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their descent. What should have been a simple twenty-minute flight was usually an hour and twenty minutes of stark terror. Our young warrant officer aviators and our junior officer aviators flew day in and day out in Hueys, Chinooks, and cranes at the very limit of their capabilities. The operation was a phenomenal piece of flying, but from a commander's viewpoint it was sheer agony to see what my people had to go through to accomplish our mission.

The deployed battalions of the 1st Cavalry Division were making sporadic contact with small enemy units on 21 April. Shortly after noon, Company B of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, discovered an enemy maintenance area containing two trucks, two bulldozers, and assorted engineering equipment. Markings on the bulldozers gave clear evidence that they had been manufactured in the USSR.

With improvements in weather conditions on 22 April, the 3d Brigade, 1st Cavalry, continued to improve their bases in northern A Shau Valley and to bring in needed supplies and equipment. The 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry had completed an overland attack and secured a landing zone further south. This battalion was now in position to support the coming assault into the A Luoi Airfield and the central portions of the A Shau Valley.

On 24 April the 2d Battalion, 8th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel John V. Gibney, led the assault of Colonel Stannard's 1st Brigade into a landing zone two kilometers south of the A Luoi Airfield. The 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry and 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry completed the Brigade movement the following day when they air assaulted the airfield itself. The 1st Brigade then began reconnaissance in force operations moving to the south and west. Numerous caches of enemy communications equipment, vehicles, ammunition, and weapons were uncovered. Operation DELAWARE was spoiling the enemy's supply depots in the A Shau Valley. The 1st Cavalry troopers were also finding on the ground the heavy antiaircraft weapons that had hit them so hard during the air assaults. Many antiaircraft weapons were uncovered plus thousands of rounds of 23-mm and 37-mm ammunition.

The 1st Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division continued their buildup at the A Luoi airfield by flying in heavy engineer equipment, sectionalized in small enough loads to be lifted by crane helicopters. The cranes were fueled with just sufficient JP-4 to make the round trip in order to have sufficient lift capability to sling load this heavy equipment over the ridge lines.

On 26 April the buildup at A Luoi continued with fifteen air drops of resupply from C-130 aircraft. The 1st Cavalry Division