Word: cavs
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Leap & Smash. Since the 18,000 men of the Air Cav arrived in Viet Nam just a year ago, they have killed more than 5,000 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops, and lost only 900 dead of their own. Their swift sorties into the Red-dominated central highlands have captured 1,200 other Communist troops, along with some 2,000 weapons. Chinese-manufactured machine guns line the walk leading to Air Cav Major General John Norton's headquarters located near An Khe, a proud display of hard-won enemy weaponry. Air Cav troopers, using the strategy of General...
Cumshaw derives from the Chinese kam sia (grateful) and entered U.S. naval argot during the 19th century when ships calling at Canton began swapping rum and ratguards for labor and litchi nuts. Today's scrounger can be an Air Cav supply sergeant or an Air Force crew chief, but Viet Nam's Feddersen outdoes them all-both in Yankee horse-trading skill and sheer inventiveness. In a scant 14 months, he unplugged the logistical bottleneck that had plagued the development of the Chu Lai enclave, and in the process set up his outfit as the most efficient unit...
...month-long battle that followed, Giap's soldiers at first stood their ground and fought ferociously, sending the U.S. death toll up to 240 in one week, the highest of the war. But Communist losses were far higher, owing in large part to the 1st Air Cav's helicoptered artillery, rocket-firing choppers and tactical air support. Giap's men finally broke and ran, and the 1st Air Cav relentlessly pursued them in a campaign culminating in the battle of la Drang Valley, where the slaughter of 2,262 of his men was a hideous revelation...
Speed & Surprise. North Viet Nam's first major surprise was the 1st Air Cav's ability to airlift its 105-mm. howitzers over trackless jungle and keep the guns supplied with shells. The division moved its guns 67 times during the campaign -and only once overland. Some 33,000 shells were fired, 6,500 alone during a single, intense 24-hour engagement. The 1st Air Cav's battalions were shifted 40 times by helicopter, and 13,257 tons of supplies were airlifted to its men before the remnants of the Communist forces scuttled to safety in Cambodia...
Upping the Ante. It was the first test for the Air Cav's new boss, Major General John Norton, 48, who relieved Harry W. O. Kinnard early this month. Norton, a veteran of North Africa, Sicily and Normandy in World War II, swiftly upped the ante by sending in three battalions, then kept tight contact with the enemy despite drenching thunderstorms and frantic Red attempts to flee. By the time the Viet Cong broke contact, 122 of them were dead in the elephant grass, another four were prisoners, and 17 weapons had been seized...