Our own American military have given them no public credit whatsoever, these troops that stayed and fought and served long after the all of the ground troops went home in August 1972.

But you gave them credit where credit was due. Thank you.
May you rest in peace.

Ngo, Lieutenant General Quang Truong, The Easter offensive of 1972. Washington DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1980.

“In addition to support provided the U.S. Air Force, I Corps forces also received much assistance from the U.S. Army 11th Combat Aviation Group whose activities were closely coordinated with those of ARVN units. This group provided essential support with troop lift logistical support and gunships.”

Mike Thomas, SSgt
DaNang, 366SPS Det 1 TanMy 1972

The VA-94 Mighty Shrikes
The Mighty Shrikes flying the A-7E Corsair II first deployment on United States Ship Coral Sea CVA 43. This was the Shrikes’s seventh combat cruise to Western Pacific/Vietnam.

Navy Unit Commendation
15 Dec 1971 to 01 Jul 1972
• April 16, 1972:
Commander D. L. Moss in A-7E BuNo. 156860 was shot down by a SAM, over North Vietnam. Commander Moss was rescued.
• May 1, 1972:
Lieutenant M. D. Surdyk in A-7E BuNo. 156888 was shot down by a SAM, over North Vietnam. Lieutenant Surdyk was was rescued.
• May 9, 1972:
The squadron participated in Operation Pocket Money, the mining of Haiphong harbor. Aircraft from VA-94, as well as the other attack squadrons deployed aboard United States Ship Coral Sea CVA 43, planned and executed the mining of the harbor.
• May 24, 1972:
Lieutenant Commander H. A. Eikel in A-7E BuNo. 156877 was shot down by a SAM, over North Vietnam. Lieutenant Commander Eikel was rescued.
• May through June 1972:
VA-94 participated in operation Linebacker I, heavy air strikes against targets in North Vietnam.

Air cavalry units with the primary mission of supporting South Vietnamese Army forces were the only active Army combat units in Vietnam throughout 1972. Both the 11th CAG and the 12th CAG, (Combat Aviation Group), were there until at least Feb. 1973.

Many of these men fought, supplied logistical lift and provided medevacs in support of the ARVN troops in the biggest battle of Vietnam, ‘The Easter Offensive’ or ‘The Spring Offensive’. ‘The Easter Offensive’ began and ended in ‘The Second Battle of Quang Tri’. Some of these men died there.

Until USAF fire power could be transported back from Saigon, (sent there from the ‘drawdown’), 1st Calvary, Combat Aviation Groups held down the fort with help from the Marines that where still there. There were still some Navy offshore that helped too later with firepower. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam, backed by the United States Army, shelled more than 80,000 tons of ordnance, the destructive capacity equivalent to almost six Hiroshima-size atomic bombs.

When the massive firepower was first unleashed, unsuspecting NVA soldiers reporting for duty were in the city at the time and Quang Tri was referred to as ‘Hamburger City’ by some that saw the aftermath.

As well, leading out of the city was still ‘The Highway of Horrors’ from when South Vietnam had earlier lost its Quang Tri Province on May 1st, 1972 and the NVA cut down masses of panic civilians, war refugees, who were fleeing the city and got stuck at Truong Phuoc Bridge because of the traffic jam after an enemy artillery shell heavily damaged the bridge. Chaos occurred when enemy artillery began a rain of many hundreds shells from their 130mm guns on the refugees. A moment later, Communist foot soldiers attacked the crowd with infantry weapons that included mortars and grenade launchers.

When ‘The Second Battle of Quang Tri’ was over, (Sept. 16, 1972 the city was taken back. On Oct. 22, 1972 Quang Tri Province firebases were secured), not one building remained standing. The intense bombing, combined with U.S. use of the Agent Orange defoliant, turned the land into a virtual moonscape.

This all took place during ‘Operation Ceasefire’ when we were standing down and turning over the bases to the ARVN.

Americans still have little knowledge of this time in Vietnam and the part that brave American troops, including U.S. Army Air Calvary, Combat Aviation Groups, took in it.

As well, the brave nurses and doctors, many that volunteered, during this horrific time.

Thank you.

“In this crucial battle, American advisers played a critical role, coordinating B-52 strikes and offshore naval gunfire and, in many cases, planning complex operations. Nonetheless, ARVN ground forces – backed by critical U.S. fire support – were the central players, displaying tenacity, resourcefulness and courage.”

-while it is true…does not tell the whole story that our vets, our American soldiers, that were there and fought, provided multiple support roles and paid dearly, some even with their lives, deserves to be told.

When is the whole story going to be told and not just what we are told to think? Please help do all of our Vietnam vets justice.

Vets, like my husband who was an eighteen year old kid, who wasn’t a medic, doing medivacs with the 571st Evac and on his own helicopter because most of the medivac units were gone due to the U.S. pullout.

The veterans that he served with. The veterans that gave their lives.

How come their story doesn’t get told? They are not just ‘ U.S.fire support’. They are men…men that fought, bled, saved and some died there. They were heros.