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landing zone (even when there was no confusion), the turbulence from hovering helicopters was severe. Tents were blown down and equipment scattered. One irate individual anonymously broadcast over the air to whom it may concern, "If you blow my tent down one more time, I'm going to shoot you down." A three-man pathfinder team from the Pathfinder Platoon of the 11th General Support Aviation Company soon arrived to assist the Marine air traffic control personnel. The control problem improved, but it was far from being solved.
I had sent one of my assistant division commanders, General Blanchard, to Duc Pho as my personal representative and he remained in the LEJEUNE area of operations almost exclusively. On several occasions, he had expressed to me his deep personal concern over the aircraft density but, nevertheless, was amazed at the effectiveness of the three-man pathfinder team which controlled daily the more than 1,000 arrivals and departures of OH-13, UH-1B, UH-1D, CH-47, and CH-54 helicopters along with the fixed-wing aircraft. The team initially stood on the hood of a ΒΌ-ton truck in the dust storms churned up by rotor turbulence and with a single radio controlled traffic with nearly the efficiency of an air-conditioned tower at a large U.S. airport.
By 1630 on the afternoon of 8 April, the 1500-foot Caribou strip was completed. Work continued on the strip to expand it to 2,300 feet for C-123 use. The first Caribou airplanes that landed carried a mundane cargo of 30 tons of culvert, which was unloaded by the side of the runway since no parking ramp had yet been prepared. Work continued through that night again with glaring searchlights. The Marines shuddered at the Army's intense illumination since they had long been accustomed to very strict light and noise control at night. Their apprehension was fortunately unfounded and the engineer work continued without enemy interruption. On 13 April, the 8th Engineers began the construction of a second Caribou airstrip parallel and west of the completed C-123 strip. This was necessary to allow the C-123 field to be improved and surfaced to meet C-130 criterion. The second strip was finished in 25 hours after 4150 cubic yards of earth had been moved and graded.
One reason that landing zone MONTEZUMA did not sustain an enemy night attack during Operation LEJEUNE was the Night Hunter operations that were conducted almost every evening. Karhohs developed this technique to a high degree in this action and, later, on the coastal plains of Binh Dinh. These operations used four helicopters; one acted as a lead and flare ship, while the