Word: udon
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Five hundred U.S. Marines unpacked their gear at Udon in northeastern Thailand, just 45 miles southwest of Vientiane across the Mekong River. They were equipped with 16 helicopters, ready to help fly men and supplies to the fighting front when and if they were ordered into action. In the Laotian capital of Vientiane, the only four helicopters on duty were pocked with bullet holes, and their U.S. civilian pilots, flying under contract to the Laotian government, were badly overworked. Said one, who had spent weeks darting through thunderstorms and skirting mountain peaks and groundfire from the Communist Pathet...
...royal army did advance about 15 miles on the road north of Vientiane, but only because the Pathet Lao withdrew. The Pathet Lao took the small town of Tha Thom in central Laos after the royal army fled. U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Harry Felt himself flew into Udon to try to buck up the pro-Western army chief, General Phoumi Nosavan-but with no noticeable results. Complained one military man in Vientiane: "This is war, dammit, but the Laotians are just not willing to risk getting killed. They don't think past tomorrow, and many not even...
Focus of Action. As U.S. forces begin the move, Thailand-a fellow SEATO power-becomes the focus of action. With key bases established at Udon, Korat and Bangkok, the West can rake Communist-held portions of Laos with ease. In case of battle, U.S. combat troops would probably not be the first to go into action in Laos. Instead, U.S.-manned helicopters and transports would drop guerrilla forces of Thais, Pakistanis and Filipinos into the fighting sectors while U.S. troops occupied the Mekong River valley towns from Savannakhet through Paksane and Vientiane, up to Luangprabang; this would provide strong defense...
...bound for maneuvers off the U.S. West Coast, was ordered to wheel around and return to station in Okinawa. The U.S. lifted 16 helicopters to the Laotian forces, deposited some 400 marines, many of them veterans of the 1958 Lebanon landings, at a base just across the border at Udon, Thailand. Around the clock, U.S. C-130 cargo transports lumbered into Bangkok, disgorging guns and ammunition for transfer to the anti-Communist Laotian troops...