Combined Action Program

The Combined Action Program was organized in 1965 and lasted until 1971 as a counterinsurgency unit. They took only volunteers and you had to be in Vietnam for 4 to 6 months before you could volunteer. A squad of Marines, 13 men and a corpsman, worked with a platoon of Vietnamese militia, Popular Forces, organized from the village we were assigned to. Very seldom did we have a full squad of marines, usually 10 to 12. We lived in the village and during the night ran ambushes . We would move several times during the night and during the day would rest and have sick call for villagers that needed medical attention. Our primary job was to protect the village and deprive the VC from getting resupply's from the locals. For a Marine Squad we would be heavily armed, including a 60 mm mortar , 60 mm machine gun as well as M-79 grenade launchers and our regular M-16s and .45 cal. handguns. The PF,s help pack the mortar rounds and machine gun ammo when we moved our CP. Every day we would call in the location of our CP and ambushes for the upcoming night and there would be a reactionary on call as well as artillery on call. If we needed help all we had to do was call in the letter designation for our location and what we needed.