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A “tunnel rat” from the 1st Infantry Division inspects a Viet Cong tunnel entrance during Operation CRIMP, January 1966. [Photo By Lori Stewart]
Episode 2686 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Vietnam Vet Sedgwick “Wick” Tourison and Operation Crimp. The featured story appeared on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service website and was titled: Operation CRIMP Nets Trove of Documents (14 JAN 1966). Submitted by Lori Stewart, the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence Command Historian.
Operation Crimp (8–14 January 1966), also known as the Battle of the Ho Bo Woods, was a joint US-Australian military operation during the Vietnam War, which took place 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of Cu Chi in Binh Duong Province, South Vietnam. The operation targeted a key Viet Cong headquarters that was believed to be concealed underground, and involved two brigades under the command of the US 1st Infantry Division, including the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1 RAR) which was attached to the US 173rd Airborne Brigade.
The operation was the largest allied military action mounted during the war in South Vietnam to that point, and the first fought at division level. Despite some success, the allied force was only able to partially clear the area and it remained a key communist transit and supply base throughout the war.
Sgt. Sedgwick “Wick” Tourison was an honor graduate of the Defense Language Institute’s Vietnamese course, he had returned to Vietnam in July 1965 and began working in the MIC’s advisory office. He was assigned to the 172d MI Detachment during Operation Crimp.
By the time Operation CRIMP concluded on 14 January, Tourison estimated they had processed 1.5 million documents generated by all the major staff sections of the 4th Military Region and the region’s communist party committee. In addition to a new understanding of the Viet Cong’s organization in the region, the document trove revealed the names of every communist party member in South Vietnam and target folders for military installations in Saigon, as well as a list of new targets to be investigated.
Listen to episode 2686 and discover more about Vietnam Vet Sedgwick “Wick” Tourison and the results of Operation Crimp.
