Operation Commando Hunt was an air bombing campaign conducted undercover by the US 7th Air Force and US Navy Task Force 77, in southeastern Laos, from November 15, 1968, to March 29, 1972, during the Vietnam War. Operation Commando Hunt objective was the interdiction of men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through Laos into South Vietnam.

By the end of the operation, 3 million tons of bombs were dropped on Laos, considerably slowing, yet not totally disrupting the flow of communist men and logistical supplies along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Operation Linebacker was a bombing campaign carried out by the US 7th Air Force and US Navy Task Force 77 against the North Vietnamese Army from May 9 to October 23, 1972, during the Vietnam War.

The main rationale of Operation Linebacker was to stem the flow of military supplies for the Nguyen Hue Offensive (known in the West as the Easter Offensive), which was an invasion of South Vietnam, by forces of the communist People’s Army of Vietnam (North Vietnamese Army), that had been launched on March 30, 1972. Linebacker was the first continuous air interdiction campaign conducted against North Vietnam since the bombing halt established by President Lyndon B. Johnson in November 1968.

On the first day of Operation Linebacker, Navy Lieutenant Randall H. Cunningham and his radar intercept officer, Lieutenant William P. Driscoll became the first U.S. air aces of the Vietnam Conflict when they shot down their fifth MiG. On August 28, the Air Force gained its first ace when Captain Richard S. Ritchie downed his fifth enemy aircraft. Twelve days later, Captain Charles B. DeBellevue, who had been Ritchie’s backseater during four of his five victories, shot down two more MiGs, bringing his total to six. On October 13, another weapons officer, Captain Jeffrey S. Feinstein, was credited with his fifth MiG, making him the final Air Force ace.

The Battle of Khe Sanh was a battle of the Vietnam War, fought by the III Marine Amphibious Force and South Vietnamese Army units against three divisions of the North Vietnamese Army, from January 21 to April 8, 1968. It took place in Khe Sanh, in Quang Tri Province (northwest), South Vietnam. The outcome was a tactical victory for the American forces.

A massive air bombing campaign was launched by the US Air Force to support the Marine base during the Battle of Khe Sanh. The US bombing used the latest technological advances in order to locate the communist forces for targeting. The logistical effort to support KSCB, once it was isolated overland, demanded the implementation of other tactical innovations in order to keep the Marines supplied. Thus, in March 1968, an overland relief expedition (Operation Pegasus) was launched by a combined Marine/Army/South Vietnamese task force that eventually broke through to the Marines at Khe Sanh. The battle was a tactical victory for the Marines as the communist attacks were succesfully repelled.

Battle of Khe Sanh (Documentary Video)

Operation Apache Snow was a military operation carried out by ten battalions from the US 101st Airborne Division, 501st, 506th, the 187th Infantry Divisions, in the A Shau Valley from May 10 to June 7, 1969, during the Vietnam War. The A Shau Valley was a logistic corridor used by the North Vietnamese Army to transport military supplies into South Vietnam. Until May 1969, two operations had been conducted in the area (Operation Delaware and Operation Dewey Canyon), but the US forces had not been able to stop the flow of material through the trails in the valley.

Operation Apache Snow raged on until June 7, 1969. Although more than 900 enemy soldiers were killed and several fortified positions destroyed, it failed to prevent North Vietnamese forces from pouring into the valley as the flow of supplies continued. The A Shau Valley remained as a springboard from which communist attacks were launched into northern South Vietnam. Probably the solution to this problem would have been to launch a total and massive attack against North Vietnam to completely destroy the enemy where they came from. Doing that would have provoked the direct involvement of communist China, and perhaps Russia, but the American government wanted to avoid a direct confrontation with super powers which also had nuclear arsenal. That was the cold war.

Also known as Hill 937, the Battle of Hamburger Hill took place in the A Shau valley, Thua Thien province, South Vietnam, from May 10 to May 20, 1969, during the Vietnam War. It was fought by a combined force of US units and South Vietnamese troops against North Vietnamese forces. The battle was part of Operation Apache Snow, a three-phase military operation carried out in May 1969 in the A Shau Valley by the US troops with the objective of flushing the communist forces out of the valley. It ended with a US/South Vietnamese victory as 700 communist troops got killed when the US forces stormed the Hill 937.

