MI Detachment Commander Leads Assault Against Viet Cong (29 AUG 1966)

Photo By Lori Stewart | 25th Infantry Division's area of operations in South Vietnam. (Tropic Lightning News)  

UNITED STATES

08.25.2023

Story by Lori Stewart 

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian

29 AUGUST 1966
On 29 August 1966, Maj. Masanori “Mike” Miyagishima, commander of the 25th MI Detachment, 25th Infantry Division (Tropic Lightning), led assault forces against a Viet Cong special operations unit. Based on a tip from a captured assassin, the assault eliminated the unit and its threat to local citizens and the division’s base camp.

In February 1943, 44-year-old Mike Miyagishima took command of the 25th MI Detachment in Hawaii. Born in Idaho but raised in Wyoming, he attended high school in Japan and was working in a Nevada copper mine when he decided to enlist in the U.S. Army on 31 July 1943. After graduating from the Military Intelligence Service Language School at Camp Savage, Minnesota, then Sgt. Miyagishima deployed to the Southwest Pacific Area during World War II. He served as an interpreter/translator for the 31st and 93d Infantry Divisions in New Guinea and the Philippines. From 1945-1959, he held several counterintelligence and liaison positions in Japan and received his commission in 1951. After a year as chief of the counterintelligence branch in the division’s G-2 section, Maj. Miyagishima assumed command of the 25th MI Detachment.

By late March 1966, the 25th MI Detachment had deployed to Vietnam. Headquartered with the division at Cu Chi in Hau Nghia Province northwest of Saigon, the detachment conducted counterintelligence and intelligence collection and analysis in support of combat operations. The division’s operations ranged from civic actions to sustained combat but primarily focused on search and destroy operations against Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army forces. The region around Cu Chi had an extensive network of underground tunnels linking support bases up to 150 miles away. From these, the enemy could mount surprise attacks against American forces. 

In early-August, the detachment interrogated several captured Viet Cong soldiers. Miyagishima personally interrogated one solider who informed him of the formation of a new Viet Cong company south of the Cu Chi Base Camp. Although the Americans referred to it as a sapper unit, it was a special operations unit trained in assault tactics, assassinations, demolitions, and clandestine infiltrations. This unit was terrorizing local civilians and mining roads. The prisoner revealed the date, time, and location of an upcoming unit meeting.

On the morning of 29 August, assault elements of the 2d Battalion, 27th Infantry, and an intelligence squad from the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) were airlifted to the area of the meeting. When the American helicopters arrived just before the meeting was to begin, the Viet Cong attempted to flee into their tunnels. Major Miyagishima, taking full advantage of his informant’s knowledge, positioned himself and the prisoner with the lead elements of the assault force. Dodging multiple booby traps and steady enemy fire, Miyagishima took the lead and personally searched the holes and tunnel entrances indicated by the prisoner. At the end of the operation, eight enemy soldiers had been killed, thirteen captured, nineteen tunnels destroyed, and the Viet Cong unit and its threat to local citizens and 25th Infantry Division facilities had been eliminated.

On 7 February 1967, Miyagishima was awarded a Bronze Star for his actions that day in August 1966. He left Vietnam the following month, returning to the U.S. Army Pacific Command in Tokyo as chief of the Southeast Asia Unit in the G-2 section. The following spring, Lt. Col. Miyagishima transferred to the 500th MI Group in Tokyo to take command of Detachment B. He remained in command until his retirement in June 1971. For the following three years, he served as the civilian chief of the detachment, before assuming his final position as liaison officer for the group. He retired in August 1982 and passed away in early 1983. A decade later, the 500th MI Brigade headquarters building in Tokyo was named in his honor.

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• Date Taken: 08.25.2023
• Date Posted: 08.25.2023 17:32
• Story ID: 452199
• Location: US