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Probably no single operation better demonstrated the airmobile concept than the 1st Cavalry Division's Cambodian campaign. Complete documentation of this important battle, to include the major Army of the Republic of Vietnam operation in the "Parrot's Beak," is an appropriate subject for a separate monograph. Here we will only be able to highlight this operation to bring out those salient points of the airmobility concept not touched upon in earlier chapters. This was the first example of a large-scale U.S. airmobile force in operation outside the borders of South Vietnam. It was the first time our commanders were allowed to cross the frustratingly close borders into the heart of the enemy sanctuary.

Beginning in the fall of 1968 the 1st Cavalry Division had straddled the enemy trails leading southward from the Cambodian border toward Saigon. The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army made desperate attempts to reestablish their logistical net in this area, with an obvious aim of repeating the attacks of Tet 1968. Beginning early in 1969 the 1st Cavalry fought a series of heavy skirmishes along these trails as three separate North Vietnamese Army divisions attempted to gain positions closer to the capital. The enemy effort was not successful. The 1st Cavalry's interdiction of the planned enemy operations for Tet 1969 is an untold story that merits much further study; although the enemy force was equally as strong as it had been a year earlier during the infamous Tet attacks, the North Vietnamese Army plans were frustrated by the wide-ranging air cavalry surveillance and the superior mobility of the 1st Cavalry.

The enemy attempt during the early months of 1970 was weaker than the previous year. Nevertheless, several battalions did try to operate in force along the trail systems. At this time the 1st Cavalry area of operations covered 14,000 square kilometers. Airmobile troops kept a careful eye on five major north-to-south trails stretching from Tay Ninh Province across Binh Long and into the western two-thirds of Phuoc Long. There were several instances in which the cavalrymen uncovered base camps and fair-sized caches; however, it was evident that there was more to be found. Logistical trails of this size had to be supplied by warehouse type cache sites far more extensive than anything yet discovered.