The 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division ( comanded by Lt. Col. Weldon Honeycutt); 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry (Lt. Col. Robert German); and the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry (Lt. Col. John Bowers). Two battalions of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam’s (ARVN) 1st Division (the 2/1st and 4/1st) had been temporarily assigned to the 3rd Brigade in support.

101st Division in the A Shau Valley, Vietnam (Video)

Operation Steel Tiger was a Vietnam War military operation carried out by the USAF 2nd Air Division and US Navy Task Force 77, from April 3, 1965, to November 11, 1968. It was an air interdiction campaign against ground targets to stem the flow of North Vietnamese troops and material moving south from North Vietnam through southeastern Laos to support their military effort in South Vietnam.

During 1965, 4,500 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops were infiltrated through Laos along with 300 tons of materiel each month. From April through June 1966, the US launched 400 B-52 Stratofortress anti-infiltration sorties against the trail system. By the end of 1967 and the absorption of Steel Tiger operations into Operation Commando Hunt, 103,148 tactical air sorties had been flown in Laos. These strikes were supplemented by 1,718 B-52 Arc Light strikes. During the same time frame, 132 U.S. aircraft or helicopters had been shot down over Laos.

The Battle of Prey Veng was a battle fought between a combined force of South Vietnamese troops and Cambodian Army units, and the North Vietnamese  forces. It took place in Prey Veng, Cambodia, on June 15, 1970, during the Vietnam War.

With the air support of the United States forces, the South Vietnamese and the Cambodian Armies launched in early June a combined operation against the communist forces which had camps in the area. The Battle of Prey Veng was one of the several military engagements that took place during this campaign and ended with a communist defeat as 120 enemy troops were killed and an important amount of weapons, such as machine guns, mortars, and rocket launchers were captured by the Cambodian Army.

Farm Gate was the codename for the US Air Force military operation to train and support South Vietnamese Air Force personnel. It was authorized by President John F Kennedy in October 1961. The 4400th Combat Crew Training Squadron, code named "Jungle Jim," flew from their home base at Eglin AFB to South East Asia. In order to train the VNAF men, the Americans used older aircraft in support of the type of conflict they were facing. South Vietnamese crews were trained to fly the T-28 Trojan, C-47 Dakota and B-26 Invader.

Although their job was to train and advise South Vietnamese, the US pilots also flew undercover combat missions to support ground troops during Operation Farm Gate. This was authorized by the US Joint Chief of Staff. With this order, U.S. Air Force pilots were given the go-ahead to undertake combat missions against the Viet Cong as long as at least one Vietnamese national was carried on board the strike aircraft for training purposes. In the event an aircraft did get shot down in hostile territory, the presence of an Asian crewman would be enough to dodge any accusations of Geneva Accord violations. Nevertheless, after the escalation of the war as a result of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the Farm Gate detachment was no longer required to fly under South Vietnamese colors. Their aircraft began carrying full US markings and the detachment became known as the 1st Air Commando Squadron.

Operation Quyet Thang 202, also known as the Do Xa Campaign, was a military operation conducted by the South Vietnamese Army with US support. It took place in the province of Quang Ngai, South Vietnam, from April 27 to May 27, 1964, during the Vietnam War.

Operation Quyet Thang 202 finally ended on May 27, 1964, with heavy damages to the Viet Cong communication network which linked Do Xa with other communist-controlled provinces.

The Battle of Lang Vei was a battle fought between the US Detachment A-101, 5th Special Forces Group, and North Vietnamese Army units on February 6, 1968, during the Vietnam War.

At noon of February 7, General William C. Westmoreland ordered an evacuation of the surviving defenders and a Special Forces reaction force was dispatched from Khe Sanh with tactical air support. The extraction took place that afternoon, and by nightfall the camp had been evacuated. The seriously wounded were evacuated by helicopter while the reaction force escorted the remaining survivors and many refugees during a foot march that reached the gates of the Khe Sanh base on the morning of February 8. Although half of the defenders had been killed, the North Vietnamese force did not proceed beyond Lang Vei.