12-266 m14 Picture of the Day - Air drop of supplies in Operation Junction City

[Mark in Rochester]

Operation Junction City was an 82-day military operation conducted by United States and Republic of Vietnam (RVN or South Vietnam) forces begun on 22 February 1967 during the Vietnam War. It was the largest U.S. airborne operation since Operation Market Garden during World War II, the only major airborne operation of the Vietnam War, and one of the largest U.S. operations of the war.

The failure to gain surprise lay in discovery of the plans after NVA Col. Dinh Thi Van managed to place one of her agents in social circles that included ARVN Gen. Cao Van Vien and US Gen. William Westmoreland. That agent further reported one ARVN staff officer's comment of the early phase of the operation: "(The Viet Cong) seem like ghosts. All the six spearheads of our forces have been attacked while we don't know exactly where their main force is. Even in Bau Hai Vung that is considered to be a safe area, we lost one brigade. It's so strange." (Van, p. 237)

The stated aim of the almost three month engagement involving the equivalent of nearly three U.S. divisions of troops was to locate the elusive 'headquarters' of the Communist uprising in South Vietnam, the COSVN (Central Office of South Vietnam). By some accounts of US analysts at the time, such a headquarters was believed to be almost a "mini-Pentagon," complete with typists, file cabinets, and staff workers possibly guarded by layers of bureaucracy. In truth, after the end of the war, the actual headquarters was revealed by VC archives to be a small and mobile group of people, oftentimes sheltering in ad hoc facilities and at one point escaping an errant bombing by some hundreds of meters

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[browningautorifle]

I've done that job...

[Mark in Rochester]

I've done that job...

What was that - standing around trying not to get hit by an air drop

[browningautorifle]

That too, or standing trying to look fashionable with a rifle...I meant the DZ controller job. He's counting chutes so he can enter it on the report.

[Bob Womack]

There's no better way to announce your location to the enemy, eh?

Bob

[browningautorifle]

You sure don't do it in secret.

[Bob Seijas]

I have always suspected that the airborne organizes these things so the new guys can add a combat jump star to their wings, very prestigious in those circles

[Paul S.]

More likely the big brass wanted to test tactical Airborne concepts viability on the counter insurgency battlefield.

[rickv100]

Or impress the Russians or anyone else of the combat capabilities of the US
Rick