Operation Masher / White Wing
First big campaign of 1966

Men of the 1st Air Cavalry Division moved to the field again January 25, 1966 and began the New Year by launching the largest operation thus far in the Vietnam War, Masher/White Wing.
 
After 41 days of continuous action, First Team soldiers shifted their operations to "Happy Valley" near their base camp at An Khe and then to the high plateau area near Pleiku and the Cambodian border.
 
Thus in the period encompassing the first four months of 1966 the "Flying Horsemen" operated in areas from the Cambodian border to the South China Sea, a feat that Major General Harry W. O. Kinnard declares "could not be accomplished

by any other divisional unit in the United States Army."
 
Here in a letter from General Kinnard to his men is the story of the first big campaign of the year, Masher/White Wing.
 

"We began with operations south of Bong Son on 25 January to increase the security of Route 1 and to confuse the enemy as to which way we were headed. Then on 28 January, D-Day for Operation Masher, we joined with the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) Airborne Division in air assaults and overland attacks north of Bong Son. The ARVN were on the east along the coast and we operated west of Route 1."

"In these attacks we were successful in spite of bad weather in finding, fixing and destroying enemy units as large as battalions who were defending strongly fortified positions."
 
"Our engineers also built a fine airstrip at position "Dog" in 2-1/2 days. When the enemy saw that he could not hold the fortified areas, he began to break up into very small groups and to retreat to the north and to the west."

"We then turned our attention to the high ground lying between the coastal plain and the An Lao Valley and to the An Lao Valley itself."

"The next play involved a combined operations with the U.S. Marines blocking escape routes out of the valley."

"Our attack into the An Lao Valley met only light resistance, and we killed or drove out the enemy that was present in a few days. About 4,500 out of a total population of around 8,000 inhabitants (of the An Lao Valley) did elect to leave their homes in the valley and move to an area under government control. We flew more than 3,300 of these people to freedom in our aircraft."

"While the 2nd Brigade was thus engaged, our Third Brigade made an air-assault into an enemy base area at which we had long wanted a crack. This was the area we had dubbed the 'Eagle Claw' or 'Crow's Foot'."

"The 2nd Brigade then air-assaulted position 'Pete' and the "iron Triangle'. (The "Iron Triangle" was named for its shape by cavalrymen during Masher/White Wing and was not the often mentioned area near Saigon some 235 miles away.)"

"In this fight, the 2nd Brigade employed all their organic weapons plus much supporting artillery, tactical air support, tear gas and a B-52 strike."

"These actions of the 2nd Brigade accounted for many enemy killed, wounded and captured, plus many large weapons captured or destroyed. In addition, there is much evidence that the enemy installations did include a VC regimental headquarters."
 
"The final phase of White Wing, called Black Horse, was aimed at destroying whatever hostile forces were in the Cay Giep mountain stronghold."
 
"The assault was made by bombing holes in the woods that cover most of the mountain and then by rappelling and by the use of our Chinook ladders to get onto the dominant high ground to sweep down the hills. No large numbers of VC were killed, but many were captured and the myth of this being a strong enemy base was exploded."

"So on 6 March, our operations ended with our forces back in the area south of Bong Son where we had started 41 days before. We had made a 360 degree traverse around Bong Son in which for 41 consecutive days we had been in contact with the enemy."
 
"In those 41 days we had done these things:

1. With the ARVN, we had made possible to return 140,000 Vietnamese to GVN (Government of Vietnam) control through clearing the enemy from the coastal plain north of Bong Son.
    
2. We gave the inhabitants of An Lao and Son Long Valleys a chance to be freed of VC domination by moving to areas, which are under GVN control.
    
3. We struck a very hard blow at enemy units which had long threatened Bong Son and Route 1 from Qui Nhon to Bong Son."

OPERATIONAL TOTALS FOR MASHER/WHITE WING
 

Enemy killed by body count .......................... 1,342
Enemy captured ..............................................   593
(This included a battalion commander, a mortar company commander and the executive officer of a regimental headquarters company)
Enemy suspects detained ........................... 1,060
VC defectors ....................................................   483
Individual Weapons ........................................   203
Crew served weapons ....................................    52
(Including one 105 mm howitzer, ten 12.7 and three .50 cal. Anti-aircraft machine guns.)
 

"In short, Sky Troopers of the 1st Air Cav, you have placed the name and the fighting reputation of the 'First Team' at the very top of the roll of Army Divisions. You have again given the Army and our Country cause to be proud of you. Well done; I salute you."

After a bath and a chance to give their weapons a good cleaning, First Team elements were again on their way, this time to an old stomping ground, Suoi Ca or "Happy Valley."

They encountered little enemy resistance here during the operation dubbed "Jim Bowie", but according to Cavalry officials, again made it clear to the Viet Cong that the valley would remain out of their hands.

Rich, fertile "Happy Valley", fully under Viet Cong control a year ago, was the scene of the first major Cavalry operation in Vietnam and now is one of the most successful pacification projects conducted by U.S. forces thus far in Vietnam.

While searching the hills surrounding the valley, Cavalry troops captured large quantities of enemy equipment.

As "Jim Bowie" ended, Operation Lincoln, on the plateau between Pleiku and the Cambodian border kicked off. Elements of the division's 1st Brigade swept the Chu Pong hill mass and Ia Drang Valley, scene of heavy fighting between Cavalrymen and North Vietnamese regulars last November.

Contact for the overall operation was light but several sharp clashes were reported by Cavalrymen near the Cambodian border.

During Lincoln and its second phase called "Moseby", Cavalry forces reported killing 450 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese regulars. First Team elements also captured 17 enemy.

By the operation's end, the Viet Cong had lost some 93 individual and 8 Crew-served weapons to the Sky Troopers as well as 19,000 lbs. of rice.

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 Stories the Pony Soldiers Tell