On the morning of 28 February, elements of the battalion headed east, and were attacked from the front by Viet Cong (VC) infantry with gunfire, rockets and mortars.

However, with superior firepower available, the Americans called in air strikes and artillery, and by mid afternoon, had repelled the VC attacks.

The 1/16th Infantry, was brought into Operation Junction City on February 23 when it was airlifted from its base at Lai Khe, southwest to Suối Đá.

There it assumed the mission that had belonged to the 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, of being the reserve for the 3rd Brigade; it also was assigned its portion of the Suối Đá defenses.

Six hours later the battalion was airlifted to positions along Route 4 north of Suối Đá and, after considerable jungle clearing, went into a night defensive position on the east side of the road, six kilometers south of Prek Klok, the location of an artillery base defended by the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, where an airfield and a Special Forces camp were being built.

Later in the day, their position was hit by .50-caliber machine gun rounds from an Allied mechanized unit conducting reconnaissance by fire during the period immediately after sunset, luckily the only damage was to an 81-mm.

[1]: 113 At 08:00 on 28 February, Company B, 1/16th Infantry, departed its overnight defensive position located along Route 4 and moved east on a search and destroy mission.

[1]: 113  As the company progressed, the jungle thinned somewhat and the primary obstacle to the Americans became the fallen trees and brush-deadfall-which was encountered at 50- to 75-meter intervals.

[1]: 114 At 10:30 the lead element of the 3rd Platoon received small arms and automatic weapons fire from a frontal direction, which was initially thought to be a company-size unit, but when Ulm learned that three machine guns had been observed, he correctly concluded that the VC were considerably more numerous.

[1]: 116 Twenty minutes after the start of the battle, the VC attacked from the northeast, and contact was lost between the 3rd Platoon and the company command.

As the men moved into position the entire company area was hit by small arms fire, rifle grenades, rockets, and 60-mm.

Air strikes and artillery were being called in within 30 meters of the American positions in order to hit the VC in close proximity.

While helping a wounded soldier to safety, he was hit in the hand by a sniper, but continued to fight instead of stopping to receive medical attention.

Under cover of the main attack from the northeast, the communists moved a machine gun into a location where it could sweep the entire position of Leonard's platoon.

[1]: 117 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History.