The Battle of Hill 881 was a Vietnam War battle fought between the United States Marines and the North Vietnamese Army, or People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN), from April to May, 1967, in Khe Sanh, South Vietnam. Considered as one of the fiercest battles of the war, the Battle for Hill 881 began when two US Marine battalions launched a ferocious assault against a cluster of hills, code named Hill 881 S, Hill 881 N, Hill 861, and Hill 661. Despite the fact the Marines faced a very large number of well-equipped North Vietnamese force, they managed to rout the well entrenched communist forces. The North Vietnamese Army suffered 1,600 casualties, 948 of which were killed in action.

The 2nd and 3rd US Marine Battalions, commanded by Lieut Colonel Gary Wilder and Lieut Colonel Earl DeLong respectively, took part in the fighting for the hills.

The Battle of Cha La was a military engagement between a combined force composed of South Vietnamese and US troops and three Viet Cong battalions, during the Vietnam War. It took place in Cha La, Cau Mau Province, South Vietnam, on November 23, 1963. The Battle of Cha La consisted of a series of attacks since the battle of Ap Bac back in January. It began when the Viet Cong attacked what it called an "extermination camp" in Cha La. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnamese Army) defenders suffered more than three hundred casualties. The US lost 25 men.

The Battle of Hiep Hoa was a small intensity battle fought between the US Special Forces and a Viet Cong unit, on November 22, 1963, during the Vietnam War. It took place in the district of Hiep Hoa, South Vietnam, on the night of November 22, 1963, when an estimated 500 Viet Cong soldiers overran the Hiep Hoa Special Forces Camp, resulting in four American personnel missing in action. It was the first CIDG camp to be overrun during the war. Isaac Camacho, one of the four missing Americans, would later become the first American to escape from a VC POW camp.

Isaac Camacho was a Special Forces Engineer Sergeant who served in an SF Base Camp, Hiep Hoa, SVN when the base camp was attacked and overun by the Viet Cong on 24 November 1963. Ike was subsquently captured with three other Army SF soldiers and marched over 150 kilometers to the COSVN POW Camp B-20 where he was shackled by the leg and put in cage. After 21 months of captivity in the jungle, suffering from malaria and losing about 20 kg, Isaac Camacho managed to escape during a driving monsoon rain, through the upper bars of his cage within 8 meters of the duty guard. He evaded search by a Viet Cong patrol with dogs, making his way 50KM to the south, to a friendly US Army Special Forces A-Camp at Minh Thanh, SVN on July 13, 1965.