(Transcription of Article to Right.)

Cutter Silences VC In Rifle-Mortar Duel.
By Wallace Beene
S&S Vietnam Bureau Chief

SAIGON -- A Coast Guard cutter and a stubborn band of Viet Cong stage a vicious duel southwest of Quang Ngai Saturday.
The fight took place in mid-afternoon 23 miles below Quang Ngai when the cutter Point Arden stopped six junks near the beach for a routine search in operation Market Time, the blockade maintained against VC shipping.
Suddenly the VC opened fire from a heavily protected bunker on the shore. The cutter blasted back with .50 caliber machine-gun fire and then tossed in 27 rounds of 81mm mortar shells. The VC cut loose with a recoilless rifle in what is believed to be the first such attack on a ship in the Vietnam war.
When the VC ceased firing, the cutter pulled back so an air strike could blast the bunker and surrounding area.
But after the air strike, units of the Vietnamese junk navy moved in to the area to check on a suspicions boat, and the VC opened in the bunker opened fire again.
A forward air controller still overhead reported the VC were also firing at him.
The Point Arden steamed into position and lobbed another 23 rounds of mortar fire on the bunker that touched off a secondary explosion. Then the fighting stopped. There was no report on possible casualties.

Suspects. February 1966. Boarding sampans from the CGC Point Arden (WPB 82309) .