Page "Battle of Lang Vei" Paragraph 4

The Lang Vei Special Forces Camp was placed under the control of the United States Army's Detachment A-101, Company C, 5th Special Forces Group, to train and equip locally-recruited Vietnamese through the Civilian Irregular Defense Group ( CIDG ) program.

Detachment A-101 had originally been established in July 1962 at Khe Sanh.

In 1966, Detachment A-101 moved to its first site at an area near the village of Lang Vei, when the United States Marines took control of Khe Sanh as part of an American military build-up in South Vietnam ’ s northern provinces.

However, the first camp at Lang Vei proved to be only temporary, when the North Vietnamese army attacked the camp on May 4, 1967.

Even though the North Vietnamese attack had been repelled, damage to the camp was extensive.

Since the original camp site had lacked good observation and fields of fire beyond the barbed-wire perimeter, the 5th Special Forces Group commander decided to move the camp to a more suitable area, about 1, 000 meters to the west.

The new camp, situation on Highway 9 and located about to the west of Khe Sanh, was completed in 1967.