LZ Tom

Overview

LZ Tom was a pickup zone in the Song Re Valley, Quang Ngai Province, I Corps, used by D Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry on 18 August 1967. It sits near Ta Ma Airfield at grid BS347482 and served as the D Company extraction point on the final day of the 3d Brigade Reconnaissance in Force into the Song Re Valley (1–19 August 1967) — an operation that carried no formal name beyond that designation in the 1st Cavalry Division's quarterly ORLL.

The operation was a temporary reassignment: 2/8 Cav was placed under operational control of the 3rd Brigade and sent north to Quang Ngai Province — an I Corps tasking for an otherwise II Corps battalion. The Song Re was known as a Viet Cong stronghold; this was the first major reconnaissance in force into the valley, and recent reconnaissance aircraft had already taken heavy antiaircraft fire before the operation opened.

The brigade pushed into the valley on 1 August, with 2/8 Cav air assaulting into the area north of the Song Re on 3 August, then committing into the valley itself on 9 August. That day's sequence was precisely timed: at 0737 hours, B Company air assaulted into LZ Lou to secure it as the battalion command post and firebase; C Battery, 2nd Battalion (105mm), 19th Artillery was operational on Lou by approximately 0900. At 0935, under C Battery's preparatory fires, A Company air assaulted into LZ Pat (BS330477, Hill 450) — and was immediately met with heavy automatic weapons, mortar, and 57mm recoilless rifle fire from an estimated two to three NVA companies. The company pulled back; 46 TAC AIR sorties were called in. Operations continued until 18 August, when redeployment back to the Pershing AO was initiated. D Company's PZ use at LZ Tom on that day was the extraction — not an insertion. Final elements closed the Pershing AO around 20 August.

The operation resulted in 42 enemy KIA, 2 POW, and 242 detainees; US losses were 7 KIA and 34 WIA across the brigade.

Location

The gazetteer fixes LZ Tom at BS347482 (14.8982°N, 108.5294°E), in the upper Song Re Valley roughly 35 km west-southwest of Quang Ngai city, near Ta Ma Airfield. The terrain is mountain valley — steep ridgelines flanking a narrow river corridor that was a known infiltration route.

The nearest named landmark in the same source is LZ Pat (BS330477, Hill 450), about 2 km to the southwest — the site of a costly combat assault by A/2/8th Cav on 9 August 1967 (11 KIA, 27 WIA, three aircraft shot down). LZ Tom's D Company PZ use nine days later places it in the same operational tempo.

Sources

Open questions

• [ ] Confirm namesake of "Tom" designation.
• [ ] Determine whether LZ Tom had any infrastructure or was a bare LZ used only for the 18 Aug extraction.
• [ ] Cross-check US 7 KIA figure (brigade-wide) against D Co KIA records for Aug 1967 to identify any archive soldiers killed during this operation.
• [ ] Determine whether this was a one-day PZ event or a recurring LZ with any infrastructure.
• [ ] Check whether any D Co soldiers in the archive have timeline entries referencing the Song Re Valley, Aug 1967.
• [x] Confirmed LZ Lou grid: FB Lou BS400425 (14.8472, 108.5792), C/2/19th (Abn) Arty 9Aug67, gazetteer ref 179. Page at /locations/lz-lou/.
• [ ] Consider building stubs for the other four unnamed Aug-67 LZs in this cluster once the operation frame is confirmed.