Birth of the Air Cavalry While war was not new to the United States military, Vietnam was. A new campaign inside of a new country meant that the military would have to improvise, adapt, and overcome the environment that would span the next 13 years. Treacherous jungles, uneven terrain, and unfavorable weather were just a few of the conditions that would prove to be a disadvantage for the US military. Without a new approach, US forces would have to endure these conditions on foot and would not be capable of achieving success as they would be tired, wet, sick, and unable to fight to their potential. To achieve success, the military needed to gain an advantage that was not known buy their adversaries. Utilizing equipment that they already
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Understanding typical US military fighting, this new concept allowed for US forces to be precisely inserted into the fight. Commanders had the tactical advantage by seeing the battle from above and directing helicopters, filled with troops, to drop mass amounts of Soldiers at specified locations. If reinforcements were required in a certain location, they were flown in and dropped as opposed to holding a location for days on end until reinforcements could march in. With this advantage, the US forces had the ability to not only transport troops into battles, they could also transport artillery, and mortar teams, and insert these assets near an objective all in record time compared to the alternative. The Air Cavalry had approximately 16,000 certified Soldiers spread out through five different Battalions. Fighting for almost a month straight, the Air Cavalry was able to defeat a regimental sized element. Their ability to insert rested Soldiers to specific locations and relieve those that needed to refit proved to be a success and an advantage that the NVA did not possess. While the adversary element came close to over running US Forces, their numbers grew smaller and the available NVA Soldiers grew tired as the constant fighting continued for days on end. Meanwhile the US could extract their wounded and tired and replace them with Soldiers who were rested and ready to fight. Had this been a standard US element without the Air Cavalry, an almost certain defeat would have been the logical outcome sustaining many casualties. Boudreau provided the final numbers on the battle by stating: “When the Pleiku Campaign of SILVER BAYONET ended on 25 November, troopers of the First Team had paid a heavy price for its success, having lost some three hundred troopers killed in action. However, they had killed 3,561 North Vietnamese soldiers and
Understanding typical US military fighting, this new concept allowed for US forces to be precisely inserted into the fight. Commanders had the tactical advantage by seeing the battle from above and directing helicopters, filled with troops, to drop mass amounts of Soldiers at specified locations. If reinforcements were required in a certain location, they were flown in and dropped as opposed to holding a location for days on end until reinforcements could march in. With this advantage, the US forces had the ability to not only transport troops into battles, they could also transport artillery, and mortar teams, and insert these assets near an objective all in record time compared to the alternative. The Air Cavalry had approximately 16,000 certified Soldiers spread out through five different Battalions. Fighting for almost a month straight, the Air Cavalry was able to defeat a regimental sized element. Their ability to insert rested Soldiers to specific locations and relieve those that needed to refit proved to be a success and an advantage that the NVA did not possess. While the adversary element came close to over running US Forces, their numbers grew smaller and the available NVA Soldiers grew tired as the constant fighting continued for days on end. Meanwhile the US could extract their wounded and tired and replace them with Soldiers who were rested and ready to fight. Had this been a standard US element without the Air Cavalry, an almost certain defeat would have been the logical outcome sustaining many casualties. Boudreau provided the final numbers on the battle by stating: “When the Pleiku Campaign of SILVER BAYONET ended on 25 November, troopers of the First Team had paid a heavy price for its success, having lost some three hundred troopers killed in action. However, they had killed 3,561 North Vietnamese soldiers and