SKYLINE RIDGE

by David Nuttle

In 1972 one of the largest battles of the Vietnam War was fought in Laos. The so-called "secret army" of CIA, directed by Lao Gen. Vang Pao and his tribal Hmong, were making attacks on PAVN (N. Viet communist troops) and their military supplies moving to South

Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh Trail in eastern Laos. To stop these attacks North Vietnam's communist leaders decided to destroy most of Vang Pao's forces and his base at Long Tieng Valley. To do so, they sent the PAVN 312th and 316th Regiments with not less than 27,000 regular troops into Laos to make this attack. As support, communist forces had T-34 tanks, 130mm artillery, Mig-21 air cover, a Sapper Battalion, and over 12,000 in support units.

The above attacks is covered in the book "Battle for Skyline Ridge," by James E. Parker as

published in 2019. I was present at this battle as part of CIA's advisory group assisting with defense plans. Some Thai irregular volunteers had come in to assist Vang Pao's forces of nearly 6,000 defend Long Tieng Valley by holding Skyline Ridge, a strategic defense point for the valley. A number of intelligence, deception, recon, and planning activities were part of preparing to defend against such a large attacking force. It was decided to take a series of well-planned defensive actions within a few hours of when the PAVN attack started.

Defensive actions taken as prepared were as follows to defeat the attacking PAVN forces:

a) The two PAVN Regiments were found to have created a joint field command center in a large cave with a blackout curtain they had placed over the cave entrance to conceal light from their kerosene lanterns used in the cave. With help from the USAF and a Hmong team to laser-spot the cave entrance, a 500-pound laser-guided bomb was delivered to explode in the cave to eliminate PAVN senior officers and battlefield communications.

b) A Hmong ops team had found the jungle track PAVN units had created to move tanks into Long Tieng Valley to support their attack. This team placed tank mines on this track just prior to their tank movement into the valley. Three tanks were thus destroyed and blocked the said track to stop the following tanks.

c) PAVN's battlefield forward/ jungle ammunition supply had been found. Just prior to the PAVN attack, Navy fighter jets from a carrier bombed the stored ammunitions to create a big

display of secondary ammunition explosions lasting over an hour.

d) Three unique deception operations were used to motivate PAVN forces to assemble in mass to begin their attack on Skyline Ridge. We had arranged for three USAF B-52 bombers with full loads of bombs to be in orbit at the time we were sure the PAVN attack would start.

Using our radio contact with the B-52s we made a bombing request to hit where we knew the PAVN forces had deployed.

e) The communist MIG aircraft never showed since they retreated upon seeing USAF and Navy fighters in the area of subject battle. Sappers never made it into Long Tieng Valley to destroy facilities and equipment. Support elements no longer had ammunition to deliver for PAVN troops since all their ammunition had been destroyed as indicated above.

After all the said inflicted damage described above, the surviving PAVN forces, about 8,000 troops, left the next morning, after our hits, to return to North Vietnam leaving surviving tanks & artillery behind. The communist obviously knew what we had done to them, so these events are no longer a secret with the exception of our very unique deception operations that are held as Secret.

When faced with overwhelming odds, get really creative in finding effective solutions!!!!!!!!