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a patrol of 30 men. "And we ran head-on into one of the attack forces. There were approximately 350 men against my 30. We were certainly outnumbered," he said. "Then those beautiful gunships came in and started circling the area. I threw up a pocket flare to mark the position, and the gunship radioed that we were too close to the enemy force and had to pull back some, if possible. We pulled back and then he went in. He was right on target, placing rockets right in the middle of Charlie's position. We killed over 200 enemy, and I'd estimate that 80-85 percent was attributable to the helicopters. The morning of the 31st, if I had met that pilot, I'd have kissed him."

Another area of heavy activity was at the U.S. Embassy in downtown Saigon. Chief Warrant Officer Richard Inskeep of the 191st Assault Helicopter Company was the first to land a chopper on the embassy during the heavy fight, bringing ammunition and evacuating one wounded man. "We were receiving fire from all sides," said Mr. Inskeep, "but we couldn't see anybody around so we lifted off. My gunner then spotted someone in a hole of the roof, so we made a tight turn and came back onto the pad. The fire was so intense that the gunner and crew chief had to pull the ammunition out of the ship and crawl across the roof as they pushed it in front of them. They pushed the ammunition down the hole and helped bring the wounded man back across the roof to the ship."

Watching from below was Mr. George Jacobson, Mission Coordinator of the U.S. Embassy. Commenting on the helicopter's approach, Mr. Jacobson said, "He came in how and I thought for a minute he was going to hit the building, but at the last minute he pulled up and made a beautiful landing on the roof. Afterwards I realized that he did it on purpose to avoid the enemy fire. It was a tremendous piece of airmanship." Mr. Jacobson, a retired Army colonel, was to finish off the last guerrilla inside the embassy. As troopers of the 101st were landed on the Embassy's helipad, the enemy guerrilla tried to escape the troopers, spotted Mr. Jacobson, and fired three shorts. He missed and Jacobson shot him with a .45 that had quickly been tossed up to his second floor window by troops below. This was the finale to the six and one-half hour battle within the embassy.

As daylight came over the Bien Hoa Air Base, fighting was still raging around the airfield. Small bands of Viet Cong and managed to penetrate the southeast and southwest areas of the air base, and reaction forces were sent out to stop them. The Air Force's 3d Security Squadron found an estimated 100 Viet Cong to be in the