The ranger battalion operating nearby suffered a similar fate, incurring nearly 400 casualties in another violent ambush. Thus, within a 24-hour period two elite government battalions had been shattered. Only later was it learned that the Marines and rangers had clashed with two main force regiments of the _9th Viet Cong Division_--the first Communist division to become operational in South Vietnam. As a result of the disastrous engagement at Binh Gia, the 4th Vietnamese Marine Battalion was rendered ineffective as a fighting force for a period of three months. This loss created two immediate problems for General Khang and his American advisors. It reduced the brigade’s available infantry strength by approximately 25 percent and placed an added burden on the recruit training center which was already laboring to provide enough new troops to fill the 5th Battalion. For the Vietnamese Marine Corps, 1964 ended on a discouraging note. [Illustration: _Marine Captain Donald E. Koelper, advisor to the 4th Vietnamese Marine Battalion, was posthumously awarded the first Navy Cross for action in Vietnam. (USMC Photo A411741)._] _Additional Marine Activities_ U.S. Marine participation in the Vietnam War during 1964 was not limited to the activities of the advisory division and the helicopter task element. Various other Marine units and detachments made significant, although less publicized, contributions to the war effort throughout the year. One of these was the Marine security detachment which continued to protect the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. Twice during the year the growing political unrest and the increasing threat of Communist terrorist attacks prompted the expansion of the security detachment, first in April and again in October. By the end of the year the detachment’s strength stood at 30 Marines--a figure which made it the second largest such unit in the world. Only the Marine detachment in Paris, with 37 officers and men, was larger. And nowhere was an embassy guard assignment more dangerous than in Vietnam where terrorist attacks were apt to occur at anytime. Other groups of Marines performed an assortment of missions in support of the Government of Vietnam during the course of the year. The Detachment, 1st Composite Radio Company, for example, continued its duties at the U.S. Army Communications installation in Pleiku. A handful of these Marines also served at a newly opened U.S. Army communications station at Phu Bai some eight miles southeast of Hue. The strength of the Detachment, 1st Composite Radio Company, however, was reduced from 42 officers and men to only 16 by the end of December.