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The 8th fought the best Zero pilots, and took the war to the enemy
with P-38s over Rabaul and Hollandia.
High quality reprint of this recently declassified 1967 study. This
study covers a year of tough fighting in the highly strategic
central highlands area of Vietnam, an area which the communists
have always considered essential to their effort to take over South
Vietnam. Prior to the arrival of U.S. forces in 1965, there was
little activity in western Pleiku Province, but starting with the
move of the 1st Air Cavalry Division to the defense of the besieged
fort of Plei Me in October 1965, fighting has been continuous. The
western Pleiku area, however, on the western end of strategic
Highway 19, which cuts across the country to the coastal port of
Qui Nhon, is the logical entry point for any planned enemy drive to
cut South Vietnam in half. In this objective, the enemy has not
succeeded. What emerges clearly from this account of fighting by
the 1st Air Cavalry, 25th, and 4th Infantry Divisions in the
central highlands is the absolute essentiality of air support to
the survival of friendly forces. Perhaps never in history has a
large ground force in war been so dependent upon air support, close
air support, and tactical airlift, as well as other air support
functions such as interdiction, landing zone preparation,
reconnaissance, night flare drops, defoliation, psychological
warfare, and search and rescue. This study shows in detail the
means by which air was employed in highlands fighting and how it
directly affected and influenced ground action. The U.S. units are
generally flown to the battle areas and are cut off by land from
their normal support bases. They cannot continue to function
effectively without the air umbrella provided by the vast armada of
U.S. aircraft located in Vietnam. Air support, as can be seen from
this study, is infinitely more than a new dimension of artillery.
It is the difference between success or failure and no one will
attest to this more strongly than the U.S. Army ground commanders
on the receiving end, many of whom are quoted in the study.
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