In many ways the results of DAI-PHONG 30 pointed up the problems which frequently frustrated GVN military forces and their American advisors. The 2d Battalion had seized its objective and in so doing had killed a handful of Viet Cong and detained a number of suspects. The Marines had captured three heavy caliber automatic weapons and an assortment of small arms--all without suffering a single casualty of their own. Still, it was difficult to translate the action into victory. The Marines, along with the other government forces involved in the operation, had failed to intercept the Viet Cong raiding force in its flight toward the international boundary. Moreover, most of the occupants of Hoi Dong Sam had made good their escape despite the presence of observation and attack aircraft. Like many other government military operations undertaken during the 1961–1964 period, DAI-PHONG 30 was successful from a statistical standpoint but did little to wrest the tactical initiative from the guerrillas. In the first week of December, the Vietnamese Joint General Staff ordered VNMC units to conduct an extended search in the jungles of western Tay Ninh Province in III Corps. A special Marine Task Force composed of the 1st and 3d Battalions was helilifted into the area on 3 December to begin Operation DAI-PHONG 31. This operation was punctuated by two major engagements and frequent enemy harassment. In one particularly vicious clash, the Vietnamese Marines incurred heavy casualties while attempting to fight out of a skillfully executed Viet Cong ambush. When the operation concluded on 9 December, the Vietnamese Marines had suffered 11 men killed, 58 wounded, and 1 captured. Nine Viet Cong bodies were found and another Communist soldier was captured. The enemy left four individual weapons on the battlefield. In mid-December, South Vietnam’s new leaders removed Lieutenant Colonel Khang from his position as Commandant of the Vietnamese Marine Corps. Although he had not participated in the November coup, Khang had been a political appointee of President Diem and as such was viewed as a potential threat to the new regime. After being promoted to colonel, he was assigned to the Philippines as the Republic of Vietnam’s Armed Forces Attache. Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Ba Lien, who had been serving as Assistant Commandant and Chief of Staff of the VNMC, was appointed as Khang’s successor. He assumed command of the Vietnamese Marine Corps on 16 December.