Nam Dong’s hour of crisis came shortly after midnight on 7 July when the Communists launched a large-scale ground assault against the barbed wire-enclosed main camp. Shortly after 0400, with his position holding out against heavy mortar and machine gun fire, Captain Roger H. Donlon, the Special Forces officer in charge, radioed for assistance. Two hours later, six Marine helicopters, loaded with U.S. Special Forces and South Vietnamese personnel, launched from Da Nang for the beleaguered little fortress. Colonel Merchant, flying an O-1B, led the transport helicopters to the objective area while two U.S. Army UH-1B gunships provided escort. Meanwhile, two other HMM-162 helicopters launched for An Diem carrying U.S. Special Forces officers with instructions to assemble a company-sized reaction force for commitment to Nam Dong. Intense enemy mortar and ground fire at Nam Dong initially prevented the six UH-34Ds from landing the reinforcements, whereupon Colonel Merchant and the flight returned to Da Nang for fuel. At the airfield the task element commander briefed VNAF A-1H Skyraider pilots and the crew of a Marine O-1B on the battlefield situation. He took off again at 0910, this time to act as TACA in an Air Force U-10. Meanwhile, a U.S. Army CV-2 Caribou (a twin-engine, fixed-wing light transport) had managed to airdrop small arms ammunition to Donlon and the embattled defenders. Following this emergency resupply, air strikes were conducted on the hills to the south and west of the outpost, causing enemy ground fire to diminish somewhat. At 0945, a flight of 18 Marine helicopters, led by Lieutenant Colonel Curtis and escorted by four UH-1B gunships and two VNAF Skyraiders, began landing a 93-man relief force which had been collected earlier from Da Nang and An Diem. Evacuation of the dead and wounded began immediately. At 1545, a flight of 10 UH-34Ds lifted 9,500 pounds of ammunition, medical supplies, radios, and miscellaneous equipment to Nam Dong. Six passengers, five wounded Vietnamese, and eight more bodies were evacuated to Da Nang on the return trip. By then, the battle was finished. Two Americans, one Australian advisor, and 55 South Vietnamese had been killed. Captain Donlon, who earned the first Medal of Honor awarded for action in Vietnam, and 64 other defenders had been wounded. The Viet Cong, who had failed to eliminate the Nam Dong outpost, left 62 bodies on the battlefield.[12-A] [12-A] For a more detailed account of the battle for Nam Dong, see Donlon, _Outpost of Freedom_. Four days after the battle for Nam Dong, Colonel Merchant’s tour in Vietnam ended. He returned to Okinawa to assume command of Marine Aircraft Group 16 whereupon Colonel Hardy (“Tex”) Hay, a 1940 graduate of Texas A&M, assumed command of Task Element 79.3.3.6.[12-B]