Operation Medina was a search and destroy operation conducted in the Hai Lang Forest Reserve of South Vietnam in the autumn of 1967 during the Vietnam War. Conducted by the First and Second battalions of the First Marine Regiment, the First Battalion of the Third Marine Regiment, and two battalions of the First ARVN Division, the objective of the operation was to locate and annihilate any North Vietnamese (NVA) forces found in the forest reserve.
One specific enemy base that the Marines sought to eliminate was known as Base Area 101. Base Area 101 was an NVA staging area, a place where the NVA felt safe enough to build up personnel and supplies. The base was a launching point for attacks by the Fifth and Sixth NVA Regiments against the possible Marine bases at Con Thien, Khe Sahn, Dong Ha and Phu Bai.
Operation Medina began on 10 October 1967 and ended on 20 October. The operation obtained partial success. Even though the NVA were not driven out of the Hai Lang Forest Reserve, significant losses were inflicted upon them by the Marine and ARVN forces.
The Marines and Navy Corpsmen of Charlie Company 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division are the subject of Lions of Medina, an award winning and critically acclaimed book by historian Doyle Glass.
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“Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed; and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule.”
—Francis Bacon (1560–1626)