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Chapter 23
Leaving the Second Battalion, Seventh Marines ( Operation Mixmaster )
Within a couple of days of landing at Tam Ky near Chu Lai —the Marines in I Corps were introduced to a surprise. The ‘surprise’ was a Marine Corps. order developed by some bureaucrats ‘somewhere’ —- Washington? Saigon? The order became known as ‘Operation Mixmaster’ . 21@ The order effectively guaranteed that our Marines would be coming home from the war alone and not with the unit with which they went to war. Units were to be ‘split’ apart with 1/2 of the Battalions which had been in Country for approx. six months being transferred to Battalions which had arrived more recently. The ‘brilliant’ idea was that the ‘new’ units would always have ‘experienced’ combat Marines to blend with the inexperienced Marines coming into the war during the year. The bureaucrats believed that the thirteen month ‘tour of duty’ would end at the same time for the Marine units that had landed in the build up beginning in the Spring and Summer of 1965. The thirteen month ‘tour of duty’ had been ‘promised’, therefore, it had to be honored. The ‘tour’ for all other military units was twelve months this meant—according to the bureaucrats ( military and civilian )—that too many ‘experienced’ Marine units would be leaving Viet Nam at the same time. This ‘concept’ ignored the fact that new units were arriving throughout the year—those new units were working side by side with the experienced Marine
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