On September 3, 1965, in the early days of the Vietnam War, South Vietnamese government soldiers laid rows of jute bags containing the corpses of their comrades-in-arms on a rice paddy bank on the edge of Tan Dinh Island in the Mekong Delta, waiting for an American helicopter to transport their bodies.

 　On September 3, 1965, in the early days of the Vietnam War, South Vietnamese government soldiers laid a row of jute bags containing the corpses of their comrades-in-arms on the edge of a rice paddy field on Tan Dinh Island in the Mekong Delta on a nearby paddy bank, waiting for an American helicopter to transport their bodies. Until then, they had been on patrol for about two days without finding the North Vietnamese Army and the South Vietnamese Liberation Army, the enemies of the South Vietnamese Republican Army. On its way, the South Vietnamese government troops were surrounded and attacked by the Viet Cong of the South Vietnamese Liberation Army. Later, an armed U.S. helicopter attacked the unit, mistaking the Vietnamese government soldiers for South Vietnamese Liberation Army troops. A large number of South Vietnamese government troops were killed in action, killed by the U.S. troops. U.S. helicopters then landed in the rice paddies to collect and transport the corpses of the South Vietnamese government soldiers.

　Riverine operations were one of the central strategies of combat in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. South Vietnamese government and U.S. forces fought the Viet Cong over the lower Mekong River and its tributaries. 15,600 square miles of land and more than 15,000 miles of waterways made the Mekong Delta an area of critical strategic importance. Producing approximately 16 million tons of rice annually, the delta was the economic foundation of the Republic of South Vietnam. For the communist North Vietnamese Army and the Vietcong, the Mekong River, flowing south from Cambodia, was the southernmost tributary of the Ho Chi Minh route. It brought vital material support to the Viet Cong's 28 battalions and 69 companies, totaling about 82,500 troops in the Mekong Delta. 

　Approximately 40% of South Vietnam's population, or about 6 million people, lived in the swampy areas of the Mekong Delta Starting in 1965, Viet Cong bands invaded the Mekong Delta and surrounding areas By 1966, the communist North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong controlled almost 25% of the Mekong Delta's population The first of the North Vietnamese army and the Vietcong was the Mekong Delta. The primary objective of the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong was to cut off the South's rice supply. The combined South Vietnamese government and U.S. forces had a two-pronged strategy to cut off the flow of supplies to the Vietcong and eliminate Vietcong troops and infrastructure. The U.S. and South Vietnamese government forces decided on a riverine operation to sweep the Mekong Delta to secure the region and return it to Saigon government control. U.S. Navy task forces and light patrols patrolled the Mekong, Co Chien, Long Tau, and Bassac rivers and their tributaries to obstruct the use of these waters by the Vietcong.