Operation Tailwind - Operation

Operation

During late 1970 the overall U.S.-supported military effort in the covert war in the Kingdom of Laos was foundering. Operation Gauntlet, a multi-battalion Royal Lao Army offensive that was to determine the fate of Paksong and the strategic Bolovens Plateau, was failing. A call went out to SOG's Saigon headquarters asking if the highly-classified unit could insert an element near Chavane and disrupt PAVN defenses. Colonel John Sadler, SOG's commander, replied in the affirmative, even though none of his cross-border reconnaissance teams had ever operated so deep in Laos. Indeed, the target area was 20 miles (30 km) beyond the unit's authorized area of operations.

The mission was launched by three platoons of Command and Control Central's (Kontum) Hatchet Company B and two U.S. Air Force Pathfinder Teams. The 16 Americans and 110 Montagnards, under the command of Captain Eugene McCarley were heli-lifted from a launch site at Dak To to a landing zone (LZ) in a valley 60 miles (100 km) to the west, near Chavane. The distance to the target was so great that the men were lifted by three U.S. Marine Corps CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters, escorted by 12 AH-1 Cobra gunships.

McCarley then called down airstrikes on enemy troop dispositions and equipment caches. The North Vietnamese responded by trying to concentrate their forces, but the U.S. troops kept on the move, even at night.

On the morning of the third day the Americans overran an enemy bivouac and killed 54 PAVN troops. Why the enemy had not fled was a quandary until members of the Hatchet Force discovered a bunker buried beneath 12 feet of earth. Inside they found a huge cache of maps and documents. They had overrun the PAVN logistical headquarters that controlled all of Laotian Route 165. Two footlockers were quickly filled with the intelligence haul, and the Hatchet Force then began to look for a way out. The North Vietnamese were closing in, but McCarley, instead of moving toward an LZ large enough for the extraction of the entire force, dropped off elements at three separate (and smaller) landing zones, catching the North Vietnamese unprepared.

Casualties incurred during the operation amounted to three Montagnards killed in action and 33 wounded while all 16 Americans were wounded. Many more men of the Hatchet Force would have died had it not been for the efforts of SOG medic Sergeant Gary Rose, who was recommended for the Medal of Honor for his actions.

Actions taken during the extraction operations later came under fierce dispute. Allegations were made that U.S. aircraft, in an unprecedented reversal of policy and breach of international treaties, had utilized sarin nerve gas ("GB" in US/NATO nomenclature) when North Vietnamese ground troops began to attack the LZs. Indeed, it was not disputed that some chemical agent was utilized, nor that both North Vietnamese and American soldiers struggled against its effects. However, most witnesses, sworn and unsworn, stated categorically that only a potent tear gas (most probably a CN/CS mixture) was used. Others, according to two members of the U.S. media, insisted it was sarin, or a combination of tear gas and sarin.