DREW DIX

As the Tet Offensive raged, this US Special Forces staff sergeant led an intrepid group to rescue personnel trapped in the town of Chau Phu, South Vietnam

- WORDS MICHAEL E HASKEW

The communist onslaught struck with a thunderclap throughout South Vietnam. With the observance of Tet, the Vietnamese lunar new year, Viet Cong insurgents shunned a temporary ceasefire and launched coordinated attacks that sowed chaos in the capital Saigon and across the countryside from the coastline to the Central Highlands and beyond. More than 300 cities and towns, many of them provincial capitals, were assailed by an estimated 85,000 Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) regulars during the Tet Offensive of 1968, a defining event of the long and devastating Vietnam War.

Near the border with Cambodia, the city of Chau Phu was virtually overrun by communist guerrillas. They took control of many homes and businesses and terrorised the local population. Gunfire echoed through the streets and explosions rocked the area as those townspeople who were not already in communist custody feared for their lives, awaiting an uncertain fate hiding in the nearby jungle or trapped in their homes.

In the predawn hours of 31 January 1968, two battalions of VC guerrillas had moved into position to attack Chau Phu, a population centre of 25,000 in Chau Doc province in the Mekong Delta region. Although the Tet Offensive caught the American and South Vietnamese military largely by surprise, at Chau Phu the situation developed somewhat differently. Despite the initially overwhelming VC force that captured the town, Staff Sergeant Drew Dix had put together a contingency plan that saved the lives of many while thwarting enemy ambitions to extend their temporary reign of terror.

Dix distinguished himself repeatedly during a 56-hour ordeal at Chau Phu, leading a handful of heroes, outnumbered 30 to one, in a deadly game of cat and mouse. His extraordinary example of leadership and courage earned the Medal of Honor as Dix became the first enlisted soldier of the US Army Special Forces so recognised during the Vietnam War.