Word: battalion
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...flanks, where elite airborne and ranger units clung to rugged hilltop fire bases, Communist toops launched a series of furious assaults. First blood was drawn at an outpost about 14 miles inside Laos, where the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Viet Nam) 39th Ranger battalion held out valiantly against a North Vietnamese force of regimental strength for three days before abandoning its positions. By the time the survivors had hacked their way through to another base two miles away, no fewer than 323 of 500 Rangers were dead, wounded or missing...
Deeper inside Laos, at an outpost known as Hill 31, an ARVN airborne battalion was locked in a ferocious seesaw struggle with a Communist force of up to 2,000 men, backed by Soviet-made PT-76 light tanks. As the fighting raged, the smoking hulks of broken Communist tanks and shattered U.S. helicopters littered the battlefield; B-52 strikes thundered so close, said a downed chopper crewman, that the dust "made our eyes water." Though the outcome of the battle remained in doubt at week's end, the Lam Son toll was already substantial: in three weeks...
...report major South Vietnamese operations in Laos. Officially, their only source of information is briefings by U.S. and South Vietnamese officers. U.S. helicopter pilots have been forbidden to carry correspondents into Laos. And when some American flyers leaked word to newsmen last week about an embattled South Vietnamese Ranger battalion, they were promptly prevented from having further conversations with correspondents. The pilots' operations center at Khe Sanh is now ringed with barbed wire and guarded by gruff MPs, who are under strict orders to keep all civilians...
...need for firsthand reporting from Laos is pressing-especially in light of the longstanding unreliability of South Vietnamese military communiqués. Last week the Ranger battalion's losses were classified as "light," only to be revealed three days later as 100 killed, 145 wounded and 78 missing. South Viet Nam claimed a victory nonetheless, citing 623 North Vietnamese killed. U.S. reports were also suspect, and some information officers were openly scornful of what was being pumped out to the press. "There can't be a credibility gap," scoffed one, "when there's no credibility...
South Vietnamese army headquarters acknowledged severe losses to a ranger battalion overrun by North Vietnamese troops on a hilltop six miles inside Laos Sunday. A communique said of the 450 men in the battalion, 100 were killed, 145 wounded and 78 missing...