Gene, you're right, about 1/4 of the 119th's losses occurred in the month of November in the various years.

One reason is the types of missions (such as FOB) that happened to be assigned at the time, but also the VC and NVA tended to schedule their active periods around the monsoons, which varied according to region. Our side, it turns out, responded to expected VC/NVA activity, so US casualties varied from month-to-month as we got more active also and as the monsoons moved through the country. The Army War College has published a study on it.

Going back even to the French War, October and November was a favorite time for the Viet Minh and NVA in the Highlands. Off the top of my head, the Ia Drang fights of the 1st Cav in 1965, the Battle of Dak To with the 4th ID and 173d Abn in 1967, on and on, November worked for them. By the way, it was no accident that the November 14-15, 1969 sapper attack on An Khe (Williamson KIA) was triggered when it was. It was the Ia Drang LZ X-Ray/Albany anniversary.

The Tet situation is a similar but obviously different story, but also mostly driven by in-country weather patterns.

Bob K--