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AIRMOBILITY


TROOPS BOARDING CH-47 CHINOOK HELICOPTERS


could be forced to fight. Operation CRAZY HORSE is a good example of the aggressiveness and determination of our forces in their search for the enemy. And it is appropriate that we examine the actions of the squad and Platon to understand how it came about.

The 1st Cavalry Division was finishing Operation DAVY CROCKETT on 15 May 1966 when a Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) patrol from the Vinh Thanh CIDG Camp, working the mountain valley immediately to the east, ambushed an enemy force and captured a mortar sight, 120-mm firing tables and a gunner's quadrant, plus some sketches of the CIDG camp and the hamlets in the valley. One company of the 1st Cavalry air assaulted into the hills east of the CIDG camp at 1000 hours on the 16th, to search out the area.

At 1100 hours on the 16th, Company B, 2d Battalion (Airborne), 8th Cavalry, commanded by Captain John D. Coleman, made a combat assault into what then was a one-ship landing zone named HEREFORD, a small patch of elephant grass about halfway up the side of the largest mountain east of the CIDG camp. Besides the usual forward observation party from the supporting artillery (an airmobile battery was landed adjacent to the camp), a Special Forces intelligence sergeant, his CIDG counterpart, and an interpreter moved with the company.

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