Page:Airmobility 1961-1971.pdf/207
| 4 track vehicles (including one PT-76 tank) | 698 rounds of 122-mm gun ammunition |
| 2 bulldozers | 1,680 hand grenades |
| 134,757 rounds of small arms ammunition | 806 rifle grenades |
| 34,140 rounds of 12.7-mm ammunition | 35 mines |
| 34,322 rounds of 23-mm ammunition | 36 mine detectors |
| 5,850 rounds of 37-mm ammunition | 2,500 individual weapons |
| 975 rounds of 57-mm ammunition | 93 crew-served weapons |
| 121 rounds of 75-mm ammunition | 67 wheeled vehicles (from jeep to 2½-ton truck) |
| 229 rounds of 76-mm ammunition | 2,182 pounds of explosive |
| 5,994 blasting caps | |
| 31 flamethrowers | |
| 90,000 pages of documents | |
| 71,805 pounds of food stores. |
Operation DELAWARE-LAM SON 216 was officially terminated on 17 May. General Rosson labeled Operation DELAWARE as
one of the most audacious, skillfully executed and successful combat undertakings of the Vietnam War... It is significant that from its inception DELAWARE was a combined effort entailing association of the 1st Cavalry Division and the 3d ARVN Regiment, 1st ARVN Division, on the one hand, and the 101st Airborne Division and the 3d ARVN Airborne Task Force on the other. The outstanding results achieved through teamwork on the part of these combined forces reflect great credit on their leadership, professionalism, and unsurpassed fighting sea;.
The 1st Cavalry Division had gone into the A Shau Valley in the face of the heaviest enemy air defense ever encountered in airmobile operations up to that time. According to the military textbooks, this would have been called "medium intensity" antiaircraft fire. To the pilots who had to fly into this area day in and day out, "medium" hardly seemed the appropriate descriptive word. There is no doubt that the enemy had ringed this important base with sophisticated heavy antiaircraft defenses including 37-mm weapons. They had planned and interlocked their fire zones over a period of some years. While the 1st Cavalry Division lost twenty-one helicopters in this operation, the fact that they were able to make a major move into such an area in the face of this threat and under the worst possible weather conditions is a tribute of the soundness of the airmobile concept. Some of the helicopters that were lost ignored clear warnings of intense enemy concentra[tion]