rita

Overview

FSB Rita was a fire support base near the Cambodian border in the Fishhook, northwest of An Loc, built to interdict North Vietnamese supply routes running from Cambodia toward Saigon. It was established by the 1st Infantry Division in October 1968 during Operation Toan Thang II, and is best known for the fierce battle fought there on 1 November 1968. Six days later, on 7 November 1968, the base passed to the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry as Operation Sheridan Sabre opened, and 2/8 Cav held Rita through late January 1969.

For the d281 archive, Rita matters as the firebase from which D Company, 2/8 Cav operated in the winter of 1968–69 — the period in which SP4 Carl Pipher and CPL Warren Eskridge were killed (28 January 1969).

The battle (1 November 1968)

In the dark early morning of 1 November 1968, an NVA sapper battalion assaulted FSB Rita, which was then held by 1st Infantry Division troops — two artillery batteries (1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery and Battery C, 8th Battalion, 6th Artillery), a cavalry troop, and an infantry company. Sappers threw Bangalore torpedoes across the wire and penetrated the perimeter within the first confused minutes; the fight ran all night. Artillerymen fired beehive and canister rounds point-blank "right down their barrels," and an AC-47 "Puff the Magic Dragon" gunship worked the perimeter from above.

The ground commander, Lt. Col. Charles C. Rogers (commanding 1/5th FA), was wounded three times rallying the defense and was awarded the Medal of Honor — he later retired a major general and remains the highest-ranking Black soldier to receive the award. 1SG Ira Whitaker (Battery C, 8/6th Arty) earned a Distinguished Service Cross. Twelve U.S. soldiers were killed in the fighting before the attack petered out at daylight.

The 1st Cav takeover and Sheridan Sabre (Nov 1968 – Jan 1969)

As the 1st Cavalry Division moved into III Corps (Operation Liberty Canyon, late October 1968), 2/8 Cav occupied Rita on 7 November 1968 — the same day Operation Sheridan Sabre is recorded as beginning. As a 2nd Brigade battalion, 2/8 Cav worked the Fishhook and the Saigon River infiltration routes; its direct-support artillery was the 1st Battalion, 77th Artillery (-), with A/2/19 on Rita.

Rita stayed under fire. The 1st Cav DivArty ORLL for the period ending 31 January 1969 records the base taking 735 incoming rounds — 671 x 82mm mortar, 52 x 107mm rockets, 2 x 122mm rockets, and 3 over-caliber "Trashcan" rockets — though it notes that casualties and damage on Rita "remained light." 2/8 Cav was relieved by 2/5 Cav at 300600H January 1969. A re-survey logs the base at XT499802 with B/1/30th Artillery (155mm) in February 1969, and that position was attacked again on 23 February 1969.

The 26 November 1968 rocket attack

Less than three weeks after 2/8 Cav occupied Rita, SP4 Raymond Ahern — the RTO for the artillery Forward Observer supporting D Company, and counted by his own company commander as one of D Company's own men — was killed when his bunker took a direct hit from a rocket during the night of 26 November 1968. He had been reassigned to his post on Rita only one day before. Per a fellow D Company soldier, Larry Hackett, who left a tribute to Ahern years later: the company had relieved the 1st Infantry Division at Rita on 9 November, spent several days rebuilding bunkers under continuing mortar and rocket fire, swept the jungle in a wide arc for about ten days, and had just returned to defend the perimeter when Ahern was killed. See SP4 Raymond Ahern, Jr. and the event page for the full account, sourced from CPT Henry Colavita's memoir and Hackett's own tribute.

The 28 January 1969 cluster

SP4 Carl Pipher and CPL Warren Eskridge (D Co, 2/8 Cav) were killed by small-arms fire on 28 January 1969, two days before the battalion was relieved at Rita. Both 1st Cav ORLLs (Division AD502597, DivArty AD502415) place 2/8 Cav in the Rita/Fishhook AO on that date but do not itemize the contact — the division's significant-actions chronology runs from 24 January straight to the 30 January relief, so two KIA by small arms fell below its reporting threshold. The men were therefore likely killed on a patrol or ground contact in the surrounding AO rather than on the base itself; FSB Rita is recorded here as their operating base, framed within Sheridan Sabre, pending a lower-echelon source (NARA RG 472 — 2/8 Cav daily staff journal / S-3 AAR) that could fix the exact action.

Location

The firebase gazetteer fixes Rita at XT505795 (11.5741, 106.3764) for the 7 Nov 1968 occupation, with a later survey at XT499802 / 499803 (11.5805, 106.3710). The Medal of Honor record independently places the 1 Nov 1968 battle at 11°34′44″N 106°22′30″E (11.579, 106.375) "near the Fishhook" — the same spot within roughly a kilometer, which is what confirms the two "Ritas" are one base. The position sits near the Cambodian border in the Fishhook salient (Binh Long border country); note that 2/8 Cav casualty records of this period list Tay Ninh Province, the same province-record quirk documented elsewhere in the archive.

Sources

Open Questions

• [ ] Confirm Rita's namesake (no gazetteer dedication recorded).
• [ ] Establish the base's closing/abandonment date.
• [ ] Pull the 2/8 Cav daily staff journal / S-3 AAR for late Jan 1969 (NARA RG 472) to fix the 28 Jan 1969 action and confirm whether Pipher/Eskridge fell on the base or on patrol.
• [ ] Resolve the XT505795 vs XT499802 shift — genuine reposition or re-reading of the same base.
• [ ] Reconcile the Tay Ninh (casualty records) vs Binh Long/Fishhook (AO) province question for the Rita period.