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of the 2d Battalion, 7th Cavalry, began arriving at landing zone X-RAY and they closed by noon. Colonel Moore ordered one final sweep of the area before he turned over control of landing zone X-RAY to the new troopers. His troops were extracted by UH-1D's early in the afternoon without enemy opposition. Discipline was excellent, and the helicopters were only on the ground a few seconds because the aircraft loads had been pre-spotted. By 1830 hours all elements had closed into Camp Holloway, in the vicinity of Pleiku.

Colonel Moore, who was to receive his eagles in just seven days and thus be promoted away from his command, had every reason to be proud of the performance of his battalion. Some 634 enemy had been killed by actual body count and six had been captured. Seventy-nine troopers had been killed and 121 wounded. None were missing. The enemy had lost many small arms, heavy machine guns, and other equipment, and the individual U.S. soldier had acquitted himself well in the hardest kind of hand-to-hand battle.

In his after-action report, Colonel Moore noted that aerial rocket artillery had been extremely effective. His commanders had confidence in bringing such fires extremely close to their own positions. He also had noted that tube artillery, aerial rocket artillery, and tactical air can be used at the same time without seriously downgrading the effectiveness of the fire or endangering the aircraft. The aerial rocket artillery and Tactical Air flew perpendicular to the artillery gun-target line in those cases when they were making a simultaneous attack on the same target areas. This technique was possible by close teamwork between the forward air controller and the artillery liaison officer.

As mentioned earlier, casualties had been a critical problem and attempts to help the wounded had caused additional casualties in attempting to get them out. Colonel Moore said, "I lost many leaders killed and wounded while recovering casualties. Wounded must be pulled back to some type of covered position and then treated. Troops must not get so concerned with casualties that they forget the enemy and their mission. Attempting to carry a man out requires up to four men as bearers which can hurt a unit at a critical time."

The 1st Cavalry troopers had found that the enemy was well trained, aggressive, and was equipped with a preponderance of automatic weapons with plenty of ammunition. He was an expert at camouflage and sought to close in strength to render U.S. fire support less effective and to force us to fight on his terms. He fought