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Group, located at landing zone TWO BITS, was alerted to move the 2d Battalion, 5th Cavalry and supporting elements from An Khe to Duc Pho beginning at first light. The operation officially began at 0930 hours on the 7th. The battalion had fully closed by 1700 hours that afternoon.
It was immediately obvious that the first requirement in this area would be the building of a heavy duty airstrip for support by Air Force aircraft. The decision was made to build at C-7A Caribou strip immediately at landing zone MONTEZUMA which could be expanded to accommodate C-123 aircraft. At landing zone MONTEZUMA there would also be space enough to build a parallel Caribou strip while the first airstrip was improved and surfaced to handle the larger and heavier C-130 aircraft.
Company B of the 8th Engineer Battalion had arrived at landing zone MONTEZUMA during the morning of the 7th and immediately began a thorough reconnaissance of the airfield site. During the next two days, 31 pieces of heavy engineer equipment weighing over 200 tons were airlifted into Duc Pho. This move required 29 CH-54 "Flying Crane" sorties and 15 Chinook sorties. Much of the equipment had to be partially disassembled to reduce the weight to a transportable helicopter load. By 1800 hours on the 7th, enough equipment was on the ground to begin work. The earth-moving commenced and continued throughout the night by floodlights. By midnight, six hours after construction had begun, 25 percent of the Caribou strip was completed.
On 8 April the remainder of the 2d Brigade Task Force under Lieutenant Colonel Karhohs deployed into the LEJEUNE area of operations and assumed operational control of the area. The remainder of the Marine task force was placed under operational control of the 2d Brigade until such time as they could be moved north.
Landing zone MONTEZUMA was composed of light sandy soil; and the heavy rotary wing traffic soon generated monumental, semi-permanent dust clouds. This in turn generated a severe maintenance problem in the rotor heads of the helicopters. Peneprine, an oil-base dust palliative, was spread on the helipads and refueling areas as fast as it became available and helped reduce this problem. A concurrent problem was the air traffic control necessary for the hundreds of aircraft arriving with the Air Cavalry combat and combat support units being lifted into MONTEZUMA throughout the day and the Marine aircraft beginning the outward deployment. Air traffic at the landing zone was at best confusing and at worst downright hazardous. As had been experienced in every