With the 1st Battalion having taken heavy casualties and the 3rd Battalion forced to move to counter North Korean attacks, the northwest flank of the American line had been beaten back.
While ultimately unsuccessful, the battalion forced the Russian troops to remain stationary overnight, giving the Poles badly needed time to regroup and receive reinforcements, which came in the form of a single regiment from the 1st Lithuanian-Belarusian Division.
On July 17, Johnson communicated his approval of the 44-battalion force in a confidential cable to Saigon.
In some units, this meant reservists made up over 50% of the battalion strength; throughout the force, 36.5% of men were listed as unfit for foreign service.
The Army of the Republic of Vietnam also had one infantry division (23rd Infantry Division), seven ranger battalions, 36 regional force battalions, eight artillery battalions equipped with 230 artillery guns, and four armoured brigades in the Central Highlands.
Reinforced by two platoons and a machine gun from the Canadian 13th Battalion, this force formed a short but effective flank.
In February, the entrance to the office was blocked by members of the volunteer Azov Battalion, a force fighting pro-Russian rebels in east Ukraine.
American officials and commanders praised the performance of the Iraqi commando battalion, counterterrorist force and two so-called interventional battalions that fought last month in Najaf against loyalists to the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
He served in Operation Desert Storm, was the operations officer of a tank battalion task force in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and was on the writing team for The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual.
It is also likely that he believed that the 53rd Battalion's force blocking the road from Majdal was still in place, and therefore thought that he was surrounded.
