The following history of the 238^th AWC’s involvement in Lam Son 719 is totally from memory, and may have some flaws. Any corrections should be referred to me at gene@238awc.org.

  In January/February 1971 it became clear that something big was going to happen. The 238^th had gotten our first AH-1G Cobra aircraft, and then suddenly returned them and kept our old Charlie (M) models. Next came briefings that said little other than we were moving, and would be taking everything with us. Finally, everything was packed into vehicles, and the aircraft were assigned to fly escort for our own convoy. The aircraft would move over a period of several days so that we had our own cover over the convoy the whole way.

  For the most part, the trip north was uneventful. One problem did occur when our first flight of aircraft arrived at Dong Ha, and found no one, no security, no wire, nothing! We retreated to Quang Tri for the night. Over the next few days, Dong Ha was re-opened, and made an operational base again. Actually, Dong Ha (AKA Yankee) was a rather quiet place, except for the occasional 122mm rocket, or when Tim Strutzel was shooting at rats! Right from the start of our move north, and on into the opening phase of the operation, we had changed our call sign from “Gunrunner” to “Sentry”. This was part of an elaborate “deception” plan intended to throw off the enemy, but it didn’t work. As usual, the “news media” was reporting everything we did including “speculation” about an operation into Laos. In effect, they gave the enemy the entire plan well in advance.

  During the opening phase of the operation, Dewey Canyon II, the 238^th was assigned to general support. The planners thought we had already converted to Cobras, and were surprised to see our old UH-1Cs. We normally had at least one standby team at Dong Ha, and another providing cover for convoys or troops moving west. During this early phase, the weather was often bad, which kept us grounded, but on one bad weather day we flew anyway in one of our stranger missions. The standby team at Dong Ha was called out to assist in finding a downed Loach (OH-6) that had gone down inside the DMZ. With a ceiling of only a few hundred feet, we headed north from Dong Ha at low level. We didn’t find the Loach, but we did find ourselves on the wrong side of the river, flying inside North Viet Nam! For some reason, they took offense at that and shot at us.

  The main objective of Dewey Canyon II, the opening phase of the operation, was to re-open Khe Sanh so it could be used as a base for the Lam Son operation. As soon as Khe Sanh was operational, the 238^th was assigned to have a standby gun team on the base. The first few nights our crews literally slept in shell craters to have some protection until bunkers were built. We had a standby team at Khe Sanh off and on for most of the Lam San operation, and one of our teams was there on March 21^st when the NVA sappers hit Khe Sanh.

  Due to weather, the team couldn’t fly that night, so when the attack started, our crews took all their weapons and went out to the line to fight as infantry. It was very lucky that they did. Sappers came into the area where our bunker was and blew up the bunker next to ours, killing the crews holed up there. They also blew up both of our aircraft, tail numbers 206 and 146. Pictures of both these aircraft after the attack are on the web site here. 

  When the operation into Laos started, the 238^th was assigned to mostly escort type missions. We escorted the CH-47s and CH-54s flying heavy loads into Laos, and also escorted Medivac missions throughout the operations area. Anti-aircraft fire in Laos was some of the heaviest ever encountered by helicopters. For us, it resulted in the loss of two of our aircraft, and damage to others. The first loss in Laos was when Bruce Blazej was shot down after a CH-54 escort mission. On the way back to Khe Sanh, he took heavy fire and was forced to land (crash?) a few yards inside Viet Nam. Luckily, everyone got out fine. The aircraft was recovered and repaired. You can read Bruce’s account of this action in the “stories” section of the web site. The second loss wasn’t quite so easy to recover. Hal Moore was flying escort for two Medivacs, as wingman to Jim Pobjecky. The Medivacs had made their pickups at fire base Sophia, some 25 mile inside Laos. It was about as far inside Laos as we ever went. On the way out, the flight stayed over the plateau south of the river because the briefing had said the AAA fire was heavier in the valley. Near fire base Brown, three AAA positions opened up at the same time as the flight was centered over them. It was a sort of an aerial ambush. The only one to get hit was Hal, the last in line. The aircraft (043) crashed very near the last of the three AAA sites, but the Medivacs were able to land and recover all our guys very quickly. One, the gunner, had a serious leg injury, but everyone else was fine. The aircraft was a total loss. 

  There are hundreds of stories about the actions in Laos during Lam Son, and the 238^th was a part of many of them. Like escorting one of the last Medivacs into Ranger North before it was over run, or the day we saw over thirty NVA main battle tanks rolling down the road in broad daylight, or even covering CH-47s lifting the last guns out of FB Bravo with a single gunship. That I can document, we had two aircraft that were total losses, and one that was sent home for rebuild. We got three replacements. How many aircraft we had damaged isn’t known, but several received hits and were repaired. Figures listed by VHPA for losses during Lam Son show the number of UH-1Cs lost or damaged to actually be higher than the total number available for that operation, so many must have been “damaged” several times. Only eight Charlie models were shown as “lost”, two of them ours.

  Overall, the 238^th involvement in Lam Son 719 could be considered a small part of the whole, but it was a big deal for those of us who flew there. Anyone interested in the complete history of Lam Son 719 should read a book named “Into Laos” by Keith William Nolan. He doesn’t really mention the 238^th  to any extent, but it is a full account of the ground fighting, and what really happened.

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