Camp Carroll (also known as Artillery Plateau, Firebase Tan Lam and Hill 241) was a

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through c ...

and

Army of the Republic of Vietnam The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ; french: Armée de la république du Viêt Nam) composed the ground forces of the South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon in April 1975. It is estimated to have suf ...

(ARVN) artillery base during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. It was located 8 km southwest of Cam Lộ, Quang Tri Province. Camp Carroll was also at the centroid of a large arc of the strategic Highway 9 corridor south of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which made it a key facility.

History

1966–70

The 3rd Marine Division had overall command and control of the DMZ area. The camp was commissioned on November 10, 1966 (aka Camp J. J. Carroll) and became home for the

3rd Marine Regiment The 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment is a regiment of the United States Marine Corps that is optimized for littoral maneuver in the Indo-Pacific Theater. Based at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, the regiment falls under the command of the 3rd Marine Divi ...

. The camp was named after

Navy Cross The Navy Cross is the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps' second-highest military decoration awarded for sailors and marines who distinguish themselves for extraordinary heroism in combat with an armed enemy force. The medal is eq ...

recipient Captain James J. Carroll, who was the commanding officer of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion,

4th Marines The 4th Marine Regiment is an infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps. Based at Camp Schwab in Okinawa, Japan, it is part of the 3rd Marine Division of the III Marine Expeditionary Force. Mission Close with and destroy the enemy by fi ...

, and was killed by friendly tank fire on October 5, 1966 during

Operation Prairie Operation Prairie was a U.S. military operation in Quảng Trị Province, South Vietnam that sought to eliminate People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) forces south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Over the course of late 1965 and early 1966 the Viet C ...

. It was one of nine artillery bases constructed along the DMZ and had 80 artillery pieces including M107 175mm guns from the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

; the longest ranged, but least accurate American field artillery pieces, the 175mm could fire a 150-pound projectile 32,690 meters and effectively return fire on any enemy gun that could hit it. The 175mm guns put Camp Carroll on the map, particularly the tactical maps of the North Vietnamese forward observers. Camp Carroll diminished in significance after the 1968

Tet Offensive The Tet Offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. It was launched on January 30, 1968 by forces of the Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) against the forces o ...

. The

3rd Marine Division The 3rd Marine Division is a division of the United States Marine Corps based at Camp Courtney, Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler in Okinawa, Japan. It is one of three active duty infantry divisions in the Marine Corps and together with th ...

began relying on highly mobile postures rather than remaining in their fixed positions as sitting targets and Camp Carroll was inactivated on 28 December 1968. Camp Carroll became an

(ARVN) base.

1972

On 30 March 1972, the North Vietnamese

People's Army of Vietnam The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN; vi, Quân đội nhân dân Việt Nam, QĐNDVN), also recognized as the Vietnam People's Army (VPA) or the Vietnamese Army (), is the military force of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the armed wi ...

(PAVN) launched their

Easter Offensive The Easter Offensive, also known as the 1972 spring–summer offensive ('' vi, Chiến dịch Xuân–Hè 1972'') by North Vietnam, or the red fiery summer (') as romanticized in South Vietnamese literature, was a military campaign conducted b ...

. PAVN rockets and artillery shells slammed into Camp Carroll as the opening phase of the

First Battle of Quảng Trị The First Battle of Quảng Trị ( vi, Chiến dịch Trị Thiên) resulted in the first major victory for the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) during the Easter Offensive of 1972. Quảng Trị Province was a major battleground for the opposin ...

. The base received more than 200 rounds of 130mm fire in the first hour of the attack. On 2 April 1972, ARVN Lieutenant Colonel Pham Van Dinh, commander of the 56th Regiment, 3rd Division, surrendered the facility to the PAVN. Fifteen hundred ARVN troops were captured along with 22 artillery pieces, including a six-gun battery of M107s and numerous quad-50's and twin-40's, the largest artillery assemblage in I Corps. B-52 strikes were ordered against Camp Carroll in an effort to deny its use to the PAVN. However, the PAVN removed the 175mm guns from the camp before the strikes could occur. These guns were later used against the ARVN.

Current use

At present the land belongs to Xi Nghiep Ho Tieu Lam, the Vietnamese state-operated pepper enterprise.

References

External links

*Army map of Camp Carroll location
Surrender of Camp Carroll
vnafmamn.com
Modern photos and video of the site
{{coord, 16.763056, 106.930556, type:_region:, display=title Military installations of the United States Marine Corps in South Vietnam Carroll Military installations closed in the 1970s Buildings and structures in Quảng Trị province