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there. This team effort, spearheaded by the airmobile flexibility inherent in the 1st Cavalry, carried the war to the enemy and defeated him in his own backyard.
Major General George W. Casey had taken command of the 1st Cavalry on 12 May from General Roberts. General Roberts, who had been scheduled to turn over command of the division on 3 May, had been extended until 12 May in order to plan, organize, and command the initial phases of the Cambodian operation. On 6 July 1970, he wrote a letter to his troops summing up the 1st Cavalry's part in the Cambodian Campaign. Excerpts from the letter are as follows:
...The results are impressive. You killed enough of the enemy to man three NVA Regiments; captured or destroyed enough individual and crew-served weapons to equip two NVA Divisions; and denied the enemy an entire year's supply of rice for all of his maneuver battalion in our AO. You captured more rocket, mortar, and recoilless rifle rounds than the enemy fired in a ll of III Corps during the twelve months preceding our move into Cambodia. And, perhaps most important, by working together in an airmobile team, you disrupted the enemy's entire supply system, making chaos of his base areas and killing or driving off his rear service personnel.
Only time will tell how long it will take the NVA to recover, but of this you can be sure—you have set the enemy back sufficiently to permit President Nixon's redeployment plan to proceed with safety while assuring that our Vietnamese Allies maintain their freedom. This is your achievement. This is yet another demonstration that you of the 1st Cavalry Division deserve—and have earned again—the accolade of the FIRST TEAM. It is my honor to have served alongside you during this crucial and historic period.
The following day on the morning of 7 July, General Casey was enroute to Cam Ranh Bay to visit wounded Sky Troopers in the hospital. Flying over the rugged mountains of the Central Highlands, General Casey's helicopter entered a thick cloudbank and disappeared from sight. In the late afternoon of 9 July, the wreckage of the General's helicopter was found. General Casey and all the officers and men aboard had been killed instantly in the crash. George had served with me as my Chief of Staff during 1967. Prior to that he commanded the 2d Brigade under General Norton. His death was a great personal loss to me and everyone who had served with him. Major General George Putnam, whose 1st Aviation Brigade had been doing a fantastic job in supporting Army of the Republic of Vietnam operations in the Parrot's Beak to the south, was ordered to take command of the 1st Cavalry Division.