THE MATCHLESS COURAGE OF U.S. MARINES UNDER FIRE In 1967, Operation Tuscaloosa sent 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines into the hostile Song Thu Bon valley. Their mission: to exterminate the Viet Cong. But a sandbar island in the river quickly became an island of death for the Marines who lay trapped there, pinned under merciless enemy fire. Seventeen would die. And that was just the beginning. . . . As point man for the lead squad of Hotel Company, 2/5, Marine John Culbertson tells the full bloody story of the battle that wiped out nearly an entire battalion of crack VC troops. OPERATION TUSCALOOSA gives full honors to the final sacrifice of the young Marines who made that victory possible.