Combat operations against the Communist guerrillas resumed for the Vietnamese Marine Brigade in the second week of November. Accompanied by its U.S. Marine advisor, Captain James P. McWilliams, the 3d Battalion initiated a search and clear operation in III Corps in conjunction with the 11th ARVN Regiment on 10 November. The next day the Vietnamese Marines clashed sharply with a substantial Viet Cong force west of My Tho and suffered six killed and 21 wounded. Nineteen enemy bodies were found on the battlefield along with four weapons, several grenades, and some documents. McWilliams, respected by his fellow advisors for his candid and forthright assessments, later recalled that such encounters were the exception rather than the rule. “While the Vietnamese Marines were individually good fighters and showed tenacity in most cases against forces that would stand and fight, this was not the nature of the conflict,” he lamented. More often than not, McWilliams went on to explain, the highly mobile Viet Cong could elude the larger, more cumbersome government units.[8-2] On 14 November, the same day that the combined Marine-ARVN operation in III Corps terminated, the Vietnamese Marine command formed a provisional regiment to control operations DAI-PHONG 28 and 29, which were to be conducted concurrently in the same general area. Composed of the 1st and 3d Battalions, and a 75mm pack howitzer platoon, the Marine force searched until 21 November for Viet Cong units thought to be in Binh Duong Province but with discouraging results. Only one enemy was killed, two prisoners taken, and three weapons captured at the expense of five dead and 13 wounded Marines. A week later the 2d Battalion, now advised by Captain Joseph N. Smith, fought a more typical action while participating in Operation DAI-PHONG 30. The battalion commander, Captain Nguyen Thanh Yen, received orders for the operation during the early morning hours of 25 November. Shortly after daybreak nearly 550 Vietnamese Marines boarded trucks at their camp near Thu Duc for the trip to Bien Hoa airfield. Upon arrival, officers from III Corps headquarters informed Captain Yen that his battalion was to conduct a heliborne assault against Hoi Dong Sam, a Viet Cong-held village in western Hau Nghia Province just west of Saigon. The purpose of the operation was to intercept a guerrilla force which had overrun the nearby Hiep Hoa Special Forces camp the previous day and had taken several American prisoners. The enemy unit was believed to be using Hoi Dong Sam as a way station while attempting to escape across the Cambodian border.[8-3]