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Alamo, Gabriel Ralph, MSG.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Lyndhurst, NJ
Last Address Ft Bragg, NC
Casualty Date Jul 06, 1964
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Gun, Small Arms Fire
Location Vietnam, South (Vietnam)
Conflict Vietnam War
Location of Interment Fort Liberty Post Cemetery (VLM) (Formerly Fort Bragg) - Fort Liberty, North Carolina
Vietnam War/Advisory Campaign (1962-65)/Battle of Nam Dong
From Month/Year
July / 1964
To Month/Year
July / 1964
Description The Battle of Nam Dong (July 5 - 6, 1964) was fought on July 5 until the next day on in 1964, when the Viet Cong and PAVN attacked the U.S. Army Special Forces Detachment A-726 at Camp Nam Dong in an attempt to overrun it.
Battle
Nam Dong is situated 32 miles west of Da Nang in a valley near the Laotian border; it was manned by South Vietnamese personnel with American and Australian advisers, and served as a major thorn in the side of local Vietcong militants.
The Viet Cong struck at the camp at 2:30 a.m. to achieve the element of surprise, and reached the outer perimeter where South Vietnamese special forces managed to hold out. The battle lasted for five hours when the Viet Cong decided to abort the mission, fleeing into the jungle at sunrise. At 9:45 a.m. six USMC helicopters arrived to extract the special forces. At the end of the battle, a total of 372 allies (twelve American Green Berets, 300 South Vietnamese, and sixty Nung soldiers) held off deadly attacks against 900 NVA and Vietcong, often pinning Viet Cong groups in the narrow cliffs leading into the valley, where they were easily targeted by artillery.
Captain R. C. Donlon became the first American to be awarded the Medal of Honor in Vietnam for valiantly killing two Vietcong sappers and thereby preventing them from breaching the Nam Dong base, while sustaining shrapnel wounds in the process.
Aftermath
It was at this contact that the Australian member of the Australian Army Training Team (Vietnam) AATTV, Warrant Officer Kevin Conway, was cited by his commander, then Colonel Francis Philip (Ted) Serong for a Victoria Cross, the highest gallantry award for Australian service personnel. Kevin Conway was in a forward weapon pit with an American Master Sergeant, Gabriel Alamo, who was killed in the North Vietnamese assault. Conway alone fired his mortar upon the assaulting enemy in ever decreasing range fire until he was forced to bring his mortar fire upon himself to save the perimeter of the base.
Sergeant Terrance D. Terrin, U.S. Army Green Beret Medic, was awarded the silver star for gallantry in battle.
Warrant Officer Conway has never received the cited award for valour. He was the first Australian to be killed in action in the Vietnam war. Serong stated that it was American Special Forces politics that denied Conway his Victoria Cross.
M/Sgt Alamo was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
The battle resulted in an estimated 40 Viet Cong killed; two Americans, 1 Australian military adviser, and 57 South Vietnamese defenders also lost their lives.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
July / 1964
To Month/Year
July / 1964
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
People You Remember The hamlet of Nam Dong lies in a valley just east of the Laotian border and 32 miles west of the coastal city of Da Nang. Nam Dong was important for only one reason: it sat astride an infiltration route which connected to the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. A CIDG camp was established in Nam Dong, stiffened by the presence of a twelve-man Special Forces Detachment led by Captain Roger Donlon. Warrant Officer Kevin G. Conway, Royal Australian Army, was attached to the team, and Master Sergeant Gabriel Alamo was the senior enlisted team member. At about 2:30 AM on the morning of 6 July 1964 the camp was taken under attack by two reinforced battalions, an attack which lasted until well after daybreak. Although the camp's perimeter was breached in several places, the South Vietnamese irregulars and the Special Forces troops held out - but at a very high cost. Most of the local force was killed in action, and so too were WO2 Conway, MSGT Alamo, and Sergeant John Houston. All of the Special Forces personnel were decorated for heroism under fire - the Medal of Honor for Captain Donlon; posthumous Distinguished Service Crosses for MSGT Alamo and SGT Houston; four Silver Stars (including WO2 Conway); and five Bronze Stars.
