Dau Tieng Convoy
~ 720th Military Police Battalion Reunion Association Vietnam History Project ~
This Page Last Updated    21 October 2014
If you are a Battalion Veteran who participated in this convoy and would like to contribute personal information, or stories, official documents, or photographs, please use the Email Link above to contact the History Project Manager .
196th Infantry
Brigade

Dau Tieng was located in Binh Duong Province, CTZ/MR III, approximately forty miles northwest of Long Binh Post and fifteen miles east of Tay Ninh.

     The earliest Battalion involvement verified via Battalion records and interviews was in December 1968, however, since Dau Tieng turned into a U.S. Fire Support Base east of Tay Ninh City, Battalion elements may have assisted the local Allied combat units of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade as well as Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) units in the area with breakaway supply convoy escorts from the primary Tay Ninh Base Camp convoys that traveled along Highway QL-1 from 10 October 1966 through 17 December 1968.

  All notable details of the Dau Tieng Convoy have been incorporated in to the Battalion Timeline. For specific details on the convoys and other related incidents during your tour, please visit the Battalion Timeline Index.
18th MP
Brigade
89th MP
Group
720th MP
Battalion
1966
     After Operation Attleboro (14 September-24 November 1966), the 4th Infantry Division discovered a major enemy area of operation was based in the Michelin Rubber Plantation nearby. The Dau Tieng base camp became a major staging area for thrusts deep into War Zone C. Later the area came under the operational control of the 25th Infantry Division (Tay Ninh-Cu Chi). The road to Dau Tieng was narrow, poorly maintained and in parts the jungle encroached on it making it an ideal location to ambush the small resupply convoys.
Dau Tieng Area
Dau Tieng Convoy Route
     The area later came under the operational control of the 4th then 25th Infantry Division's based at Tay Ninh and Cu Chi.
4th
Infantry
25th
Infantry
     The road to Dau Tieng was very narrow, poorly maintained and in parts the jungle encroached on it making it an ideal location to ambush the small resupply convoys.

     Interviews indicate that the Battalion participated in convoy escorts to Dau Tieng as early as November 1968, and in 1969 the 1st Infantry Division convoys used the code name "ZINC."

     A march unit of the Long Binh to Cu Chi/Tay Ninh Convoy to the 25th Infantry Division would break off Highway QL-1 at the villages of Trang Bang or Go Dau Ha and proceed to Dau Tieng. It was also at this time that the 25th Infantry Division requested the 18th MP Brigade assign a detachment from C Company to Cu Chi to cover for the 25th MP Company who would provide the escorts for the convoy. C Company continued to escort the march unit as part of the Tay Ninh Convoy and drop it at Cu Chi and the 25th MP Company would head north with it.
1st
Infantry

        A Company escort vehicles would meet with the 25th MP Company escorts at the Cu Chi base camp. The 720th MP Battalion Operational Orders stated that if there were 5 or more supply trucks they would assist in escorting the convoy to Dau Tieng, if less than 5 trucks, they would return to Long Binh Post and the 25th MP Company would handle the escort alone.

     Information from interviews also indicates that A Company elements continued to escort the Dau Tieng convoy in 1971, however the frequency of the escorts is unknown.
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